How Do You Coordinate Your Gaming Sessions?

[cranberry]

We coordinate through texting or email. The group is pretty good with responding (seconds to a couple of days).

We have a set time and day of the week, and we just indicate whether we're available to play. There are 6 of us in total (1 GM, 5 players), and as long as 4 players are available, it's game on.

 

[aco175]

We just have a set day we play each week, but use a group text to let each other know if anyone can't make the session or if we have to cancel.

Same here, but my father is a Luddite and only had a phone with a cord still tied to the wall. I can text Mom to let him know though.

 

[Umbran]

So anyway, yeah. I'm curious how everyone else coordinates their gaming sessions. Are there any tools or apps that you use?

The groups I play with all work on the model of having a standard day. The group I run right now meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month, for example, and has done so for something like 15 years.

Folks are expected to keep that day open if at all possible, but adults understand that there will be things that take priority. There will be health issues, and so on. If we have enough people (defined for each game) we play. If we don't, we don't. Not a whole lot of coordination involved.

 

[ThrorII]

I selected "Facebook Group", but we actually use MeWe for our game scheduling, uploading character sheets, downloading handouts & maps, and synopsis.

We create an new group page for each campaign, and invite each other into it. So we have a permanent record of every game, including synopsis of each session, all uploaded character sheets, all maps and handouts.

We play religously every other Saturday from 5:30p to 10:00p, so it should not be a surprise to anyone. It does allow us to remind each other, communicate on who is bringing what for dinner or dessert, or cancel if something happens.

 

[Yora]

Technically Discord, because that's where I would post a note if for some reasons I won't be able to run the scheduled game.

But it really is just that we have a regular time every week to play, and we're going to play with everyone who shows up.

 

[Scottius]

We meet the same time at the same place every week. I send an email the morning of the game as a reminder. As long as we don't have multiple cancelations we meet & play as scheduled.

 

[ichabod]

We play every Saturday we can. Last session of the month we all bring our calendars. We pick a day maybe two to not play in the next month, with the sense that maybe someone else plays your character if too many people need days off. Life still happens and we miss other sessions because others can't make it, but what are you gonna do?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Most of the time, I stick to a schedule and if someone can't make it, they can't make it. If we do need to switch dates, we talk about it either in Discord or in an email thread.

I got thoroughly sick of trying to coordinate the schedules of the seven players I had back in 4e. We would end up going months without gaming. That was when I switched to using set dates and not waiting to have everyone at the table to game.

 

[The Soloist]

Before Covid my previous group was mostly early 30s and we used the FB group I created for the campaign and Messenger. I was told 'no emails'. It worked very well. We played in person.

With my current group, late 30s and 40s, we use emails and Google Calendar. They all rejected FB as a form of communication. We play online using Discord.

 

[billd91]

I participate in two groups, each of which uses different methods.

The Thursday night group plays weekly, in person, and I want people to approach it as much like a regular bowling league night as they can. Routine. If a player can't make it, we still play as long as we make quorum (half +1). We use a text message group to handle updates, changes, notifications of being late or unable to make it, etc. We've tried other methods since not everyone was capable of receiving texts at the time (yahoo group, MS Classroom), but now it's text messages and it's easy.

The alternate Saturday group started as a mid-pandemic online group and remains online. We use Discord to serve up our audio, Roll20 for the tabletop. For that one, we use Discord to pass on schedule changes.

There are a couple of monthly groups run by one of the players from the Thursday night group (I'm not in either group), where they have a useful method: the first thing they do when they meet for a game session is pull out their calendars and schedule the next session. So the schedule may not be super regular, but they always get the next one on the books.