Getting Busy Adults Together to Play Games

[GlassJaw]

Even though I think my meaning was misunderstood, nothing I can say at this point is going to change anyone's mind so I'm just going to eat crow and step away from this one. :\

 

[Oryan77]

Thats because your standard D&D geek drops everything for a chance to meet a girl

Yeah, it's happened in my group. I haven't seen him back at my table since

It doesn't bother me at all though. Pretending to be a wizard & attacking trolls while sitting at a table with a bunch of guys on Saturday night, or being yourself & eating dinner while sitting at a table with a cute & interesting girl on a Saturday night? His reward after dinner with a girl is much better than the XP reward I would be offering him

I'm lucky though, my gf plays with us...I get the best of both worlds!

Even though I think my meaning was misunderstood, nothing I can say at this point is going to change anyone's mind so I'm just going to eat crow and step away from this one. :\

I wouldn't worry about it...I think he/she is being WAY too sensitive. Your post was neither ignorant nor offensive...and my gaming parent buddies would agree with your point. You never said "don't" game with parents, and you never said it's impossible for parents to attend games. You were simply making a general statement that most people openly admit to often here, "It's harder making commitments to RPGs as a parent".

 

[IronWolf]

This is going to sound extremely harsh but it really isn't meant to be. If you really want to play in a group that meets consistently with very few cancellations, you almost need to find a group where no one has kids. You have to expect some last-minute cancellations from the parents every once in a while.

FWIW, I am a parent and don't take offense at this. You don't even make any real absolutes, you even say "almost". ::shrug::

In my case we play every other week and so far have been pretty darn reliable. I had to reschedule one session but that was more for a club function of my wife's who just happened to fall on game night. Other than that my wife tends to handle all the kid issues if any arise. In my case it happens to work out - others results may vary.

 

[lgburton]

Even though I think my meaning was misunderstood, nothing I can say at this point is going to change anyone's mind so I'm just going to eat crow and step away from this one. :\

actually i should apologize. i guess i really did jump on this wrong way. i guess it's a reaction i have had since becoming a parent and noticing that even the flakey d&d players with whom i was aquainted were no longer interested in being around.

so, i apologize. i did misunderstand your meaning.

 

[Hussar]

I've had the opposite experience though. The flakes in my games have almost entirely been the teens or uni-students who bail at the last minute without warning. Heck, in my current campaign, which is over OpenRPG, so there's NO travel time, the flakiest player is my youngest - a high school student. Both the parents, myself (also a parent), and the two engineers make it religiously. Yet, every week or every other week, we get to hold up the game while junior decides whether he will grace us with his presence or not.

Heh, can you tell I'm a tad annoyed about this?

Seriously though, the parents/married players are, in my experience, the ones who have to make the most conscious choice about making a game, so they tend to be the most reliable. Their schedules tend to be so busy that they deliberately have to set the time aside for gaming and, when game time rolls around, they come, unlike the singles who come if nothing better rolls around.

Heck, we're married. Nothing better EVER rolls around.

 

[JediSoth]

I have a group of seven working adults (including myself), broken down into the following: 3 married with children, 2 married, and 2 single. What we do is devised a schedule several months in advance (I'm the host and DM, so that responsibility falls to me). We play every other Sunday (generally). I send an e-mail out to everyone telling them when the games are and then I remind them the Monday or Tuesday prior to the upcoming game. Since the game dates have already been schedule several months in advance, all the married guys can coordinate with their wives. The e-mail is just a courtesey, since we're all busy with work, home ownership, etc.. It works pretty well. Since I've started this system of saying "We're playing on 4/X, 4/X, 5/X, 5/X, 6/X, 6/X, etc. attendance has been a lot more regular.

Before we just planned things week to week. Now we know when we're playing all the way up to GenCon.

JediSoth

 

[PJ-Mason]

I've had the opposite experience though. The flakes in my games have almost entirely been the teens or uni-students who bail at the last minute without warning. Heck, in my current campaign, which is over OpenRPG, so there's NO travel time, the flakiest player is my youngest - a high school student. Both the parents, myself (also a parent), and the two engineers make it religiously. Yet, every week or every other week, we get to hold up the game while junior decides whether he will grace us with his presence or not

Well it make sense that its easier for parent-gamers to make online games. That way they aren't really leaving their kids alone, they are still right there at home. Maybe even in the same room. That way they don't leave it all on the other parent who ends up resenting them, or don't have to pay a babysitter, or whatever particular situation they ay have at home. They get to escape without really escaping. They get the gaming calories without the guilty feelings afterwards.

 

[Driddle]

Wait ...

This isn't the thread for "Adults to get together to play and get busy?"

 

[Umbran]

Lazy bones!

Imagine the following time budget:
Sleep for 8 hours.
Work for 9 hours.
Travel for 1.5 hours.
Personal albutions 0.5 hours
Preparing and eating food 1 hour.

This leaves a mere 4 hours a day to live life on a working day. At this point, can you blame folks for not wanting to have what little tiime they have spent up in effort? You call it lazy, but people need downtime to remain sane.

Getting people together for gaming isn't difficult because people are lazy. It is difficult because modern American life is really damned busy.

 

[GlassJaw]

Sleep for 8 hours.

Well here's your first problem! You can easily cut a couple of hours off that.

Seriously though, I rarely get more than 6 hours of sleep per night during the week. I make up for it on the weekends.