Cancelling a session / not attending a session.

[JoeGKushner]

As an adult, if I get some notice, say, two days or so beforehand, I appreciate it. Day before? Great. The day it happens? Annoyed but I've seen people with job fatigue, sick, wife problems, kid problems, etc... and man, it's just a game.

If it happens continously, I try to find another group. If I'm the one doing it continuously, as I have thanks to work, I tell the players I'm out cause I can't hang with the hours the group plays.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Here's the problem with not treating a game one has committed to as a high priority:

If each player has a 10% chance of being absent (which I think is a pretty conservative estimate for a game that people don't consider a strong commitment), then there is about a 47% chance of at least one player being absent for a given session.

Pretty much half of all scheduled games will be a player short, even if each player flakes out only 10% of the time.

That's really not an issue for a beer-and-pretzels dungeon crawl. It's not even a huge issue for a more in-depth game of the right sort (like M&M, which I'm running now for partially this reason), where it fits the genre for characters to be on and off stage periodically, and where it's easy to get them on and off stage without straining suspension of disbelief.

But for serious, plot- and roleplaying-intensive games where such PC-shuffling isn't a palatable option? It's disruptive, IMO, and it's rude.

Emergencies happen. But I treat the game like a standing commitment with my friends, just like I'd treat a billiards league, or a rotating designated driver night, or any other situation where not having me there will make things harder for (or less fun for) the other players. And I prefer to play with players who feel the same way.

 

[Lanefan]

That's really not an issue for a beer-and-pretzels dungeon crawl. It's not even a huge issue for a more in-depth game of the right sort (like M&M, which I'm running now for partially this reason), where it fits the genre for characters to be on and off stage periodically, and where it's easy to get them on and off stage without straining suspension of disbelief.

But for serious, plot- and roleplaying-intensive games where such PC-shuffling isn't a palatable option? It's disruptive, IMO, and it's rude.

The above assumes that a missing player directly leads to a missing PC. In my neck of the woods, if you miss a game your PC keeps right on going, and is at the mercy of the other players (provided they keep at least vaguely within the predefined character).

I try not to sink games too often but sometimes it happens. For example, I'm getting married this summer and will be away for three weeks after that, and that's going to sink at least 8 sessions (I run 2 a week) if not more. (my only concern is I'll get back to find someone else has started a game on one of my nights and poached my players...)

And sometimes, there's just not enough players to sail. Usually, they warn me ahead of time...sometimes so far ahead of time that by game night I've forgotten they told me they weren't coming. ::shrug:: Like others have said, life sometimes gets in the way.

Lanefan

 

[TheAuldGrump]

When I have to cancel I try to give at least two weeks notice, sometimes just rescheduling the game rather than canceling.

My girlfriend trumps gaming*, which trumps most other things, but I generally know about those 'other things' that gaming doesn't trump months in advance (come to think, they generally also involve my girlfriend - camping and concerts).

I do have an alternate GM, which goes a long way toward preventing ill feelings. And sometimes my reason for not running is just that he has something that he wants to run. (Frankly, he doesn't do that often enough - when he has something that he wants to run, I get to play! )

The Auld Grump

*Long distance relationship... she lives about two hundred miles away.

 

[Hussar]

I play online, so, it's a bit different. Unfortunately, the unbelievable number of social troglodytes out there is brutal. People just not showing up for games for two weeks, not bothering to post on the forums that we had set up, then showing up out of the blue like nothing happened.

So, I became rather nasty about it. The ground rules for the game is, 3 unexecused absences ejects you from the group. We HAVE a forum, and everyone has email. The fact that someone cannot be bothered to spend the ten seconds to text me from their cell phone to tell me they're not going to show pretty much tells me how much they care for my game.

And, yup, I've had to eject a couple of players for this. :/

As GM, I give as much notice as I can. For example, I'm moving very shortly and won't have internet access for a bit. So, I cancelled on the next session or possibly two until I know I have internet again. Every Christmas, we tend to go on hiatus for two or three weeks, sometimes an entire month, because of scheduling issues.

But people who don't show and can't be bothered to let anyone know beforehand? Boot.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

If I was angling for a date with a hot redhead (pending my wife's approval of course), I'd do my best to schedule it on a night when I wasn't GMing. If that's the only night she was available, I'd be willing to cancel the game (with as much notice to the players as possible).

If the hot redhead in question was Christina Hendricks, I'd be willing to cancel Christmas.

If my wife and I are angling for a date with a hot redhead . . . er, um

Hey, Rel, see ya at GenCon?

 

[Rel]

If my wife and I are angling for a date with a hot redhead . . . er, um

Hey, Rel, see ya at GenCon?

:Hola:

 

[Nightson]

I want to run the game, my players want to make the game. So there's not a whole lot of issue with absences. Sure they happen, tests, work, relatives, sickness and such pop up plenty, but hey, we all want to be there, so we all handle it.

We also simply have someone else play their character for a session a player misses. In fact we had a player regrettably drop the campaign due to a lack of free time and the character is still with the group

 

[S'mon]

Here's the problem with not treating a game one has committed to as a high priority:

If each player has a 10% chance of being absent (which I think is a pretty conservative estimate for a game that people don't consider a strong commitment), then there is about a 47% chance of at least one player being absent for a given session.

Pretty much half of all scheduled games will be a player short, even if each player flakes out only 10% of the time.

That's really not an issue for a beer-and-pretzels dungeon crawl.

I agree overall, but I think it is a problem with 4e dungeon crawls because of the need to fill the roles. My game on Sunday we were down a Striker, leaving only 1 Striker in the party of 6 (out of 7 PCs in full group) and that definitely made things much harder, contributing to the death of 2 PCs. The missing PC also had several skills the group needed that they were otherwise short of.

 

[S'mon]

Emergencies happen. But I treat the game like a standing commitment with my friends, just like I'd treat a billiards league, or a rotating designated driver night, or any other situation where not having me there will make things harder for (or less fun for) the other players. And I prefer to play with players who feel the same way.

Very well said BTW. Must give XP.