I'm new here and have been playing D&D 5e by pbp for about 1.5 years now. I am looking for a game to join and would prefer to not play Lost Mine of Phandelver. If you're looking for an energetic player please let me know, thanks!

The site rules don't allow anyone to advertise their games here, so you may have a hard time getting a response.

However, you can look in the 'Wanted: Players' thread...people who are actively seeking players for their games advertise there (it's one of the few public threads where players are allowed to make explicit reference to specific games.)  Alternately, you can use the 'Browse Games' feature at the Main Menu page, and search for D&D 5E games, and see if there are any that strike your fancy.

You can also post an ad in the 'Wanted: GMs' forum, and see if someone who's looking to start a new game would be interested in using your character.  Those are how probably 90% of players find games.  Good luck!

I wasn't advertising a game, I actually want to join a game. I have applied to a CoS game with no reply from the game owner, so I thought I would advertise somewhere in the forums. Since I'm not advertising a game, I didn't advertise in 'Wanted: Players' - I also did not find much with the 'Browse Games' feature that caught my interest. I will, however, advertise in the 'Wanted: GMs' forum. Thanks for the advice.

In reply to thawizkid (msg # 1):

I believe what facemaker329 was trying to say (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that this is not the place to look for a game to play in.  You really should do two things:

First, if you have a definite sort of game in mind, place an ad in Wanted - GMs and talk about what kind of game you want to play.

Second, use the search function and just hunt for games that look interesting to you.  Check out their intro text and other notices, and request to join.

If you're at all interested in being a GM, please, by all means do it.

I don't know how long you've been registered here, or if you're interested in playing in games with Mature or Adult content, but there's a waiting period of two weeks after you sign up before you can even apply for Adult access.  That might influence your choices and timeline somewhat.

Good Hunting,
D

horus is correct.  My statement about advertising games wasn't a chastisement of you, it was an explanation of why you're highly unlikely to get any responses to your post.  GMs literally aren't allowed to post here and say, "Yeah, here's a link to my game, check it out," and it's dubious whether or not they'd rMail you (not strictly against the site rules, since you've expressed an interest, but it's skirting a gray area).  There are very few places where they are allowed to openly respond like that (due to past abuse, and players spamming public forums with game ads, either blatant or veiled).

So, I was providing a list of options that are likely to provide viable responses.

Just to clarify, linking to a game in rmail will get you in trouble with the mods too..

#voiceofexperience.

It CAN get you in trouble.  I've actually been invited to join a few games in the past that way.  It is, however, discouraged as a general means of recruiting players.  Try it at your own risk.

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 7):

rmail I received from a moderator - just to clear things up.

Yeah, the ones I got were not direct invitations to games...usually people who'd been in some of the discussions with me on some of the Community Chat threads who liked the ideas I expressed and the way I expressed them, who were curious as to whether I would be interested in joining a game they were running...

Granted, a gray area, but they were also very plain that if their approach was unwelcome, they were sorry for having bothered me.  And, I'll be honest...some of the coolest games I've been in on here were games where someone rMailed me and said, "I like the way you think...would you consider joining a game I'm starting?"

I don't know if that's a violation of the site policy or not, but I felt like it was a respectful way to try to get to know other players and expand horizons.  Now, if they'd just sent me a link to a game out of the blue, with no preamble or explanation, I wouldn't have taken it anywhere near as well (and, yes, I've received game invitations like that, too...and laughed when I almost immediately saw the sender's name appear in the Chamber of Lost Souls, with a note from BigBadRon saying that, if you were going to illegally spam people with game invitations, it would be prudent to make sure that there were no moderators on your list of people to spam...)

So, I think (and this is not in any way official, it's my personal understanding of the policy) you can't just send out invitations to join a game...but if you start a conversation with someone and find things are going well, inviting them to join a game, if they're open to the idea, is okay.  One is just spam, the other is actually making a sincere effort to discover if someone might be a good fit for your game and finding out if they are interested at all before you invite them...there's a level of personal courtesy in the second that is utterly absent from the first.

The key word here is "unsolicited".  If you start rMailing game invites to people who aren't expecting them, then as soon as one of them objects you'll find that you no longer have access to rMail.