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View Full Version : DM Help Why is it so frustratingly hard to get a group together?



MonkeySage
2015-06-07, 05:28 PM
I can't get my group together after running a 2 year campaign.

4 Sundays ago: S had to cancel, game postponed.
3 Sundays ago: D had to cancel, game postponed.
2 Sundays ago: S had to cancel, game postponed.
1 Sunday ago: Got everyone together, but not before B fell asleep, and no power on earth could wake him.
Today: B showed up, but not one word from either D or S, who both said they'd make it.

We haven't gone anywhere in over a month.

I try to recruit new players, with the hopes of saving this game, but no one ever replies to my recruitment threads in any of the forums I go to. (Incidentally, is bumping threads allowed after they've vanished from the front page?)

I can't even find any games to join, seems nobody runs pathfinder and those that do already have their rosters full.

neonagash
2015-06-07, 05:46 PM
I've had much better luck putting groups together through the local meet-up.com gaming meetup. You could try that if your city has one.

Also sometimes you just play a man down rather than having no game.

MonkeySage
2015-06-07, 05:49 PM
They had this boss fight that i've been trying to run for the past month. Unfortunately, if even one man is down, they run a huge risk of TPK. :P Can't make the midboss worse than the actual boss, that'd make no sense.

anti-ninja
2015-06-07, 05:54 PM
If a player shows up to a session only to fall asleep i think you have much bigger problems then getting a group together,someone who did that in one of my games would be first asked if something was wrong ,like being sick or something and if it happened again they would not be invited back.

MonkeySage
2015-06-07, 06:02 PM
D showed up finally, said that the established time conflicted with his church plans. So I moved it 2 hours down. Still no word from S.

B never really talks about himself that much, when he talks at all. :/ So not sure what's going on with his end.

anti-ninja
2015-06-07, 06:42 PM
Did he apologize or at least explain why he fell asleep?

mephnick
2015-06-07, 08:31 PM
Wait 'til everyone starts having kids, then get back to me about having scheduling problems.

Vitruviansquid
2015-06-07, 09:12 PM
When you start a game, you're going to check with everyone that they can handle the proposed schedule, and show up on the times when they're expected. Annoyingly, some of your players will claim to be able to handle the schedule when, in fact, they can't. Of course, some of your people will have their schedule suddenly change, or will continually book other obligations during the time slot, and say "sorry, that other stuff I had to do was more important," or even not feel compelled to tell anyone they can't make the game.

I've tried playing RPGs with a lot of different people, and these were all common problems. For some reason, people sign up for RPG obligations, and then don't take the obligation seriously at all. On some level, I suppose it's inevitable. Things come up for people, and out of, say, school/work obligations and other obligations with friends and family, "playing games with the guys/gals" is fairly low on the list for many people. So you should never expect to run or play a game where everyone shows up all the time, no matter how fervently people guarantee their participation at the beginning. But here's some of the stuff I do to help your situation.

1. Have a back-up game prepared. You've got your normal game that requires the entire party to be there and that breaks when one person fails to show up (DnD, especially 4e, is really bad about this). That's the game you want to play, but for the times when you don't get to, have a game in another system that you can play when someone doesn't show up. There are plenty of systems where it's much easier to run or fix a game when the party isn't complete. In fact, I've always considered it a weakness when a system requires 100% participation or can't be played. Alternately, write a different adventure to use in case people are absent. Maybe postpone fighting your BBEG when a guy can't make it, and instead run a side adventure that has less combat.

2. Make it very clear from the beginning that ditching the game is not okay. You don't need to be a tyrant about it or set a punishment, just let people know that they shouldn't book other crap in place of playing the RPG, should inform the group ASAP if they can't show up, and should formally quit the group if they intend to stop showing up. You might be surprised how many people are deterred from leaving by the fact that they'll be expected to tell everyone they are leaving.

3. Don't invite flaky people in the first place. That guy you know who doesn't seem to understand the purpose of a cell phone? Don't invite him. That guy you know whose life is way too exciting and always has some kind of date/party/wedding/funeral/vacation? Don't invite him. My experience was that people flaking causes other people to flake, and it's depressing for the DM who works significantly harder to make the campaign happen than others. It sounds like your game has only recently been plagued by flakiness, so I'd suggest you stick it out and chalk the month up to bad luck. Make sure you let people know that dropping their RPG obligation is just like dropping any other obligation for group activities, like a date or a guild activity on a computer game or not showing up for your sports team. The *least* they could do is tell everyone they won't be there.

Endarire
2015-06-08, 02:18 AM
Have players play the other characters too. For example, "I'm Milo who normally plays a Wizard but tonight I'm also playing Boris the Warblade. I'm not focused on Boris's personality, but here's there for stats." Personality is downplayed when a character subs for another.

hifidelity2
2015-06-08, 06:58 AM
The group I play with has this problem – and all that we do is that so long as only 1 person cant make it we play and someone else runs their character

The DM I reserves the right to take over the Character if the other players are doing something that the DM things the Real PC would not do
The DM will generally try their hardest not to kill the absent player
The Absent play gets only a fraction of the xp so if they miss to many sessions they fall behind


It works, its not ideal but … its better than not playing (as my group are all old with families and we have often had to plan months in advance for a weekend free)