If you are like me, you live in an area that is light in Savage Worlds players. Maybe its D&D 5e or Pathfinder/Starfinder or FFG’s Star Wars game that dominates your area (or, like me, a mix of all the above).
How do you go about getting people interested in Savage Worlds? Well, the most direct way is to step up and offer to run the game. A lot.
This is something I have only been partially successful with. I have run a game at my local game store, after four attempts to get some interest up over a five month period. I have also run two games at my library, with some limited success.
I’ve come to realize that if I want there to be some interest in Savage Worlds, I would have to step up my game so-to-speak. I have scheduled a Savage Saturday at my library once every other month (that’s about the most they will allow). I am also looking into doing a monthly Savage Saturday at my local game store. Now, I am limiting this to once per month because my time is limited and I have a family. With that family comes all the obligations and scheduling of kids activities, work, and still finding time to game.
But even with my time being limited and having those family obligations (my daughter wants to start raising a few chickens as pets and for eggs, but that’s a whole other story!), if I want to see more Savage Worlds players in my area, I need to try to make the game available to any possible interested players.
The same is true for everywhere else that has a small Savage following. It’s like anything else, if you want to see a change; you need to be that catalyst. This can be hard and tedious, especially if you are one who likes to play rather than GM.
So, how do you get started? How do you start running games and get the word out to get people interested?
First and foremost is go to your local game store. See if they have game tables available to run Savage Worlds. Some game stores don’t offer this. Two of the three stores nearest to me do not. Next, if they do, they may likely have a reservation policy of some sort, get yourself added to that list so you can establish a regular game time. Again, the game store near me that does offer tables also has a reservation policy.
Second is to reach out to your library. You might be surprised about this. Most libraries will allow you to run games if you are doing it as part of the teen or family programming at the library.
A third possibility is to look into meetups. See if you have any general RPG meet ups in your area. This was not that good an option for me, but you may have better luck!
Once you have a location or two, you need to get the word out. Now your local game store usually would be very willing to advertise your game in the store or on their website. The library may or may not allow a flier to be posted inside the library itself.
To get the word out farther, go to your local restaurants and businesses. Some of them will have community bulletin boards you can post a flier on. Two chain restaurants in my area have this: Pot Belly’s and Starbucks. I post fliers on their boards about a week before the event. This is a good way to get the word out to people who may be interested but who don’t normally visit that game store or their library.
Lastly, do not forget about social media. I will post on the G+ and Facebook Savage Worlds pages. See if there is a region specific G+ or Facebook page such as the Rocky Mountain Savages, Lone Star Savages or Windy City Savages. These are great ways to get some interest drummed up for your games.
All of this is what I’ve done to get some interest in my area for Savage Worlds. My big failure is that I did not keep it up very well over the holidays. All my games were before December. We are now in March and I’ve just started working on getting back into it. So I can say I have not been very successful, but I have not been consistent in offering games and keeping the word out there.
Based on what my library staff advised me, it typically takes three or more sessions of a program for it to pick up steam. Stick with it, keep the games going and you will get people interested.
But what if I cannot think of that many adventures? Use the one sheets, use the playtest kits provided by PEG Inc. Take advantage of one shot adventures other players have created. See my earlier post: How to Hook New Savage Worlds Players. I have several options listed near the end of that article.
At the end of the day, if you are in a an area that has slim picking’s for Savage Worlds, and you want to try and rectify that, it really is up to you to go out there and show your areas gamers what makes Savage Worlds such a fast, furious, & fun game system!
Update: I forgot to mention, if you are running a teaching or introduction to Savage Worlds, check out PEG Inc.’s site for some help. I was able to get a page of $5.00 off coupons from them to hand out to folks trying out Savage Worlds. While this is not much of a discount for the physical books, this is great for the PDF’s!
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ShadowDad
Role Player's Imaginarium 
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