(Rant) Real life constantly interfering with my game!

[Simplicity]

Once-a-week with young kids just does not work very easily. Sure you can dump kid responsibilities on your spouse. Every week. That'll get old pretty fast.

My wife likes to game. We STILL have a hard time playing once-a-month. We've tried to get babysitters, but virtually every time, the babysitters flake on us, and she winds up mostly watching the kids (because I DM). When the kids get older, things will get easier.

 

[billd91]

In a league, the schedule is set before any teams are made - team captains then go around to people they know, and assemble a team out of folks who are pre-selected to make the schedule. Some of his preferred people probably aren't available, and so won't be on the team this time around.

But people who want to participate in the league with their friends change their personal schedules to meet the immutable schedule of the league. Sometimes it is true that preferred people may not be around, but then some people play with the same people all the time as well because they shuffle to make a regular schedule work.
Plenty of gamers do it too. It's true that it may not work for everybody all the time, but it's hardly such a stark trade off as the group you want vs the schedule you want.

 

[pogre]

Remember I labelled it as a rant - I'm not saying I am reasonable about this at all

Honestly, this is the first time in a while we have only played once in a month. Typically, we play twice a month and frequently 3 or 4 times in a month.

We take all of the fall off because I coach high school football, so not being able to play in the late winter/spring seems to make it worse.

Some of you said once a week is not realistic with real-life, especially with young children. Your probably right, but I'm still frustrated by it.

It does help some that my oldest son plays in the campaign.

 

[Aeolius]

Or, you know, download Maptool.

That's the compromise I made, years ago. I now have 7 kids and still get my weekly game via IRC.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

We remedied a lot of our situation by playing online using either IRC or MapTools. It's not the *best* situation, but it beats not being able to play regularly. And we play fairly regularly (when someone's not having technical issues connecting, but he just got a new computer that should fix THAT problem); technically every week.

 

[pawsplay]

We try to game once a week, but if we can't meet for a month, or even two, so be it. That's what changes with being an adult; different priorities. Apart from that, I'm still a one game a week person, and if I didn't have school, I'd be thinking about two.

 

[Umbran]

But people who want to participate in the league with their friends change their personal schedules to meet the immutable schedule of the league.

If and when they can, yes. But, as you noted, it isn't always possible, and that's the point.

The issue I'm talking about is expectation - as if somehow folks who cannot make a day every single week are somehow failing to meet up with the common standard.

This topic comes up regularly enough to make it pretty clear to me - while there's some who manage a weekly game, I don't think it is a reasonable expectation for modern adult professionals with families. More power to you if you can do it, but in my experience and observation it is usually asking too much for a year-round thing.

 

[Agamon]

Oy, I feel your pain, pogre. Since I started our "bi-weekly" 4e game in August, I think we've played 6 times. And only one of the players has a kid, and she's 10 years old. It's getting silly. For 8 years, with the exception of the holidays, we've gone pretty much bi-weekly without a whole lot of problems. Time for a talk with the group.

 

[Aeolius]

I suppose if I wanted to game offline, I'd be out of luck, anyway. None of the folks I gamed with in high school live nearby and I doubt anyone in my town of 7,000 would want to try an undersea D&D game held in a house that is smoke-free and animal-heavy (even if I supplied free absinthe).

(edit: I run my game online on Sunday nights. On Tuesday nights, I host a chat room for my gamer friends from high school (mid-80s). We do not game on Tuesdays; we drink, philosophize , remember days gone by, and discuss matters of little to no relevance. )