NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801718" data-source="post: 7209882">I handle the potential schedule issues and flaky players a couple of different ways.  At the start of any campaign, I ask for some background info from the players.  Just some things about their characters that they'd like to explore or other goals their character may have outside of the adventures.  Some of that background I sprinkle into the campaign proper and some I set aside to use when needed.  So if there aren't enough players to go on with something big in the adventure, I can spring something personal on them.  The other thing I do is that whatever villain I'm using has their own goals and is always doing their own thing.  There's no real set way to defeat the villain, they're just an opponent of the party trying to accomplish something.  So if end up with a small group, I may pull some of the combat and direct engagement encounters and replace them with more investigative or social encounters.  Let them learn more about the enemy and find other ways to stall or defeat the villain without direct combat.  This may require a little more work up front for me, but it lets things run a lot smoother for me when the game gets going.  So if a player doesn't make it on a regular basis or flakes at the last minute, no big deal.  Their character stuff doesn't come into play that session and the main adventure can still progress.  My group can be pretty large if everyone can make it.  We have 7 players right now.  Honestly, it can be a bit of a relief and easier to manage if a couple people can't make it.  On average, usually four or five of us can make it regularly.  Though we'll still play with two or three if we can.  It's more about friends getting together and making sure to set time aside for each other than anything else.  I've also found that the players that flake and no show the most end up bailing on the game all together pretty quickly.  I've rarely had to talk to a player about it beyond "hey, do you still want to play?".</blockquote>

Verification