Babies ate my gaming group

[an_idol_mind]

I've got a two year old and another one on the way and am still gaming fine. I make sure to bring toys and activities for my son to keep him busy. It helps that he's interested in dice. We sometimes let him roll for an animal companion (he killed a zombie on a crit!), and when my wife is out of the scene she uses the dice to teach him counting.

As to younger kids, we institute a "baby bonus." If you're holding the baby, you get a +1 bonus to all die rolls.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

At one point my group had dwindled to only three reliably active players plus myself, and usually one couldn't even make it. We missed two or three sessions in a row because I could only get two players. This was after (over the years) making occasional requests for new players. (For instance, one reliable player had been running 4e over PbP. When that game ended, we recruited him. We now run at a newer player's house too.)

I had joined another gaming group on Meetup so I could play and not just run 4e. But that group was dwindling too. I ended up trying to merge the two groups. It didn't quite work, but we now have two reliable players attending both groups. Then it became ridiculous as suddenly three players who hadn't showed up for months started showing up. For a while we had eight players a session. Now we usually have five players a session. (Some players only like some campaigns; if we had everyone show up for every session we'd have seven players plus a DM.)

If you don't know non-busy people who aren't gaming, I can only suggest Meetup. And of course, putting up ads in a FLGS. There's a person who wants to do that at my FLGS, but my group is currently just a little too large to admit them. (Very bad timing.)

 

[saskganesh]

I've got a two year old and another one on the way and am still gaming fine. I make sure to bring toys and activities for my son to keep him busy. It helps that he's interested in dice. We sometimes let him roll for an animal companion (he killed a zombie on a crit!), and when my wife is out of the scene she uses the dice to teach him counting.

As to younger kids, we institute a "baby bonus." If you're holding the baby, you get a +1 bonus to all die rolls.

This is where cool meets cute. Awesome.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Solution - get wives and kids that do play. My family is currently on module 2 of Reign of Winter.

 

[silverblade56]

Marriages, kids, and moving are bane to gaming groups. Unfortunately, that's teh way it is.

 

[Herobizkit]

My gaming group is scattered over two provinces. One option I've adopted is gaming online via roll20 and Skype. As long as everyone can get to a computer, we can play. We've been able to set aside one night a week to do so, and that's about as good as it gets for me for now.

 

[n00bdragon]

It's very important for parents to reserve some time for themselves (and their hobbies). Having kids doesn't mean you need to stop doing all the things you love, it just means you need to be smart about how you add them to your life. For something like D&D night you really need to get a baby sitter and if there are couples in your group dropping so they can stuff cheerios in the poop machine all evening you should probably suggest they get a baby sitter too. Sometimes the thought of leaving your most special child with someone else can be scary but it's good for you, good for your marriage, and it can be great experience for some 14 year old family friend's first job.