So you role played as a teen, or in college, but then you moved away from your gaming group, got a full-time job, and generally had too much else going on to keep up with it.

That happens to all of us eventually, unless you're fortunate enough to not move away from your gaming group, and to have them not move away from you.

I moved away from a group I'd adventured with since I was thirteen, when my Mom gave me the D&D boxed set for Christmas. I didn't think I'd ever find a group I fit with as well as that one.

I was right.

The key isn't to try to recapture what you had, but to allow your role playing to evolve as you do. What I found instead was a group of people more interested in story than mechanics, and that fit with who I had become.

So how do you get back into role playing after a long hiatus?

The first step is to figure out what you want out of role playing after that long away. Is it the social aspect of group play, or the fun of developing a character over a long campaign, or the intellectual stimulation of solving puzzles and problems, etc.

I worked through this process in the quickest way, by going to the biggest gaming convention I could easily get to, Origins, and playing every game that I'd never heard of before the convention. That's how I discovered that I liked games focused on the story more than mechanics now.

I also discovered some games that I absolutely hated, which was great for narrowing down what I wanted out of a gaming group.

Conventions are also a great place to make contacts. I met at Origins a gentleman who was going to be moving to my city, and who was looking for a gaming group.

I didn't have one, but by the time he moved he had located another couple of people, and we were set.

Local conventions are also a great place to go, so don't feel that you need to head to one of the biggies. In a later article I'll list some of the best places online to find local conventions.

Also get to know the owners of your local comic stores, they're often role players. Local game stores can also be a good resource, once you know what you want to play. They'll often have ads for games that need players.

Role playing as an adult is quite different than role playing as a teen or college student, though.

Adults don't have as much time to spend on gaming, unfortunately, so we've found that a series of one-shot scenarios (perhaps loosely linked) works better than a long adventure that may take six months of once-a-month gaming to get through.

So if you haven't role played in a while, and want to get back into it, head out to a convention and test drive all the new games, to see what you like.

Enjoy!