To play or not to play?


Advice


So, I have been running a campaign the last few months, and we have had a great time up to now. The PCs finished the first adventure of the campaign more than a month ago, and they are about 3 sessions away from finishing the second one as well. Suddenly, we found ourselves trapped in a dilemma. Thing is, one of the players, the Paladin is going for a three-day vacation trip with a few friends and won't be able to play this Sunday. This would not be a problem under different circumstance, but the Sunday after this one, he will also be unable to play and the ranger will be gone too. Now, none of this would be a problem at all, I mean i wouldn't have a problem to just skip two weeks of play, might even come as nice break.

The problem is, after we lose both weeks, I will only have two weeks left before I leave the country for studies. As I already mentioned, they are just 3 sessions away from finishing this adventure, and as you might guess I definitely wish to finish it before I leave. I just can't picture it leaving the adventure on hold for 4 months and just finish it when I come back (interest will be lost, I know, and many important details forgotten, even by me), I can easily picture them all starting the third adventure after a 4 months break however, which is why i want to finish this part of the campaign before I leave (plus I really put a lot of work and a part of my soul into it).

Since none of my players can play any other day of the week, the choice is, we either play this Sunday or we don't finish the adventure at all. And I of course had decided to have the Paladin become NPC during this session, then, the player playing this character told me

"I really don't want to miss this session"

You see, the story has kind of built up to a really exciting point right now, last week we cut as they were about to barge into a pretty important and dangerous place, run by the evil npc disguised as good guy who was probably behind the death of an allied npc they were so attached to that they spent 5000gp to resurrect (which of course I am still rewarding every time we play), and of course, they were doing the Epic walk thing.

I thought about asking the other players, and I will do so.Probably today. But since the community has helped me a lot in the past, I also thought about asking your opinion on the matter, before I do the talk with them.

What would you do?, play or not?, risk a whole campaign or not?


I wouldn't play if the missing player really want to play, but can't (as in your case).

Maybe you can talk to your players and tighten the adventure a little bit or add some ours to your session to keep up with the lost time (e.g. playing 2x 6 hours instead of 3x4 hours).


I would definitely play in your circumstance. Your player should understand this is really the one chance to finish the campaign at all, and while he might regret missing a session, he probably would rather that than wreck the conclusion of the adventure for everyone. I know I would.

That said, I generally make a rule based on the number of players, something like "if 3/4 of the players can make it, we play". It's unrealistic to expect everyone can make it every single week, and if you miss too many weeks in general people lose interest.


No chance of rescheduling to a weeknight for one session, or even moving the game online for remote access?


Thanks for the fast responses!

I guess I should've had told you guys that we are already playing 8-hours each Sunday - we get together at 12-12'30, we start paying at 1pm, and we take a small lunch break around 5pm, then we resume play until 10'00pm. So, adding more hours to each session to cove 3 in 2 is almost impossible to do.

The party is composed of 6 players, but 1 of them misses about half of our sessions. This Sunday, all of them can make it except the paladin (5/6), which is indeed higher than 3/4, and I normally use a similar rule as you do rando1000 as well, I am simply concerned this time, because he seems really sad about missing it...

As for playing on a week night, I asked him, and I got a "You've got to be kidding" kind of response, and he is right, 5 of them work. Then I asked him if we could play two smaller sessions on two different Saturdays (4hours each), on top on playing again the 8-hour ones on these two final weeks, I got a "Seems to heavy to do" kind of response, then I asked about just one Saturday but again same response.

And so, I am feeling really bad about the whole thing, you see I don't really want him to miss it either, but, I don't want the end of this adventure go to waste either. Even if I am currently leaning towards playing, and sometimes kind of tell myself, "Just play", I still go back and analyze this over, in search of a solution I haven't come up with yet. >_<


Gio wrote:


As for playing on a week night, I asked him, and I got a "You've got to be kidding" kind of response, and he is right, 5 of them work. Then I asked him if we could play two smaller sessions on two different Saturdays (4hours each), on top on playing again the 8-hour ones on these two final weeks, I got a "Seems to heavy to do" kind of response, then I asked about just one Saturday but again same response.

Was it only him that gave this response? Did you present the idea to the rest of the group? I mean, heck if its a one off thing to finish the adventure before your hiatus he should be willing to devote a whole weekend to it. Assuming the rest of the group is on board for the saturday sessions to help get to completion, tell him his option is either the sat sessions or getting npced for one session. Simple as that. If he chooses not to, its not your fault and you shouldnt feel bad.

If the rest of the group isnt ok with the extra sessions you should take a hard look at the adventure and see if there is a way to speed it up so it can be finished in the 2 sessions.


My groups usually consist of 3-4 main players and 2 part time players.

Of course, my adventures and hooks are built around the mains, with the part timers playing a support role.

If one of the mains cannot make a session, that person is aware that another main player will run the PC, thus having 2 for that session.

If the part time player cannot make it, it is business as normal.

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