Is It Time to Disband the Group?

[Retreater]

Our group started the summer with 7-8 players and that number has quickly dropped so low that as of the last two sessions we have had a DM and 2 players (and one of those players is moving in two weeks).

Two guys are moving away, another two live an hour away and gas prices are a big consideration, another just stopped coming, another got a job, another found LOTR: Shadows of Agmar.

In an attempt to entice players to come, I prepped a high level adventure and created pre-generated characters, spending around 7 hours of my free time last week. When we didn't have enough players to run the game, the two guys and I just watched South Park - which was funny - but it was painful (and inconsiderate) to not play the session I had prepared.

We have had other people DM - in fact, I've recently taken over the reigns from another DM who was experiencing similar troubles. So it's not just me; it's just the situation.

So is it time for me to suspend the gaming group - which hasn't really happened in 10 years? It seems to be getting more and more difficult to find gamers locally, so we may never be able to replenish the ranks.

If I do suspend the group, is it worth the extra time to try to prep a game for online play? Can one find reliable players?

Retreater

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Maybe start up a new gaming group, salvage the people you can and start over.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I find summer a difficult time to get people involved in any group activity that requires committment over multiple weeks. Probably best to take a hiatus and see what interest looks like in the fall, maybe? It's a thought.

 

[guivre]

Keep a game prepared and play boardgames until you can fill the open slots. All groups wax and wane, just try to keep those still interested... interested.

 

[Odysseus]

As a poster above said , summers a poor time to game, with vacations etc. I certainly wouldn't give up yet.
As to online games. Generally the people you get are far less relaible than F2F games.
However if you can get a relaible bunch of people together , the pre time isn't a great deal more. And i'd recomend maptools platform.

 

[Gotham Gamemaster]

Keep the game alive. The boom and bust cycles can occur quickly in groups and, as another poster noted, summer can be a rough haul. But if you stop your game cold, getting it restarted is many times harder than trying to expand an existing group.

Boardgames and some activities nights (movies, etc.) cam definitely help with the rough spots.

Good luck!

 

[Deverash]

If I do suspend the group, is it worth the extra time to try to prep a game for online play? Can one find reliable players?

Finding reliable people online is just as easy as finding people offline, I've found. Just spell out what your looking for in a game, and in your players, and it seems to work out just fine. You will have people drop for one reason or another, generally I try to recruit one or two players more than I really want, so when real life happens, I'm just down to where I want to be, rather than scrambling for players to keep the game alive.

 

[The Ghost]

So is it time for me to suspend the gaming group - which hasn't really happened in 10 years? It seems to be getting more and more difficult to find gamers locally, so we may never be able to replenish the ranks.

If I do suspend the group, is it worth the extra time to try to prep a game for online play? Can one find reliable players?

Retreater

About eight months ago my group splintered in a similar fashion to yours. We continued on with one DM and two players and just kept asking around to see if people were interested. We are now at seven players with another thinking about joining.

If your players are having trouble with a weekly game - go every other week. Or even once a month.

 

[AtomicPope]

Don't disband. The best group I've been in since the 90's (when I was in the Marines) is made up of a broken group. Two guys wanted to play after the group broke up. Here's what happened to us:
* My roommate joined a cult and skipped out on rent. Yes, an honest to goodness cult. Complete with police raid.
* Another player moved to finish his doctorate.
* Finally, our last player had his third child and needed to work extra hours.


I ran a game for two of the remaining players til we added 5 more. Another just left to attend medical school. But, faithfully, we still play every Saturday and the group is good. I even got one of the stragglers from the fractured group to game on Wednesdays with my 2nd group.

The point is - game must go on! Life gets in the way, but the game must go on. Editions change but the game must go on. People move, die, get incarcerated, but the game must go on.

 

[Baumi]

7-8 Players was to much anyway

You need a bit of patience now, groups will always have up's and down's and since you still have 2 players left it shouldn't be too hard to fill up the ranks (3-4 Players worked great in my groups) and until them just play boardgames/videogames/etc.

I think that you should be able to get some of you players back.. you mentioned that two of them have a problem with the travel time, if you could find another location for your game then they might come back. The player with new work might also come back if you schedule the games to another time, which might also work for the LOTR player.

If nothing else works, maybe you can play online with the remaining 2 players and the 2 players that move away, I think they will be happy if they would still be able to play with the old group and you wouldn't have to find new players.