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Can a once a month game work?

When I started 3e we were playing once a month. We would play from 1pm to 10pm with a break for dinner which we either cooked or ordered pizza. It worked fine. This gave the DM plenty of time to plan and organize for each session and players to ask about options with character development.

Playing every other week is my preference as it allows prep time but keeps it fresh also.
 

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I've been playing once a month for several years, spanning a few different campaigns. I've found that it works best when you can handle some of the more detailed discussions (leveling up, "ok guys, where are we going to go now?", etc) in between sessions through email. This lets you get the most game in when you can play, and helps everyone remember what's going on in the game between sessions.

I ran one game where the PC's were responsible for a keep. We handled adventuring in our monthly game sessions and keep maintenance between sessions. However, all it takes is one unavailable/uncommunicative player to grind this kind of thing to a halt.

It's not ideal, but it's better than not playing.
 

Random thoughts to consider that might help ...

1) Try and stop each session at an extended rest or, if not, then at a short rest and take good notes on stuff (like what dailies have been used, how many action points and surges remain for each player, hit points, conditions, etc).


2) Find a player (or two) that ENJOYS taking notes on a) NPCs and b) plot points, and see if they'll take the informal title of "NPC name note taker" and "plot point note taker" etc since they'll need to reference these notes a lot, esp for an interconnected campaign. Nothing fancy, just a place to keep track of names, major points, etc. Along similar lines, find a player to c) keep track of party treasure and dividing it up and keeping notes on where the "undivided" items (i.e. that strange mirror that emits evil radiation that you're hoping the local wizard can disenchant and then destroy) are - who is carrying it, etc... Special note -- Ideally, someone will naturally emerge and take this role(s) on their own without any word from you. It has less resentment if it was their own idea rather than a title that was given to them. So keep it rather casual if no one speaks up "hey, who is keeping track of the treasure" or "who remembers the name of the NPC you were supposed to deliver this too" etc.

3) Two days before the game session, consider sending an email recap of the last session. Nothing fancy, just a few lines or paragraph. That way, at the game table you can skim through the recap but you'll be able to spend more time on the current game session since everyone would have just read the recap a day or two before

4) If exp calculation takes ANY time at all, save it and send it as an email later. This way you won't spend game time doing calculations and you won't have players spending game time (or distracted) trying to level up characters

5) Schedules have a way of shifting, and the "social event that the child needs to go to at the last minute" often hinders "daddy's monthly game that he can do every month" so a week before (maybe when you send recaps) have a reminder about the day and time. By making it a reminder, it's also a passive rsvp since if it conflicts someone might remember to let you know. In a round about way, this helps on game day because no one is waiting for the player that won't show (past groups always had a habit of goofing off a lot until "that last person got there" often led to lots of wasted time until we realized that person wasn't coming at all)

6) Depending on your group's expectations for death/TPKs/etc , consider telling everyone to always have a back-up character ready (at least in basic ability scores, race, class) and keep that back-up character a level behind their main character (or whatever your rule is). Thus, if someone does have a character die, they can whip out their backup and use it as soon as there is a good spot to join in (as opposed to waiting to make it from scratch and then wait more to find a spot to join in)



Anyway, just my rambles

Good points. Our DM used to give bonus EXP to anyone that wrote notes (that were legiable and accurate) and sometimes post them the week before with a freindly reminder of game time, location and any unresolved character changes to be done ( like leveling up and new characters)

I used to even get bonus points for drawings of key events which was neat since I would've done it anyway but it motivated me further to do it each week.
 

My CyberPunk 2020 campaign has been running for 19 sessions now, and runs roughly once a month. It's been great. We cover a lot of ground, and are playing a "grand campaign" style where at least a season, and usually at least a year of downtime occurs between game sessions.

It's been incredibly rewarding.
 

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