Attendence Problems.

[EricNoah]

I would try to identify the people who want to play a little more or as frequently as you currently are, and the ones who want to play less frequently or just seem to not be able to make it. Then I would run two campaigns -- one for the smaller, more frequent group (and put your energy and "best stuff" into it), and then maybe run mini-campaigns or one-shots for the whole group when they can make it.

 

[Ulrick]

I would try to identify the people who want to play a little more or as frequently as you currently are, and the ones who want to play less frequently or just seem to not be able to make it. Then I would run two campaigns -- one for the smaller, more frequent group (and put your energy and "best stuff" into it), and then maybe run mini-campaigns or one-shots for the whole group when they can make it.

That is definitely a good idea. The problem with it is finding the time to run both campaigns.

I've always wanted to run two campaigns...one would be sort of a "filter" to get the best players into the campaign with my "best stuff." I already screen my players. I'd hold "interviews" just to meet the person if I hadn't already. And it seemed to work. All last school year we played almost every week. We only had a couple times where we couldn't play. This fall semester things got downright wretched.

What makes it worse is that I have plot lines for almost every player in the group. Certain PCs know certain things that would be very helpful or would help the group understand what is going on.

--

I wanna thank everybody who's contributed advice. There's been things mentioned here I haven't thought of.

Thanks.

(and keep it coming, I'm certain there's a lot of other DMs out there who have attendence problems too.)

 

[mythago]

She called about an hour before game was going to start and left a message saying that she was going to the county fair to watch a band.

Oh, well, THAT is just ridiculous. Blowing off a game AND calling to say sorry, I had something better to do? Sheeze.

 

[nopantsyet]

I started DMing 3E with a group of friends and attendance was horrible. I got sick of it so I went on a player search. Posted here and on the Boston gamers mailing list and over the course of a year with a few comings and goings have finally ended up with a group that is serious and committed to playing. We probably average 3 weeks out of a month which I think is pretty good. If one player is not going to be there, I'll give the other players the choice of playing the other character or have him get separated from the group.

 

[robaustin]

Our method for scheduling seems to work quite well and it helps keep absenteeism to an absolutel minimum.

We play only on Friday nights or Saturdays, because we're all in our 30's, some folks have kids etc...

One person is our scheduler. We all submit the Fridays and Saturdays we are free to her, and she then schedules at least one Friday night (9 Pm to 2 AM), and one Saturday (12 PM to 12 AM) a month based on everyone's schedules. Sometimes we get more in, sometimes less. Because everyone is actually saying "these are the days I can play" absenteeism is just about nil in our group except for sickness. We all commit to playing seriously on these days and never have to worry about "well it's Wednesday and John is absent again because he had to work late" or other excuses.

Some months we get in 2 or 3 sessions, others just one - like December. We are playing exactly once this December - but we know when we play - we're all going to be there no matter what.

--*Rob