Scheduling. It is as infamous as it is necessary. You can't play if you don't set a time to, but finding a specific time in the week for you and all your players to meet for multiple consecutive hours is difficult. This can be said at any point in life, but it is exceptionally more challenging to find a time to play when everyone involved is a college student.
Everyone who attends college is going to have a unique schedule tailored to their classes, extracurricular activities, and social life. No two calendars are ever the same. "So how, Matthew, do you propose we find time to sit down and play?" Well, that question is not an easy one to answer, so instead I'll tell you a story about the early days of my current campaign, back in August of last year.
My close friends and I had always wanted to sit down and start a real campaign, but every attempt usually fizzled out after a session or two due to conflicts in each others' (you guessed it) schedules. There just wasn't ever a good time to play for every one of us. So, during our last summer vacation, we decided that when we reunited on campus we would hunker down and figure out a time and stick to it.
After much debate, it was decided that we would meet Sundays at 11AM at her apartment. That doesn't sound like a great time, and to be fair, it wasn't the best. We were often tired from the previous night's festivities and/or had homework due the following day, but it was the only time for our busiest friend, who worked full-time alongside her academic and sorority commitments, to join us.
Now, some people out there may not be playing with their best friends and won't want to compromise on a weekend morning, and that's okay. Every situation is different. I know I certainly wouldn't want to set my alarm on one of my two days off for some Joe Schmo from my local hobby store or campus club. Unfortunately, if a compromise is unable to be made, it is perfectly fine to kindly inform a person that their schedule just doesn't match up with everyone else's. If the entire party agrees to it, it would be a good idea to make sure said person knows they are always invited to hop in if their schedule settles down later on.
At the beginning of the current semester, our group did just that. Despite enjoying having her at the table, the rest of us decided that Sunday mornings really weren't the best time to play and that we wanted to play Friday evenings. All of us but her were available, but she knows that she can hop in whenever she pleases. It adds a bit of a challenge for my to have the narrative explain her character leaving and returning seemingly at random, but hey, if Matt Mercer can do it with Pike/Yasha, so can I for Telrasi.
In summary, it is great if everyone in your group finds a good time to play, though that is a rare occurrence. If scheduling conflicts really affect your game, it may be time to think about having a player be a drop-in/drop-out guest, as you really don't want one person to take away a regular source of fun and entertainment for the entire group.
No comments:
Post a Comment