Scheduling Conflicts
Back in college, Laurel and her friends once spent an entire spring break gaming for a week straight. They ordered pizza, drank Red Bull, passed out from exhaustion, then got up and gamed some more. They kept right on rolling dice until classes started back up the following Monday. To hear her tell it, those days were like living in an extremely geeky Valhalla. Sadly, now that we’re adults, those days are gone for good.
People get stressed out, burned out, or simply flake out. But like we’ve said before, that doesn’t mean they’re jerks. Gamers are real people with real lives, and schedules don’t always intersect with game night. But here’s the important thing: Real world conflict is no reason to cancel the adventure.
Here’s an example. Suppose you ended last session with, “You kick open to door, see the gleam of gold, and feel the sudden rise in temperature as the dragon begins to breathe. Roll initiative…for next time.” Now I like a cliffhanger as much as the next evil GM, and there’s no denying that the frustrated cries of players’ unslaked bloodlust can be uniquely gratifying. But if only two of five PCs are able to show up for the next session, you’ve left yourself with nowhere to go but cancelling and rescheduling, right? Well not so fast. Let’s not break out those waffles of shame just yet.
Maybe that dragon the players thought they glimpsed last time is just a stone statue with a fireball trap. There’s nothing that says you can’t fudge the map and put the real hoard room a few chambers deeper. You could also go high concept, and actually start the evening by “killing” your players with dragon fire. They’ll spend the session clawing their way back out of the underworld, hobnobbing with other failed dragon slayers and gathering valuable intel on how not to fight wyrms. Next session they’ll rejoin the land of the living. Or maybe you thought ahead a little and set up some Rosencrantz and Guildenstern action. Why not have a session on standby, prepped and ready for two or three of your players to take on the roles of NPCs (e.g. the Wizard’s apprentice and the Paladin’s squire) for some “meanwhile, back in town” shenanigans?
My point is this. With a little imagination and a little tap dancing, you can keep from ever cancelling game night again. For my money, that’s worth some time and prep work.
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Gods, I hope Thief isn’t on the Sending plan. A 3rd level spell slot for every 25 words and a one in twenty chance her message to Cleric visiting the celestial realms won’t even go through. That’s two spell slots just for what she said in today’s comic! =P
There’s a reason the resurrection fund is perpetually low.
I run an online game and you think it’d be less prone to this problem with no travel, but i run eight players on the assumption that I’ll never have a party more than five or six. Usually four, now. Most of the time can craft a good roleplay reason. Our druid is narcoleptic and experiencing visions. Our monk hunts monsters on the side with his order dedicated to stamping out evil. The wizard and the sorcerer frequently stop in libraries or ruins to examine carvings.
After the session we have a little side roleplay, they get a little information or character development, we rejoin, everything’s hunky-dory.
At least one IN-GAME plot thread has emerged as the party now suspects the monk to secretly be an assassin, something I am gleefully stringing up.
Good stuff. This is the same reason my mega dungeon campaign has 7 players. I average somewhere around 4.5 players per session.
Also of note, “narcoleptic experiencing visions” seems like a fun character concept. Add in sleep walking and you’ve got a fearless combat monster when he’s unconscious vs. a tree hugging pacifist when awake. It could be a neat way to run a variation on the Jekyll and Hyde trope.
Not to mention the RP side of waking up covered in blood gasping “WHAT HAVE I DONE!?”…
“…AND WHERE IS MY ANIMAL COMPANION? AND WHY DOES MY MOUTH TASTE LIKE WOLF?”
Most of the time he’s just a literal pocket snake. I’ve written off being a transformed druid for swathes of time as him going through some kind of hibernation.
Gaming over Skype/Discord becomes more practical for this reason, but even still…this is why we’re in a 2 man party when it used to be Standard 4.
Does it just average out to 2 players per session, or did people actually quit on you?
In either case, this is the reason I built my campaign like airlines fill their flights: I overbook so that we’ll have a viable party every time.
Well, A) the two of us kept on doing extras during the week, and B) there were scheduling conflicts with one or both of the other two often. So they bowed out, and we soldiered forth at a spritely speed, since scheduling gets much easier the fewer people you have to schedule for.
Caveat is, no one has divine magic or trapfinding. These are detrimental, but as we advance, we’ll have ways of circumventing.
Also, question: Are players not present able to use abilities in your campaign? Say the healer doesn’t make it, do your PCs still get heals? Or nah?
I let my players have a choice in the matter and I say “Your abilities and skills can be used, A la NPC, but you’re at risk of death for choosing this”. Most players hear this, think it reasonable, and choose not to be NPCs.
My megadungeon campaign features 7 players each with 2 PCs for a total of 14 player characters. I’ll generally allow them to use one another’s checks and abilities if they’re in town together. If they’re down in the dungeon then they’re SOL. I figure it makes up for them having to share treasure between so many NPCs.
I’ve also got an explanation of my system up on this comic, if you’re curious:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/flaky-fighter
Poor Thief.
Weird how she seems to get so many of the “Poor [character]” moments from me. Maybe it’s the hairstyle—it makes her look like a shy, insecure teenager instead of a sly, shameless thief. (When she’s not smirking, at least.)