Quote Originally Posted by Sagittarian View Post
You can try shouting in game but I don't know how successful that actually is.
In my experience recruitment shouts are good for exposure, but don't bear much in the way of fruit. People will know of you, but you'll get recruitment numbers from being proactive and seeking out potentials.

Knowing your hotspots is important. If you're looking for level 40 - 50 players, you'll want to go where they are most numerous. If you're looking for people 1 - 30, go to the starting cities and hang about the Grand Company or Adventurer Guild areas. Talk to people though. Nothing is more bothersome and ill-received than random invitations. If someone invites you without so much as a hello it shows how little they value you as a player. It shows that to FC, you're just a number and a class they're looking for.

Also, when you get people joining, make sure to introduce yourself and greet them, and have others do the same. For a lot of people it's an immediate black-mark if they agree to join and then nothing happens. Why stay with a free company that can't be bothered to even welcome its new recruits?

Bottom line is that Free Companies are social, so they should be treated as such. There's supposed to be mutual benefit in joining them. Recruits get the social environment they desire and the FC gets the numbers it needs to function.