D&D 5E What to do about flakes?!

[Klaudius Rex]

With our group, we try to play weekly, so that everyone is immersed in the game, and we can look forward to kicking butt after a tough work/school week.

everyone in the group understands and agreed to make this a sort of committment, but we all understand that emergencies happen, and things come up, so its cool if people have to cancel from time to time. But this should not be often, we agreed on that.

i find the hardest part about being the DM is the logistical nightmare that comes with getting people to show up sometimes. Now, i must admit, my players do show up regularly and they enjoy the game, when we play. But sometimes, it just bugs me that players cancel their attendence at the last minute!! This literally ruins it for me and other players who could have planned to do something else instead of waiting around and planning to host this game. Other players feel the same way.

Now we have still went on with a player missing, no big deal. But sometimes, two players cancel at the last minute, and its horrendous for evryone else! Or, they tell me all week long that they are going to show up only to cancel the day before!

This is by far the suckiest part of D&D! Especially when that player is an integral part of the storyline, which i try to do using thier backgrounds and such as to make thier characters "come alive" as an important part of the game, instead of some murderous hobo.

When i have to tell the other players that the game is cancelled because a few people cant come at the last moment, i just know it bugs them. It hate it myself. This is because ive set aside time out of my busy week to host a great game at my place. when it gets cancelled (especially at the last moment), im often left with nothing to do and stuck at home because i could have joined other friends doing something cool or gone out with my family or just not be hyping all the other players up for something thats not going to happen.

how do you guys deal with flakes?

D&D is such a fun game, but i swear, i just hate it when players cancel at the last moment! it makes me want to stop playing sometimes!

 

[pogre]

I don't have a great solution for you. I'm blessed to be part of a pretty dedicated group right now, although it is on hiatus for the fall.

For my own game, I quit fighting it. I run an episodic drop in - drop out game. Come when you want. I have a large pool of players and try to get a general idea of how many are coming to adjust my adventure. It works pretty well, but I'll be the first to admit it is not as satisfying as a group of very dedicated players who always show up.

I have had a couple of campaigns crash in the past because of last second no-shows. I just got fed up and shut the campaigns down.

 

[Shiroiken]

Two methods work fairly well, assuming you can get people to work with it.

Method 1: DM keeps all character sheets between sessions. If a player isn't present, either he's an NPC or run by another player. XP (if used) is either divided evenly, or missing players only earn a half share. Players must accept the consequences of events during the missing session, even if something was overlooked or misplayed.

Method 2: Players own several characters and choose which characters to play for each adventure. If there is less than a certain number (say, 5 for example), someone can run an additional character until you have enough. XP kinda needs to be used for this, as missing characters earn 0 and extra characters only earn half.

 

[Raith5]

We always proceed for the benefit of those who do turn up and keep running all the characters. The player of our Dwarven cleric rarely turns up but we tend to play him as a NPC because we really need him. We also always send him first into a room, he opens all suspicious doors and chests, and also shouts all drinks at the pub.

 

[Zardnaar]

IDK last weeks game got cancelled due to 2 people dropping, one a few hours before the game due to a hang over.

Might scale dwn to a smaller party dropping the flakes and switch to 2E or something which tends to handle smaller parties better and you can recruit henchmen.

 

[discosoc]

Last minute cancellations suck. My only solution is to basically assume that player will never show up. If that leaves you with too few people, then find more.

 

[aco175]

I can understand dropping for family, work, even your families work. Not I'm hung over. I know that if you are younger these things come up with some people and if they are your friends it makes things harder. I know that some will say to drop him and maybe you can/should, but it may be that at this time in life your friend is more into going out and doing other things than D&D.

When I was in High School we played on Friday night with my father and a few others in their 30s. I played at rather odd times in the Army, mostly when we were poor and could not go out. When I came home and started playing with the old group we ended up moving the game to Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I wonder if moving the night will help.

 

[Zardnaar]

I can understand dropping for family, work, even your families work. Not I'm hung over. I know that if you are younger these things come up with some people and if they are your friends it makes things harder. I know that some will say to drop him and maybe you can/should, but it may be that at this time in life your friend is more into going out and doing other things than D&D.

When I was in High School we played on Friday night with my father and a few others in their 30s. I played at rather odd times in the Army, mostly when we were poor and could not go out. When I came home and started playing with the old group we ended up moving the game to Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I wonder if moving the night will help.

Playing on nights is often bad. We have early starts and sometimes its a rough day at work and can't be bothered doing anything.

 

[Harzel]

Is this behavior confined mainly to 1 or 2 players, or is it spread out fairly evenly among everyone (excepting, perhaps, you)?

 

[Nagol]

I won't cancel unless less than half the group isn't available. I use a mixture of pogre's and Shiroiken's tactics.

If the players were left in a dangerous situation at the end of last session, play picks up with the missing players' PCs as NPCs/secondary PCs. These PCs earn awards normally and suffer consequence normally.

If the PCs were somewhere safe, those PCs get left behind because they had something personally important to do. Those PCs do not earn awards. When the player next shows up, the PC will catch up with the group. I may offer a simpler/easier mission that the remaining group can choose depending on the campaign circumstance.