Encouraging people to show up

[lesliev]

Close. The real answer is:
1) Send your players poisoned twinkies.
2) Inform them after they’ve eaten them that the antidote will he sent at the conclusion of the game session.

I haven’t had any repeat offenders with this method.

Excellent!!

[lesliev]

One thing that helps when it happens is to have pregens of the proper level for fighter, wizard, thief/rogue, cleric, and then you let those who do show run what you are missing so you get to 4 PCs, since that is what most modules are designed for.

We did this - the two that came each played two characters. It really kept us on our toes!
But it's not ideal and I think it only works with fairly experienced players.

[JohnD]

I have a pretty standard approach that I've used for running online games since around 2003.

Get an email address from everyone.

Use the Game Calendar if, for nothing else, the voting on game sessions. Make voting yes/no an expectation.

Clearly establish a "3 strikes" rule where 3 games missed, no communication, no voting - removed. A GM is better off with a smaller player count that can be relied upon to show up than a larger list but never knowing if you'll have enough people show up.

Schedule games a week or two in advance if possible. Email your players when the game is in the calendar. Email again a day or two ahead of the game. Outline how the voting looks and whether you are on track to run with the existing people who have indicated they can make it.

Establish what your "minimum" attendance is to run the game. I am a little different here from others in that most of the time my target is 50%+1 of the player list present to run the session. If the situation is such that I'm willing to run even with a smaller group, I say so in my emails.

The reality is we are playing online. In very few instances will you ever actually meet the people you game with and for some this makes the group dynamic weak; if there is a commitment that is competing with a game, it is easier and more comfortable to blow off a group of strangers than people you know personally.

Understand that outside of a Con game, you will churn through players until you bit by bit accumulate a group of like minded people and then you have ongoing group stability until real life intrudes in the form of work shifts changing, new employment, life challenges, etc... get in the way.

Last year I made a big effort to get a substantial game going and I didn't turn anyone away. So from that I had enough players "interested" to have 3 groups of 8 players each. Over a few months one would drop here, another there. Invariably it was the new people to online gaming in general or new to FG. Some were nice enough to send an email, others went from "great game" one week to poof... gone.

You can deliver the best game on FG but things can and do happen.

[Hector Trelane]

Lots of good advice on this thread.

I’ll start doing the more frequent emails and one-on-one approach to “which pre-gen do you want”?

I had been communicating via the comments on the page for my event on the FG-Con website, and I still will, but I don’t think that defaults to auto-email the approved players so it relies on people to check that event, which they clearly aren’t doing sufficiently enough on their own.

This bleeds into another topic that could fill another thread: how much between-session homework, er character planning, rules & background reading, and play-by-post, do players do? I personally love that stuff since it keeps the game alive in my mind between sessions, but my anecdotal experience is that it’s seems less common among players.