Good players, bad schedules

[IronWolf]

Yep, we try to avoid the weekends and holidays as a game day/night. With different schedules gaming on the weekends leads to conflicts quickly. We've done pretty well with designating a weeknight. Though for the past two months our schedules seem cursed with cancellations due to busy family schedules or sickness cropping up on the wrong night.

 

[Umbran]

Please tell me I'm not the only one with these sort of problems.

Dude, get used to it. It doesn't get easier to schedule as you get older. Your players have lives, with other people and activities in them.

My game runs on weeknights, exclusively, because folks just have too much other stuff to do on weekends.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I run/play in 3 groups. 2 of them play monthly. One on one Friday a month from 7 pm to midnight. This group contains a number of married guys, 3 of them with kids. That Friday is their "night out" and they relish it, but that one Friday is all their schedules will allow.

The other monthly group meets one Saturday afternoon a month from 1 pm to 5 pm. We're all married or engaged to players in the game, or single. As a result, we can blow a Saturday afternoon to game together.

The third group meets most Sunday nights. Specifically because most of us are married with kids, or have work schedules that preclude other game nights/days. It's rough gaming until almost 10 pm Sunday night, driving 30 minutes home, and then being up for work at 5:30 the next morning, but I pull it off because it's a pretty enjoyable game.

The point of all this is to say this: you make the schedule work for the game you want to be part of. People have lives, and not all of them are willing to set parts of them aside to suit your preferred gaming schedule. Sometimes my monthly games have to cancel due to scheduling. That's rough going 2 months between sessions. But they're good groups, they're good games, and I'm glad to be a part of them.

 

[OnlineDM]

I enjoy running and playing games on the weekends, so if I had players who said "I won't play on weekends or holidays," then I probably won't be playing with them. Sometimes people's schedules just don't mesh. Those people are destined to play with different groups - and that's okay.

 

[Janx]

I should think supply and demand should have some influence here.

Sounds like JD is the GM, so he's got the supply of game.

If his product is good, there will be demand. Greater demand means JD has more control over the price (times of play).


JD's still gotta consider the constraints on his players. Adults with families do have less free time. If JD is single, that explains why he wants a long weekend game and they want a weeknight game.

As the GM, you're doing all the work, so they gotta give a little. Running a 4 hour game on a weeknight or a weekend is the same "time away from family". Getting them to do a long all day game on the weekend may be asking too much of a time committment.

Personally, I'd rather play on the weekend. After a long day of doing a ton of stuff and dealing with people, I just want to chill out. I don't want to then try to get business wrapped up, clean up my house, have guests come over, and have to clean up before I go to bed, so I don't have a mess in the morning. Not to mention that I had to do all the prep work for the game.

JD doesn't have to be a dink about it, but the players come to the GM on his terms. Not the other way around.

 

[Umbran]

JD doesn't have to be a dink about it, but the players come to the GM on his terms. Not the other way around.

That supply and demand thing only applies if you have an open market with a large supply of potential customers.

In the real world, many of us have limited access to other gamers, and few ways to advertise to new players, and frankly, we want to play with our friends, not strangers. If I want to play with my friends, specifically, then yes, I have to adjust the game to meet their needs. If I'm the one who is flexible, I flex for them.

Your RPG will not successfully compete with major family needs, no matter how good it is. Going to Jenny's softball games is going to trump your D&D session, every single time. And that's as it should be.

 

[IronWolf]

Personally, I'd rather play on the weekend. After a long day of doing a ton of stuff and dealing with people, I just want to chill out. I don't want to then try to get business wrapped up, clean up my house, have guests come over, and have to clean up before I go to bed, so I don't have a mess in the morning. Not to mention that I had to do all the prep work for the game.

I'd rather play on the weekend too, but the family schedule just doesn't allow it. Soccer games, soccer practice, chores, weekend projects, weekend getaways all tend to come up on the weekend. And that's just my schedule. Throw in the other gamer schedules and a weeknight just becomes easier because the weeknight routines lend itself better to being away from home for an evening on a regularly scheduled basis.

JD doesn't have to be a dink about it, but the players come to the GM on his terms. Not the other way around.

I don't know - our group works well with determining the time to play as a group effort, not the GM at the time throwing down ultimatums.

 

[Nikosandros]

I used to play on Saturday afternoon back when I was in high school (and for a short time while in University), but nowadays I only play during weekdays. Sure, there might be the very occasional game on the weekend and on a working day night we're all more tired, but as others have pointed out, weekends are usually for the family of for social activities.

 

[wolfpunk]

My main group of six total people usually finds itself down one player every time we play, only had to cancel one session completely because two people couldn't make it.

My Battlejack playtest group constantly struggles to find enough people from my pool of people to play. Definitely frustrating.

 

[S'mon]

My wife only lets me play fortnightly week-end evenings, after I've put in a day of service/quality time with her & Bill my 3-year-old, plus (to my surprise) she's fine with the weekly Monday nights game I'm now in. Obviously other people have different schedules, my advice would be to find fellow players who fit yours.

Or: "They're just not that into you."