This happens to me over and over: At the last minute, a player (or the GM, myself even) announces they can’t make the scheduled time for the game. However, they’re free on X or Y night that week, so can we reschedule? Frantic emailing and forum posting occurs, lots of negotiating, and we usually end up getting nowhere, just messing up everyone’s plans for the rest of the week. Maybe 1/5 of these frantic exchanges results in a successful reschedule. We’re all just too busy to juggle everything like that.
To combat the craziness, I’ve tried instituting a No Rescheduling policy, but then I love playing so much that I break my own rule, hoping against hope that everyone will change to accomodate me. This usually has the exact same scramble-to-no-avail outcome.
Is ours the only group where this happens? How do you handle it? Is there any solution? Is there anything we could add to Obsidian Portal that would help facilitate (and make less crazy) these discussions? As always, I’m not promising anything, but I have a little extra time to think tonight, as our game has been canceled at the last minute. 🙁
The Question!
Many people seem to be missing the question I’m asking here. Maybe I’m not clear. I’m not asking how many you need to play the game, or what your policy is on attendance. Here’s what I’m driving at:
If a player can’t make it, but suggests a reschedule to another night of the week, what do you do?
In my case, it always becomes a mess and usually results in nothing getting accomplished. Do you have a better way? I’d love to hear it!
Update: Cool Tool
A Twitterer recommended that I check out WhenIsGood, and it looks very close to what I need. Maybe we can steal this idea for Obsidian Portal at some point.
I’m really proud of how well the system my group has in place has worked. If more than half the players can make it, we play. Absent players have their characters rolled as NPCs and they get 1/2 xp for the session. If they let me know well enough in advance, I’ll send out an email to try and reschedule for a night when more people / everyone can make it.
Because my group is so busy, there is usually one and sometimes two people absent, but this method has worked so well that we’ve only had to cancel 1 or 2 sessions in over a year and a half. Also, having a thorough adventure log on OP allows absent players to keep up with the story, so it’s never been a big deal catching people up.
I’m really proud of how well the system my group has in place has worked. If more than half the players can make it, we play. Absent players have their characters rolled as NPCs and they get 1/2 xp for the session. If they let me know well enough in advance, I’ll send out an email to try and reschedule for a night when more people / everyone can make it.
Because my group is so busy, there is usually one and sometimes two people absent, but this method has worked so well that we’ve only had to cancel 1 or 2 sessions in over a year and a half. Also, having a thorough adventure log on OP allows absent players to keep up with the story, so it’s never been a big deal catching people up.
I have what I like to call the “50%” policy. If half my players (rounded up) show up I run the game. Now, the reason for this is that we have players that travel pretty far to come to the game or have very demanding schedules during the week. Cancelling a game would unjustly punish those players and more than likely we wouldn’t be able to reshedule anyway.
I have what I like to call the “50%” policy. If half my players (rounded up) show up I run the game. Now, the reason for this is that we have players that travel pretty far to come to the game or have very demanding schedules during the week. Cancelling a game would unjustly punish those players and more than likely we wouldn’t be able to reshedule anyway.
Play anyway as long as the no-show is only one player. My group is very good about running the other players character if needed. Since I share a portion of the DM’ing duties 2 of the players, I can be a general overseer of how the person character is being played. So far there has been no problem.
Play anyway as long as the no-show is only one player. My group is very good about running the other players character if needed. Since I share a portion of the DM’ing duties 2 of the players, I can be a general overseer of how the person character is being played. So far there has been no problem.
We set aside the same night every week for gaming. This makes scheduling easy because it’s predictable, and it means that rescheduling usually isn’t necessary since we’re already scheduled for the next week. If someone is a no-show or if the GM isn’t prepared to run an adventure, we end up doing some other kind of gaming instead (video, board, card).
With our schedules as they are, this arrangement gives us about two games per month, which is about right for our group. It gives us breaks between adventures to hang out and catch up with friends, which helps minimize the off-topic discussions during games.
We set aside the same night every week for gaming. This makes scheduling easy because it’s predictable, and it means that rescheduling usually isn’t necessary since we’re already scheduled for the next week. If someone is a no-show or if the GM isn’t prepared to run an adventure, we end up doing some other kind of gaming instead (video, board, card).
With our schedules as they are, this arrangement gives us about two games per month, which is about right for our group. It gives us breaks between adventures to hang out and catch up with friends, which helps minimize the off-topic discussions during games.
I updated the main post to make my question clearer. I’m mainly interested in whether or not you allow rescheduling, not how many you need to play. We have a rule for how many we need, but sometimes we will try and change the night in order to accomodate someone who wants to come but can’t make the usual time. This is almost always a mistake, and I’m wondering if we’re just not doing it right.
I updated the main post to make my question clearer. I’m mainly interested in whether or not you allow rescheduling, not how many you need to play. We have a rule for how many we need, but sometimes we will try and change the night in order to accomodate someone who wants to come but can’t make the usual time. This is almost always a mistake, and I’m wondering if we’re just not doing it right.
We have no problems rescheduling, but usually people don’t cancel at the last minute. Sunday is our regular day, and if there’s a conflict we figure it out a couple days before. If someone cancels at the last minute we would probably cancel and just play the next week rather than reschedule.
We have no problems rescheduling, but usually people don’t cancel at the last minute. Sunday is our regular day, and if there’s a conflict we figure it out a couple days before. If someone cancels at the last minute we would probably cancel and just play the next week rather than reschedule.
Our group is informal, way too informal for my tastes, but, if it’s only 1 person, maybe 2, then, they get played by someone else, as sort of an assistant to the group, still get full XP. We use their skills, or attacks, or whatever to the best as that person would. If it’s far enough out, we try to re-schedule.
But, we also play in several game systems, and different games. Sometimes our planned rpg session turns into like 5 hours of munchkin and xbox.
Our group is informal, way too informal for my tastes, but, if it’s only 1 person, maybe 2, then, they get played by someone else, as sort of an assistant to the group, still get full XP. We use their skills, or attacks, or whatever to the best as that person would. If it’s far enough out, we try to re-schedule.
But, we also play in several game systems, and different games. Sometimes our planned rpg session turns into like 5 hours of munchkin and xbox.
So far we have not had much of a problem in this vein, but if only one player needs to cancel their character is often out doing their own thing. We’re playing an urban campaign so its real easy to accommodate these kind of situations. This isnt always the case so sometimes those that can make it will play other games, or watch a movie or some such. We may even spend the night updating OP. ‘OP Day’ is a wonderful way to do something with the game without leaving players behind, and spontaneous adventure hooks breed like bunnies on these days.
So far we have not had much of a problem in this vein, but if only one player needs to cancel their character is often out doing their own thing. We’re playing an urban campaign so its real easy to accommodate these kind of situations. This isnt always the case so sometimes those that can make it will play other games, or watch a movie or some such. We may even spend the night updating OP. ‘OP Day’ is a wonderful way to do something with the game without leaving players behind, and spontaneous adventure hooks breed like bunnies on these days.
Well, I usually reschedule cause I don’t like playing without one of my PCs, at least when I play with personal friends, but sometimes we just NEED to play, so we play without him/her an we ask for permission to the player for play the PC for him.
I think that if I play with anybody else, I will not reschedule and play that PC as NPC for the sake of the game.
Well, I usually reschedule cause I don’t like playing without one of my PCs, at least when I play with personal friends, but sometimes we just NEED to play, so we play without him/her an we ask for permission to the player for play the PC for him.
I think that if I play with anybody else, I will not reschedule and play that PC as NPC for the sake of the game.
If a player can’t make it, but suggests a reschedule to another night of the week, what do you do?
See ya next week, same Bat-channel, same Bat-time!
If a player can’t make it, but suggests a reschedule to another night of the week, what do you do?
See ya next week, same Bat-channel, same Bat-time!
WhenIsGood looks like a useful tool to help the GM organize with the group when and what time they are available to play. It could also help solve the reschedule issue, since people could use the “next available time/day on the schedule”.
It would be interesting if you guys could work it into the campaign (like a new tab or something like that) with a different color for each player, so that everyone could log in and leave their available time and day for the rest of the group to check.
WhenIsGood looks like a useful tool to help the GM organize with the group when and what time they are available to play. It could also help solve the reschedule issue, since people could use the “next available time/day on the schedule”.
It would be interesting if you guys could work it into the campaign (like a new tab or something like that) with a different color for each player, so that everyone could log in and leave their available time and day for the rest of the group to check.