Stagnation
Our group has hit a wall, and does it every year.
Around this time, everyone starts getting busy, and no one has a day of the weekend free. A few players will be available one day, but not the next, and the other players will be in the exact opposite boat. No one’s schedules match up.
So what’s a DM to do?
I’ve thought of a few options, but not sure how well they could be implemented.
1. Start two separate groups, playing when one group or the other is available. We’d still only be playing once a week, but this would work when half the group can’t show and the other half can. We would then run the main game when everyone could show up.
2. Make sure the players are still actually interested in the game (probably something do to anyway)
3. When half the group doesn’t show, just play Munchkin and assume we’ll be able to play the following week (what we currently do).
How about all of you? What do you do when your group starts doing this? I know I’ve asked the question before: “What do you do when players don’t show?” but that is more of what to do on occasion, not every other week.
I’ve purposefully told the group that we’ll be suspending normal campaign play and instead doing a series of “one shots” between Thanksgiving through New Years. That way, we can do something different AND the campaign won’t suffer AND we/I get a break. I think this will be a nice thing to do.
We’ve reached a point with our group that half the group can’t make it most of the time. So we set up an alternate campaign with the half of the group who’s schedule is flexible enough to play most of the time.
We also do the Munchkin route when we don’t have enough players and I’m currently working up an episodic Everway game that can run with even just one player. My campaigns generally don’t have specific adventures — they tend to be one long, continuous improvised story. I figure that with an episodic game — where each session is a separate short adventure, but these adventures are interlinked — means that we don’t have to worry about a player not being present for the next session, because they can just have business elsewhere.
I actually wrote a blog post about ideas of what to do when one or more of your players can’t make a game session. It’s primarily focused around players missing a session here and there, but soem of the ideas could be expanded to use as an “alternate campaign” concept. I’ve also got an article I wrote about what to do if the GM can’t show:
Gaming with Ghosts: When Good Players Can’t Be There (http://www.rpggm.com/blog/2009/07/13/gaming-with-ghosts-when-good-players-cant-be-there/)
Missing You: When the GM Can’t Be There (http://www.rpggm.com/blog/2009/09/10/missing-you-when-the-gm-cant-be-there/)
.-= Jade´s last blog ..Meadowbrook Needs You! Contest Extended =-.
My Hanford game group has gone on hiatus and doesn’t plan to resume regular play until after New Year’s. If we get together in the mean time, it’ll be occasional and a one-shot or minis game.
My other group goes through the same deal at the end of each year; we schedule more breaks and only try to get in 1 or 2 sessions between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. It’s a stressful time of year anyway– treat yourself and your players to a break and come back refreshed with cool holiday gifts in hand.