How to deal with scheduling issues in a small group of players?

Question

My group of friends and I have been running a D&D 5e campaign for over a year now, but as time progressed we have found more and more issues regarding scheduling to the point where we are on the verge of cancelling the whole thing entirely. Currently, our group is composed of 3 players (with a fourth one having already left the game, his character forever stuck as a GM-controlled NPC) with Sunday being set in stone as our definitive game night. However, one of the players has now become unavailable at that date and is now only reachable on Mondays, a day when no one else can play. Kicking her out of the game would be the easiest solution, but I feel like that would create more problems than it solves due to her being one of the most important characters in the game (playing a bit of a main protagonist role) and the fact that it would diminish our already small group to only 2 players.

I feel like we really have been backed into a corner this time. We could barely play our game when everybody was available on Sundays because of last minute appointments (which were far more common than I'd like to admit), and this will probably further disincentivize people to continue playing the campaign. So? Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed?

Answer 1

I think you already answered your own question

• Player A cannot play on Sundays, but can play on Mondays
• Players B, C, and DM cannot play on Mondays, but can play on Sundays

The Venn diagram you describe is very straightforward: (A) (B, C, DM)

You sorta lumped everyone else into the, "a date when no one else can play at". I don't know if you really meant just players, or the DM as well, but I'll just go on the theory that the DM can't play Monday either.

Now, there could be possibilities that you haven't explained:

Why is A unavailable?

There is unavailable, and there is conflicted. In my last group we had actors, so they were literally unavailable as they were at the theater either rehearsing or performing. So they were written/narrated out of the story (or played by DM or another player) for those weeks.

We also had people in different time zones. So what was okay for PST was almost midnight for EST. If EST had something to do the next morning, then there was a conflict between playing at night or being too tired the next day. But there were options...

Why can't B, C (and maybe DM) move to a different time?

Why are B, C, and DM unable to move to Monday? Are you all working at the only time A is available? Once again, is this an unavailable thing, or a conflict thing?

If it's a conflict thing, you have options

Think about the reason for the conflict.

• Is the thing causing the conflict moveable? For instance, do you do schooling on Monday because you had D&D on Sunday? Then why not do schooling on Sunday so you can D&D on Monday?
• Is the conflict a personal boundary? You can't stay up late on Monday because of an early morning on Tuesday. So start the game earlier, or have a shorter session.
• Is the conflict due to external obligations? Do you always have dinner with youf mom on Mondays to spend time with her? See if that day is flexible and move it to Sunday, or any other day.

But you get what I'm asking/saying. Figure out if everyone's time schedule is based on actual unavailability, or if it's just a conflict with someone or something else. If it's a conflict, see what steps can be taken to remove the conflict. If it's really, "I'm contractually obligated to be somewhere else," then start a new campaign that only needs two players.

Answer 2

Life comes first; hobbies come second

I have just had to turn down an invitation to rejoin a sport and hang out with mates I love because it’s played on Wednesday night. Wednesday night is the night I have dinner with my 87-year-old Dad because my Mum passed late last year. Now, I’m a shallow enough and honest enough person to know I’d get more pleasure out of the former than the latter but I’m going to keep having dinner with my Dad because life comes first, hobbies come second.

Sometimes campaigns end when they reach a satisfying climax, and sometimes they end because life comes first, hobbies come second.

Answer 3

People have time for what they prioritize

We have a similar situation, with all players of our group having jobs that impose time constraints, and family obligations, so that even without other hobbies, between business trips, customer dinners, family vacations, getting the kids to bed, visiting the wife's sister's family for her birthday and what-not, it is hard to find the time. We typically solve this by booking the next session from the last session at the end, by going through everyone's calendars until we have identified a slot - usually we can find one within the next 2 weeks. We often also book a fallback slot, in case someone cannot make the first one due to unforeseen obstacles.

It is better if you can have a fixed, default day in the week, but that only works if everyone has a regular schedule.

We mostly play in the evenings on weekdays, because weekends often fall prey to family obligations, friend's visits, skiing trips etc. That makes for relatively short sessions (everyone has to work the next day), but better a short 3-4 hour session, than no session.

That being said, we also had one player who very often couldn't make it, until they finally dropped out altogether. And you could tell they were not as much into it, as the others.

Because the truth is, in the end, you make time for what's important to you. And if everything else is more important than role-playing games, then you’ll not shift something else to make it happen.

I don’t know about your life circumstances, but practically everyone I know has some free time in the evenings at least on some days. If several of you can only make it on Sundays, and the key player cannot ever make it on Sundays, all because you have to work to earn your living (which you mentioned is the reason for the irreconcilable schedules), then sorry that your life sucks, but there is no solution for that group.

Just as much as if they can't be bothered to free up time, in that case the only solution is to play with the two that can make it, or find other players to join you that have a semblance of control over their time, and are interested to spend it on role-playing games.

We also did that for a while, playing with only two players. It can be great fun because everyone gets so much "screen time". In our case, the third player of our group - that also goes back to middle school like yours — joined back in later on, when his circumstances changed and he had time.