Cancelling a session / not attending a session.

[S'mon]

Re player absences & PCs still present - running at the Meetup that's not generally practical. Anyway player absence is only ever really an issue when there's no advance notice; if the player lets us know in advance we can get a guest player for that session, or the GM can adapt the adventure, or if sandboxing the party can adapt their plans.

 

[Aran Thule]

Our group meets about every two months, one of the reasons being that with 9 players it is very hard to find a date that all can make it.
The only vital people are the hosts and the GM, once we have them we generally try to choose the most popular date but normally a few cant make it.
Depending on the situation the PC's might be with the party or disappear for a bit.

Given the time between games people try to make it but we still get cancellations last minute, but normally this is due to illness/work/family ect
We tend to just carry on (unless its the host or GM cancelling) as we have lots of players still.

Personally i try my best to make the sessions, but sometimes events are beyond my control, at present due to commitments i cant state 100% that i can make a game so tend to put myself down as a maybe and have them base the dates around other people.
I still try my upmost to attend and let people know asap if i know i cant make it, its only polite to do so.

 

[Rel]

Our weekly game night has been on Mondays since...I don't even know. At least 5 or 6 years. The group is comprised of old friends who all like and respect each other. We understand that missing a game session, or canceling if you're the GM, is disruptive. But stuff still comes up. Kids get sick. Wives end up with commitments on the same night such that we need to be there with the kids. Vacations get scheduled.

The key for us is that a missed opportunity to game is not a missed opportunity for fun. We've got a LARGE set of boardgames that we can draw upon. We frequently fall back on Rock Band. And sometimes somebody will throw together a one-shot game they've been thinking about to fill the gap. It's all good.

Spending time hanging out with friends is never something I regret, even if we can't manage to play the game that we'd been planning on.

 

[Desdichado]

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.

I'm not sure I follow from this why you're blaming the player. That's either 1) a case of the system being too reliant on all roles being filled and not being flexible enough to handle it otherwise, or 2) a case of the GM poorly planning the session and overloading the group with challenges that they weren't equipped to handle. Or, I suppose, 3) not a problem at all; why are you complaining about a couple of PC deaths?

 

[Mika]

I think a lot also depends on how far in advance you give notice -- I would be willing to miss my Friday game to get to the beach early if I told the group that I might do that the previous Friday, but I would not do that as a last minute decision. Of course, I am just a player in the current campaign. As a DM, there would be no "maybe" -- as of the prior Friday, the game would be on or off, and only a serious matter would cancel a game that is "on".

 

[Pbartender]

Our weekly game night has been on Mondays since...I don't even know. At least 5 or 6 years. The group is comprised of old friends who all like and respect each other. We understand that missing a game session, or canceling if you're the GM, is disruptive. But stuff still comes up. Kids get sick. Wives end up with commitments on the same night such that we need to be there with the kids. Vacations get scheduled.

The key for us is that a missed opportunity to game is not a missed opportunity for fun. We've got a LARGE set of boardgames that we can draw upon. We frequently fall back on Rock Band. And sometimes somebody will throw together a one-shot game they've been thinking about to fill the gap. It's all good.

Spending time hanging out with friends is never something I regret, even if we can't manage to play the game that we'd been planning on.

With the exception of our game being every Sunday evening for the last 9 or 10 years, this is very close to the situation with our group.

At this moment, we are even discussing options for a dedicated "long-term pick-up game" that could play on the weeks when not enough people can show up to play the regular D&D campaign.

 

[S'mon]

I'm not sure I follow from this why you're blaming the player. That's either 1) a case of the system being too reliant on all roles being filled and not being flexible enough to handle it otherwise, or 2) a case of the GM poorly planning the session and overloading the group with challenges that they weren't equipped to handle. Or, I suppose, 3) not a problem at all; why are you complaining about a couple of PC deaths?

I'm not blaming the player.

 

[billd91]

Our weekly game night has been on Mondays since...I don't even know. At least 5 or 6 years. The group is comprised of old friends who all like and respect each other. We understand that missing a game session, or canceling if you're the GM, is disruptive. But stuff still comes up. Kids get sick. Wives end up with commitments on the same night such that we need to be there with the kids. Vacations get scheduled.

The key for us is that a missed opportunity to game is not a missed opportunity for fun. We've got a LARGE set of boardgames that we can draw upon. We frequently fall back on Rock Band. And sometimes somebody will throw together a one-shot game they've been thinking about to fill the gap. It's all good.

Spending time hanging out with friends is never something I regret, even if we can't manage to play the game that we'd been planning on.

That's about it for me too, except my regular weeknight game is on Thursdays. If the regular site hosts are out (small child = vector for more diseases than other households), we move to another location and play a boardgame, Rock Band, or a delve-style mini-adventure.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm not blaming the player.

You clearly proposed a cause and effect relationship between the player missing the session and two other characters dying.

I don't know how that's not blaming the player.

 

[S'mon]

You clearly proposed a cause and effect relationship between the player missing the session and two other characters dying.

I don't know how that's not blaming the player.

You must live in a world of blame, then.

Now I need to find that Ignore Poster button...