Usually I'm trolling but this one's for real no big lofty speech.
I'm maybe just popping into places at bad hours, but it feels like everywhere I go for random unscheduled roleplay there's maybe one person bobbing around per city that's actually willing to do or doing anything roleplay-adjacent. Two at most. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy one on one roleplay, but just talking with one person and having nobody new to interject with anything nor a band of merry friends to organize anything with feels desperately lonely, especially in these gigantic builds. It can be really hard to stay interested.
Should I just give up on trying to seek out roleplay with strangers and join a Discord community to go to all of their dinners and play iphone games between replies? Only log in for events? If this is a common problem, how do you cope with only being able to roleplay within your own friend group -- or do you prefer it that way? If you're a hero of random encounters, where do you usually go for them? Do you often find yourself mingling with multiple people on quests or journeys, or just making small talk with one wandering stranger about the weather or whatever else is on the top of your head, getting exhausted or bored, and moving on feeling unfulfilled?
I guess what I'm trying to say is: is roleplay with strangers dead on LotC?