Gaming group scheduling: what do you use?

[Qlippoth]

In a few weeks I'm going to be starting up the first new campaign I've run in decades, for a group of folks who all live in a widely-spread out geographic area. We're all going to get together face-to-face, but now that we're all 40+ with the usual real-life time constraints (spouses, jobs, kids, etc.), scheduling these get-togethers is going to be a bit tough. I thought I'd avail myself of anything the Internet has to offer with regard to synching up with the players, and was wondering what other gamers do to conquer this thorny problem.

I've thought about setting up either some kind of Google Calendar with shared access so folks could post the dates they're available (or maybe more simply, which ones they won't be able to make), or possibly a Google Docs form where everybody could answer a form listing the dates that would work for them, & run from there. Thoughts?

 

[IronWolf]

I've thought about setting up either some kind of Google Calendar with shared access so folks could post the dates they're available (or maybe more simply, which ones they won't be able to make), or possibly a Google Docs form where everybody could answer a form listing the dates that would work for them, & run from there. Thoughts?

In our group we have a set night to play. Generally this works well as people know what night to make a best attempt to keep free in their own family schedules. Most of the time this works great, but even then we have streaks where it seems our set night gets interrupted.

In some cases the set night needs re-evaluated on a quarterly type basis to allow some flexibility for changing sports schedules for the kids, etc.

Then, once all of that is in place we discuss any changes on our message forums we use for between game play and organization. So this coming up week, out normal night is bad for one player. They have posted to our boards saying so and we are coordinating which other night during the week might work for all of us. The following week we'll be back on our normal night of play.

Scheduling can be a pain for the situation you describe, but our group's method above has worked for a little over five years now for out group.

 

[TarionzCousin]

We play every other Friday night. If someone can't make it, we play without him. We have 8 players in our group (counting a DM), so generally we have 5 players and a DM most nights.

I was in a group that played every week, and after every game we would try to schedule the next game: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, ugh! It was a hassle and I hated it. I would rather miss the occasional game than not know when the next few sessions were scheduled.

 

[weem]

Google Groups is good for this stuff.

You can have discussions there, post files, etc etc. We were using it for mine, and other campaigns for a long time (I say "were" because we got lazy - but it did work very well).

 

[S'mon]

IME it's much better to have a set schedule that everyone can rely on, and design the campaign to accommodate player absences, rather than have a constantly varying schedule. If you let people know "We're playing fortnightly on Sundays" they can adapt their own schedules around that.

IME the best design for accommodating a variable player group is to have a home base, such as an Inn where the PCs hang out, and run an episodic campaign with single-session adventures plus long-term plot threads and NPCs. Think about how TV series traditionally handle it - they know the viewership will vary episode to episode, so each episode is largely self-contained, but there are also longer-term elements that reward more committed viewers.

A good example of this approach is the Gygaxian megadungeon where each session is an expedition into Castle Greyhawk by the PCs of whichever players are available. An alternative is a mission-based approach where PCs are specialists dispatched by their employer/liege. A third approach is an urban or wilderness sandbox environment dotted with 'delves', like most of those in the 4e Dungeon Delve book.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Google Groups is good for this stuff.

You can have discussions there, post files, etc etc. We were using it for mine, and other campaigns for a long time (I say "were" because we got lazy - but it did work very well).

Another vote for Google Groups. I set one up and even though we had an agreed night, I could send out a reminder email easily enough, have character sheets stored online, and keep the houserules doc there as well.

Questions about the game or whatever could easily take place too.

 

[Umbran]

IME it's much better to have a set schedule that everyone can rely on, and design the campaign to accommodate player absences, rather than have a constantly varying schedule.

Agreed.

I also recently put together a group of folks who have varying schedules. In the past, I had tried the "moving target" approach, and found it to be extremely lacking. The thing is that if they don't know well ahead of time when the game will be, busy players cannot make allowances for it in their schedule.

So, for my current game, I asked everyone what days they usually had few activities. Weekends were, as you might expect, filled with lots of things going on - many potential conflicts that could reasonably take priority.

The one day that they all noted had few expected conflicts was... Tuesday. So Tuesday evenings it is. I declared that we'd play the second and fourth Tuesday each month, and people now can plan ahead for that, and arrange their schedules to accommodate the game.

We're coming up on the holiday season - those 4th Tuesdays are apt to be problematic. But, I thought of that well ahead, and after short discussion we were able to move to 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, so we aren't playing on holiday weeks.

I manage this all with simple e-mail. I'm usually one for simplicity - don't use tools more complicated than you really need.

 

[IronWolf]

Yeah, I definitely agree to be prepared to run a player or two down. This coupled with a regular set schedule seems to lead to the fewer cancellations in the long term.

 

[Pbartender]

In our group we have a set night to play...

We play every other Friday night. If someone can't make it, we play without him...

IME it's much better to have a set schedule that everyone can rely on, and design the campaign to accommodate player absences, rather than have a constantly varying schedule. If you let people know "We're playing fortnightly on Sundays" they can adapt their own schedules around that...

Agreed... ...The one day that they all noted had few expected conflicts was... Tuesday. So Tuesday evenings it is. I declared that we'd play the second and fourth Tuesday each month, and people now can plan ahead for that, and arrange their schedules to accommodate the game.

Yeah, I definitely agree to be prepared to run a player or two down. This coupled with a regular set schedule seems to lead to the fewer cancellations in the long term.

+1UP

Ditto for us... We've been playing on Sunday evenings for the last twelve years. Everybody knows that the night we play, and knowing that makes it easier to schedule things around the game when possible.

Attendance isn't always perfect, but it's not a hassle either. We understand that life happens, and D&D isn't (not should it be) the most important thing in our lives.

Also, we've found that there are certain times of the year when it's simply hard to keep the schedule... As Umbran notes, the holiday season can be particularly trying. Often, we plan ahead and use these periods as a "vacation" of sorts from the regular D&D game. We'll play a short stretch of something new and different (Dread, Spirit of the Century and Mouse Guard have been recent trials) for a few weeks until the Holidays blow over, and we can get everybody back to the regular campaign. As an added bonus, it really helps alleviate D&D burnout with the DM and players.

 

[Henry]

In my previous group, we had a set day of the week to play, and if we had quorum (more than X players) we'd play. In my current group, we only have 4 players total, so if one person can't make it, it's really too few people to continue, so we just schedule by e-mail and pick times well out in advance enough where people can schedule around them.