D&D General Why did you have to cancel/reschedule your most recent session?

[DrJawaPhD]

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.

This is an awesome breakdown and almost perfectly mirrors what I was attempting to do in my latest group although I didn't think thru the logistics are thoroughly as you lay out here. I was aiming for a 7+1 with a min table size of 4, but never found any reliable "on call" folks, and only 2 of my 7 "regulars" actually showed up consistently enough over winter holiday months, so we had multiple weeks cancel and eventually the group dissolved

I'm going to keep your specific calculations in mind for next time.

 

[el-remmen]

I'm going to offer a public service announcement here.

This thread is meant as just a way to blow off steam about the inevitability of the occasional cancellation/rescheduling.


Everybody’s got systems that work for them and not everyone wants to have floaters in a game or runs a style of game where that works (for example no one in my group has a set enough work and/or life schedule for a set game day to work for us).

My group can only meet every 3 to 5 weeks but we usually only have to reschedule about once a year and have only ever had to totally skip a session twice in going on 6 years and those were for some pretty serious reasons.

 

[Gorg]

not so much cancelled, as stillborn. Work schedules just do not line up.

Lack of interest is playing a role, too. The more the other DM and I discuss the game, the less interest I have in playing in that campaign. Add in that it's now a 3 hour round trip drive and...

 

[billd91]

I have already canceled our next session because that’s the day my wife comes home from the hospital after surgery. She’ll need me around in a pretty big way.

 

[Baron Opal II]

The fan for the cobweb caster is in! Build it and dress the stage front.

Also, let me add that this is the coolest toy ever! It's not often you get to hear a greybeard giggle like a schoolgirl.

 

[bedir than]

Our last cancellation was because a player passed away. He'd been sick and missing sessions. But when he passed we cancelled a session.
Then the next session we played with the group with his widow watching us.

And now tomorrow we're playing with something like 20 people because he asked us to throw a D&D party in remembrance of him.

 

[Clint_L]

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.

This is an excellent suggestion - I'm going to float it with my current home group. It's basically what I already do at school, minus the "on-call" players, as kids often have legitimate reasons they can't make games.

 

[jayoungr]

I picked "Other." I'm running two campaigns that happen on alternate weekends. There was a week when I couldn't play, so I shifted both campaigns ahead by a week. But then someone in campaign #1, which was up first, couldn't make the intended next session, so I had to bump that session and move campaign #2 ahead as well so that I wouldn't have both on the same weekend.

 

[DarkCrisis]

2 players daughter was doing her driving test. The father/son had the sons baseball game to go to.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

This is an excellent suggestion - I'm going to float it with my current home group. It's basically what I already do at school, minus the "on-call" players, as kids often have legitimate reasons they can't make games.

The point of the "on call" players is you find the type of people who would like to play DnD, have the schedule availability that they generally could play most weeks, but they don't want to commit every Saturday (or whatever day) do playing DnD. So now they're able to be a full-time member of the social group while only showing up occasionally when needed.

That type of player is pretty rare, but I've seen people quit before because they loved playing DnD occasionally but didn't want "to get sucked in" to having to play every week. For the right type of person, being "On Call" would make a great option for both them and the rest of the party.

Sounds like your situation is more like everyone wants to play full-time but life gets in the way so they miss games - that's way more common and doesn't really lend itself well to having any of those players be On Call.