Monthly Games

[megamania]

My current game is bi-weekly and that seems forever between games. Of the six of us, three have kids. We play at my place and my daughter is good about it but my six year old son really really really wants me to use his transformers, yuki or other assorted monster toys in combat and will blop them on the table. If we are not looking, his creature will "eat" a PC then we begin looking on the floor for a missing figure when my son has it.

Future player

Most of us see each other at work or between work so we keep communication up.

Befor ethat I had a monthly game and that royally sucked. Especially as the GM now has kids. The game is becoming 6 times a year which kinda sucks.

EN World often becomes my gaming "fix".

 

[KnowTheToe]

I found for me my weekends were harder to set aside. There are always chores, family functions, social events, etc that always fall on weekends. I switched to a Wednesday night game that meets for 3-4 hours and it has worked out great. Weeknights are generally easier for people to free up. Now with a 120 mile drive, that is probably not an option for you, but it may help someone else.

 

[kenobi65]

I DM for two different "once a month" groups; like the other posters, getting schedules co-ordinated is really tough, and sometimes even once a month doesn't work. For the bigger of the two groups, we've always had a "quorum" rule: we'll play as long as we have at least 6 of the 8 players in attendance.

One of the things I do is type up a short summary of "this is what happened" after each session, and e-mail it out to the players. Then, I do a quick recap (highlighting the summary) at the beginning of the next session, as a refresher.

I concur that finding a way to keep the game location a kid-free zone is important (at least, when the kids are young enough to need frequent attention).

 

[DaveStebbins]

My main group is all between 33 and 43, all are (or were) married and all have one or more kids (ranging from two or three to 13). Between jobs, family obligations, work-related travel, etc., we feel lucky to meet once a month (though the game has been going on for almost 15 years now). We use e-mail for between-game discussions as most of us work for the same company.

About half of the group (including myself) has formed a splinter group because we wanted to game more often than the guys with non-gaming spouses are allowed to. The one guy brings his 12-YO daughter and the other couple brings their 8-YO son. My 13-YO daughter would be joining us too, if my ex still lived in-state. The six of us meet on a more informal schedule, about 2-3 times a month, and that serves to give us our gaming fix.

 

[Greatwyrm]

We're at about once a month, too. Our group is kinda spread out throught the area now, so that's about all that some can handle travel back for. Plus a couple of us have kids now.

 

[Trahnesi]

Well then pity me, because I'm playing in a once-a-month monday night game. We "start" at 6pm, but with arrivals, discussions and eating, we really don't get started playing until around 7pm. Then we have to end promptly at 10pm. That 3 hours, once a month is just not enough. It's very difficult to keep the flow and remember what is going on.

Ah, but it's my only game at present, so I have to live with it. When my RW scheduling problems work themselves out, I intend to run my own once a month (5-6 hours on Sunday) game, which should help immensely.

Man, that's hard. I wish I could...

Hey, you're in Minneapolis too? Hm.......

Actually, I'm in a RW overload at the moment, but when they die down I'll be looking for more gaming action myself. 'Course, then I'd need to not crib so many ideas straight from ENWorld...

 

[Berandor]

We also play only once per month, usually on a Sunday. But then we play 7 hours (or 5-6, the rest is spend talking, eating lunch, etc.).

I'd like to play more often, but I'd probably be stuck DM'ing then, as well, and I'm not sure whether I can do 2 campaigns seperately.