A Group Gone.

[SnowleopardVK]

This is puzzling me. Nearly two-thirds of my online group has just fallen off the radar in the last month or so, leaving the remaining three of us scratching our heads and without a decent number of people to run a game.

The others were, for the most part a good group and just disappearing like this, not responding to texts or emails is confusing me. I know at least one or two of them are blunt enough that they would have just flat out told me if they were quitting, so I have no idea where they went.

Even more concerning than the lack of games now, is that I'm worried something may have happened to them. But something doesn't just happen at random to five different players living across three countries and two continents all at the same time does it?

...This is weird.

 

[RedTonic]

I hope it's just a matter of them getting busy and not thinking to say something! I've had similar situations come up as well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's people.

I had a live group slowly disintegrate in that fashion, as one after another player simply stopped showing up...and didn't say why.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Vampires man, vampires. The dark revolution is underway.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Vampires man, vampires. The dark revolution is underway.

No, can't be them... I'm still clear on the whereabouts of all my local vampire friends.

 

[Mark CMG]

A perfect storm of personal obligations and responsibilities can devastate an online game just as it can a face-to-face game, but often it is tougher to find out exactly what happened with the virtual game. Chin up and try to recruit some new players but leave room for the old players to return. I find keeping a looser format for online games can allow for those fluctuations and keep things running a bit more smoothly than if the game is set up as a campaign that requires all of the players to commit to a long term situation.

 

[Wycen]

Summer is over and school is back in session, so maybe they got stuff to do.

 

[Dice4Hire]

It is just too easy to leave an online group. DOn't log in, ingore an email or two and you are out.

Unfortunately it is just the nature of the game. Nature of the Internet, also. How many people used to post regularly here and have not been seen in ages?

Just keep recruiting, it generally works out eventually.

 

[SiderisAnon]

The buffer of online communication can really alter the interaction and the scale of time. I have a friend who we recently realized it had been nearly a year since we'd e-mailed back and forth. I'd been reading his blog, so somewhere in my mind I didn't really realize there'd been no e-mail communication.

This can also happen in the physical world. In my last campaign, I had some players simply vanish without a word to me. In that case, however, I at least knew they were alive and had some idea of why they weren't playing because another player in the game saw them at the local gaming shop.

If you're worried about these folks, send them individual e-mails saying, "Hey, it's okay if you're dropping out of the game, but could you let me know real quick that you're alive and well at least?"

 

[Aeolius]

Nature of the beast with online games, I'm afraid.

Still, you can always run games for your NPCs!

“I don't need you. I can do this act alone. I often do." - Steve Martin