How do you arrange game sessions?

[Rob Lang]

Every gaming group has a social contract, either implied or explicit. What's yours?

My group runs on Roll20 on most Tuesdays from 7:30pm and no later than 10:30pm. I send out an email on the Monday before and the players reply "I'm In!" if they can attend. If they can't then we appreciate a "sorry!" email (we are British after all) but no answer means no. The bare minimum is three players to play. Fewer than that and it's automatically cancelled. I'll always put out an email confirming that's the case.

What do you do? How do you organise yourselves?

[kylesgames]

We have an assumed availability in my group: if you don't say you can't come, you get in a bit of hot water when you don't show up. Naturally, this is waived for emergencies, but some angst has been caused by players who ditch at the last minute in the past.

It does depend on the game, though. I've got a Tuesday online game that's basically "if you can make it", but weekend/Friday sessions are sacrosanct.

As for minimum players; it really depends. We try to go with four or more, but it does depend a little on story-arc. If there's going to be no real threat to characters, we'll run games with three players and a GM, but typically we go for a minimum of five. The Tuesday game is an exception; three players is the de facto minimum regardless of what's coming up.

[Onix]

My gaming mates are my regular mates (friends here in America). Our gaming has been severely disrupted by one buddy having two children in quick succession and the other getting married and his wife making him disappear unnecessarily. Since then another friend and her boyfriend have gamed with us and my kids are getting old enough to play in ernest. Throw in one more available player and we've got a decent group.

How do we arrange games? Er, I have to admit to a certain lack of structure. I play when I can get a group together and there aren't huge numbers of complaining infants and toddlers to muck up the session. It usually is when someone says "Hey we need to game." that someone is usually my son or Vic and then we convince everyone else.

[madunkieg]

I advertise for players on meetup.com. Usually people sign up, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes they show up, but more often they don't. I'm usually lucky to get two players for a game, but I've also had over 12 people show up. No one is penalized for not showing.

This all leads to single-shot games. I miss having an ongoing campaign game, but right now my schedule just won't allow it.