It may help that I’ve never really “cold” dated. Every “first date” I’ve ever been on was with someone whom I was already at least decently friendly, so usually it’s more like I found a movie or event or whatever that we were both interested in. It had not occurred to me that sitting in a dark theater with someone you weren’t terribly familiar with could be something that needed vetting, but upon reflection I can see where that may cause problems. My naive ass just likes movies.

If I had the charisma and the sociopathy to start a cult, I wouldn’t have this issue, lol.

That’s not a bad idea, but how do you actually meet these people and offer to run a game?

I like a movie (or a show or whatever) and dinner/drinks after, because then you by default have something to talk about.