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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5983955" data-attributes="member: 92305">I was running a game with just two players a while back, but the same campaign has grown as some new playes and some old friends have joined. Right now, I've got five players.  That's six schedules to juggle.  And, we try to play once a month for several months (usually playing through a story-arc).  Then, we'll put the game on hiatus for a bit--a few months to several months.  This keeps me, as DM from getting burned out.  And, it helps me keep a fresh, exciting game for the players.  Plus, the players like the breaks. For example, we've taken the last couple of months off--and, I'm not sure when I'm going to start the next story-arc, but I'm getting the itch. To answer your question:  Player 1 is not married but lives with a woman.  He's got a grown kid (18 years old) that doesn't live with him.  P2 has a wife and one little girl--I think she's about 13.  P3 has a wife and two little girls, ages 7 and 10.  P4 has two boys, one in Jr. High and one in Elementary school.  P5 has three kids, two boys and one girl.  He's our newest player, and I don't know his kids well (or his wife), but they seem to be in the Elementary to Jr. High ranges. As far as excuses, I don't get any--because of my rule.  We all commit to a date, then we all show up and play.  I think in the last two years, I've only had to move one game because something big came up. See...that's the point of the rule.  We all take the game and each others' time seriously.  We commit to a time to play, and then we strive to make that game date.  The last time I remember having to move the game was a year-year and a half ago.  P3's wife went out of town, and her trip got moved back a week.  So, understandably, P3 had to stay home with his girls. It happens.  But, it happens so rarely in my game that nobody really got upset.  It was a lot of, "Oh man!  That sucks!  I was looking forward to playing!"  (Beat.)  "OK, what day are we looking at now?"  I called everybody up and got the game moved to the following weekend. Because I have the rule, and everybody takes the game serious, making it a time priority, the players typically do a good job of agreeing when they can play.  They won't make a commitment to play when they know that there's a chance something might have to supercede the game.  And, when they do commit, 99.99% of the time, they keep their commitment and game with us on the agreed day. Our games typically run about 12 hours or so.  We'll play all day (once a month).  Noon to Midnight (or 1...or 2....or 3....) is our typical time. I've got a guy I work with that would love to play, but after speaking with him, I see that he's got a lot of time commitments (as we all do) with his wife, newborn, and an age 3 child.  Plus, there's no way he would game for 12 hours.  He can get away for only 3-4 hours at a time. I'd like to have him come play, but he just doesn't fit with what we're doing.  He'd be a strain on the play time, so I can't invite him. I've encouraged him to find his own group, and he did that.  He put together three of his other friends (and even got one of them to DM).  They play for 3 or 4 hours.   But....that was a year ago, and, to date, they've had 2 sessions.  I suspect it's because of the player (good guy--I like him) that I won't invite to play with us.  Part of a DM's job is to manage the game in this manner as well as during the game session.      A lot of people are OK with that.  I'm not.  I don't want to run a player's character as an NPC, and I don't want someone else (who will run the character completely differently) to run it.   When I run a game, I'm commited to it.  I do a lot of work on it.  I strive to make it interesting and fun for the players.  I believe that the player has an obligation to show up when we play and play his character.  Playing RPG's isn't like a Monday night poker game where a missing player won't be missed. If I was OK with players running each other's characters and running PCs as NPCs, I'd sure wouldn't have the rule.  Now, though, I've had it for so long that most know, when they come to my game, that's the way things are going to be. The end result is:  People show up and play when they're supposed to.</blockquote>

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