So I admit off the bat that I’m really lucky to have a group of players who are very happy to commit to a set time every week, and actually stick to it the vast majority of the time. I wouldn’t be running this game if they weren’t—which isn’t to cast judgement on people who can’t commit to consistent schedules, but I knew that I was going to lose it if I tried to run a long campaign made even longer by constant cancellations and rescheduling.
Because it was a change from how we’d played previously, I established at the start that we would play any session where we had minimum three players, and potentially even two if it were due to a last-minute cancellation and the players wanted to. I also made it clear that I wasn’t going to be a total hard-ass about this. If somebody has a big plot-relevant moment in the next session, or we’re going somewhere related to their backstory, of course we can postpone until that person can be there.
The situation we’ve had most often in response to this is that someone has said they’ll need to miss, and others have stepped up and said they could also make use of a break, so we’ve taken the week off anyway. So I implemented an idea that I stole from a friend, who takes planned breaks every four weeks in his campaigns. I’m a huge momentum fan, I find it so important as both player and GM, so I was a little uncertain about that idea, but I also have no social life so I don’t mind playing ever week. My players really liked the idea, so now we have a plan to take a break every 4/5 weeks, too—which helps with attendance the rest of the time, because there’s a pre-planned off-week, so that’s when people can schedule their potentially conflicting plans.
This week, though, was the first time I had to hold firm to my determination to not cancel sessions with just one player missing. I was really grateful that I’d made a point of establishing the attendance expectations early, because I still felt guilty not just cancelling… but having laid it ahead of time helped me remind myself that it wasn’t personal, that everyone will end up missing a week here and there over time, and it only feels awkward because it’s the first.
It’s a simple thing, but it’s also the simple thing that ends up sinking so many campaigns… and like so many campaign-killing issues, just communicating and clearly setting expectations is the best solution.