D&D 5E Limited Magic and Magical Items Campaign

[R_J_K75]

I generally find friends & family don't have compatible desires - eg the kind of light, fairly linear, relaxed game that suits Kimberly & Philippe has little interest to a char-op crunch-loving die-hard like Judith. Jelly likes romance and drama, James likes to hit things. Bill loves dragons and dragonborn, refuses to fight Tiamat & her dragons. Plus scheduling & locale - some players work weekends, some can only do weekends. Some are in other countries and can only do online, others don't like online, but like pubs & beer.

Ultimately I've resigned myself to just playing among friends. For the few hours we play, probably 20% of that time is spent other than gaming, grabbing a round of beers, or a quick unrelated conversation such as sports. This conversation has made me take a step back and look at things from a different point of view. We all like to have a few drinks while we play, we all watch sports, maybe incorporating the things we all have in common into a less serious game could make for a good experience. In a game with limited magic I can keep them off the front lines of the major conflicts and put them in more covert situations that some subterfuge can be used resolve the threat at hand by games of chance, feats of strength, gnome tossing or a good old fashioned deadly game of lacrosse. This might re-invigorate the game. Obviously I'd use this minimally, but not every campaign has be on an epic scope where the fate of the world hangs in the balance.