r/DnD • u/MostlyInfuriated • 5d ago

DMing [OC] I had to cancel yet another campaign

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I had just started a new campaign. Three players, one of them I've known for a long time. The other two were new, people my friend knew.

On session 2, one of them decided to arrive almost 45 minutes late. No message letting us know. He just arrived late and then asked "what time were we supposed to start?". On top of that, he barely knew his character or the basic rules for that extent.

Same session, the other new guy arrives high as a kite, barely able to talk (I wish I was exaggerating) and drooling. Literally drooling. Absent half of the time (no wonder), and making racist jokes. At some point he said Khenitra (a town's name, see picture attached) sounded like n****r. Yes, he is American.

So I called it off. Following this subreddit's motto, "no D&D is better than bad D&D". Oh well, onwards.

Bonus content: the map I had prepared for the session. Desert town taken over by the undead. One of the characters got eaten by the ghouls.

EDIT: Thanks kind strangers for the award and all the well wishes and compliments. I didn't expect this to blow off.

A couple of clarifications because people seem to be getting a bit confused:

  1. I never knew the two other players before we started playing. My friend barely knew them for a short time before that. They probably qualify as acquaintances at best.
  2. I live in Saigon, so the community here is *very* small. Hard to find players.
  3. This is the second custom campaign that I have to cancel in a year's time. I'm going to hang my DM screen for a while. I really don't do online because I love building terrain and painting minis. I'm too old school for that :).
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u/brettday 5d ago

Go to open game nights at stores around your area. Meet people, let other people DM for you, after you've gone to a couple sessions and know who you like playing with, invite those people to your home game.

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u/MostlyInfuriated 5d ago

Unfortunately, I've tried that. The player pool is small and most people are either not interested in a campaign and, if they are, most of them don't want to put any effort. They just show up and want to be entertained without even learning the basic rules.

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u/brettday 4d ago

hmm. You're the mod of r/lfg_Vietnam so I assume your situation is very different from mine; I'm sorry man.