The First 2023 RPG Challenge - Scheduling!

 

Similar to last year I don't have a lot of hard, set goals for this year. Last year was interrupted by the big move but this year should be steady - I do not need to do that again! - and is mainly about getting back in a rhythm in my mind. 

Assuming I can keep the Deadlands game on track then that is the RPG priority for the year - until we wrap it up. I've done pretty well maintaining focus on it and not trying to work in side games or getting distracted with the "next" game on the roadmap. That said given some recent schedule complications I am changing my approach for '23 ...

For several years now my approach to scheduling has been to keep it very short-term: Sometime during this session, we pause and schedule the next session. That's it - no advance planning, just a conversation while everyone consults their phone calendars. Occasionally we scout out a whole month and plan two sessions, but the basic goal is to set the next gathering date. This has worked pretty well but trying to get the train rolling again post-move we have hit a lot of blockers. November & December are always challenging but now even January has been bad. Combine this with my own (and the group's) desire to have everyone present for each session and we would not be playing at all for Q1 2023. That's just not viable.

So I talked to the crew and pointed out the complications we've been having and now we are going back to a fixed schedule like we have used previously. I'm aiming for two sessions of Deadlands and then 1 each of a couple of other games which I am still in the process of determining - I'd like to work in a Superhero game on a regular basis and then maybe a Star Wars or one of several other options. It's all TBD for now. 

Of course this also means we have to let go of the Full Attendance mandate so people are going to miss some sessions. It's not great but we are hardly the only group to encounter it and it's not like this is the first time it's come up.

It's one of the regular challenges when managing an RPG campaign, especially as the adult players get busier. I've tried various approaches before, including pretty much this same thing, and they worked well for a while but I also had some built-in players at home back then which made the Agile thing work and I do not anymore, so, time for a new plan.

I did think at one point having a backup game for when everyone couldn't show would solve the issue but right now I would end up running the "backup" game more than my primary game for the next few months so that wasn't going to work.

Committing to every weekend is optimistic but it's an offer, not a promise. I will have conflicts and have to cancel occasionally but doing this means that theoretically we can run something every week regardless of who is available and I think that getting that momentum going will improve all of our games. Plus it may allow me to rotate through some short runs in systems I might not otherwise get to run and expose my guys to something they want to explore further without taking away from the Deadlands campaign.

Dating myself here, oof ...

So anyway there's the first dilemma of the year. Hopefully this sorts out and I'll have some decent stories to tell here down the road.