I'm going to offer a public service announcement here.
Finding people and getting them together to play remains the hardest part of this hobby. Scheduing a D&D game is its own meme.
This video (which someone might already have mentioned) talks all about the science behind why it's so hard to schedule an RPG game.
I have a model that's worked very well for me. I call it the 6 + 2 model. You schedule your game at the same time every week and make it for 3 hours so its a little easier to fit into a week night.
Then you seek six regular players who are committed to making most games. Everyone has things going on in their lives but, generally, they should plan to be there for that time. This alone is hard – I know – but it's worth the effort.
Then you try to find two "on call" players. These are players who probably can't commit to every game but still like to play from time to time. You explain to them that you already have six players but you'd like to invite them when a seat opens up. I've heard a lot of people who can't understand this part of it or don't expect it to work but it
can work with some clear expectations established.
Then you run your game with as few as four players. Any characters who aren't there (because the player isn't there) simply fade into the background. Yes, this sometimes means a character arc doesn't work perfectly well but you'll get used to not focusing entire sessions around a single character.
With this model, it takes
five people cancelling before you can't run a game. It's pretty common to have one or even two people who can't make a game (see the video above) but the more willing you are to run with people missing, and if you're able to bring other people in to fill in the seats when others cancel, you can have a pretty solid game going.
Thus ends my public service announcement.
