Super interesting video! I was thinking about the beginning section where you mentioned how jocks and sorority people are good at scheduling due to their environment encouraging that skill. Even though I'm neither of those, I am a musician which means I have to come to class/rehearsal and I have to be on time for the concerts. Admittedly, I am not the most timely or organized person, but I do find that in TTRPG world, I've always been able to make it to the sessions. The rest of the video has great advice, especially as someone who is thinking about DMing, though the tips apply to any group activity. Found your channel today and it's very cool! Regardless of whether or not you continue to make videos, that ones you already made are amazing!
I'm starting to get a table together with some friends to play some ttrpgs and this is a hurdle that has been LOOMING in front of me for a bit. This is a really nice talk on open communication, empathy, and integrity. These are all great tips, I really like the campaign estimates so it's to it's not a completely open-ended sell on "all of the Sundays". And stricter time-boxing on the day of. I previously ran a one-shot that went waaay over time. I really should have gauged it more and talked with my players upfront and during the session. I think I got too attached to it being a ONE-shot. If I tackled the scheduling demon, I think everyone would have had more fun pausing and following up in another session.
"I think I got too attached to it being a ONE-shot." A triggering comment, cause boy oh BOY have I gotten stuck in this. I don't even trust games that advertise themselves as 1-shots anymore. Sorry for the late response, I REALLY love and appreciate your comment, stuff like this is why I make vids.
My longest standing game(?) has been a rotating GM, rotating system, rotating story thing that I've held with some of my college friends. I've never really ran into issues of scheduling because we all used to organize together on campus, so we have gotten really familiar with how to make and keep schedules together. What I find more difficult is games with new players, where the buy-in is not yet there. I try my best to lay everything out, the session length, the number of sessions, how we are playing, and during the game, I am very aware of timing, calling for breaks half way through, giving the players a heads up 1 hr/30 mins before the end of session, etc. And while it has been effective with the majority of the players, there are always a couple who don't feel the commitment, canceling or even quitting last minute. It's a bit of a bummer, but the majority of my players have had a good time and felt their time respected, so I call that a win.
Sounds like you're killing it, really. With certain flakey players, you just have to call it at a certain point. Frankly, the second time someone cancels on me, I'm like "either this personal doesn't have scheduling discipline, or they don't wanna do this badly enough. Let's call it!" These people are gonna always exist, which is perfectly fine, if we're able to be honest with ourselves and them!
We have a Friday game on Discord that's gone strong for like 3 or 4 years now. We are all pretty slack...very fluid as it were. We have experimented with different things... like west marches, and weekly one shots. Right now as long as three people are there we play. Any other characters without players are controlled by the GM. Nothing sinister, sometimes randomize their decisions or do what we think that player would do. The only thing is that Character does not gain XP. West Marches work too, but developing that story can be hard between sessions. You gotta get everything done that session so the crew can get back to what ever Hub area you have designed.
I don't even attempt to game anymore. It's not worth the effort. Most people are flakes. Everyone in this world is so distracted. Keep in mind, from a psychological standpoint, people MAKE time for things they really want to do regardless of how busy they are. The same goes for people who are perpetually late. What they are saying is my time is more important than yours so you can wait for me. Yeah, I'm done with all that crap. Good video, though!
Wow I don't think any of this is necessarily true! I think if you care about something deeply, there is very little in this world more satisfying or important than finding those people and making the time to see them!
@@Jack-gs6sd well, according to some of the psychology I've studied , the main points I was making are true. if your experience is different, consider yourself lucky.
Super interesting video! I was thinking about the beginning section where you mentioned how jocks and sorority people are good at scheduling due to their environment encouraging that skill. Even though I'm neither of those, I am a musician which means I have to come to class/rehearsal and I have to be on time for the concerts. Admittedly, I am not the most timely or organized person, but I do find that in TTRPG world, I've always been able to make it to the sessions. The rest of the video has great advice, especially as someone who is thinking about DMing, though the tips apply to any group activity. Found your channel today and it's very cool! Regardless of whether or not you continue to make videos, that ones you already made are amazing!
This channel rocks. This is the exact wake up call i needed
Thanks, I hope to keep it up!!
I'm starting to get a table together with some friends to play some ttrpgs and this is a hurdle that has been LOOMING in front of me for a bit. This is a really nice talk on open communication, empathy, and integrity. These are all great tips, I really like the campaign estimates so it's to it's not a completely open-ended sell on "all of the Sundays". And stricter time-boxing on the day of. I previously ran a one-shot that went waaay over time. I really should have gauged it more and talked with my players upfront and during the session. I think I got too attached to it being a ONE-shot. If I tackled the scheduling demon, I think everyone would have had more fun pausing and following up in another session.
"I think I got too attached to it being a ONE-shot."
A triggering comment, cause boy oh BOY have I gotten stuck in this. I don't even trust games that advertise themselves as 1-shots anymore. Sorry for the late response, I REALLY love and appreciate your comment, stuff like this is why I make vids.
My longest standing game(?) has been a rotating GM, rotating system, rotating story thing that I've held with some of my college friends. I've never really ran into issues of scheduling because we all used to organize together on campus, so we have gotten really familiar with how to make and keep schedules together. What I find more difficult is games with new players, where the buy-in is not yet there. I try my best to lay everything out, the session length, the number of sessions, how we are playing, and during the game, I am very aware of timing, calling for breaks half way through, giving the players a heads up 1 hr/30 mins before the end of session, etc. And while it has been effective with the majority of the players, there are always a couple who don't feel the commitment, canceling or even quitting last minute. It's a bit of a bummer, but the majority of my players have had a good time and felt their time respected, so I call that a win.
Sounds like you're killing it, really. With certain flakey players, you just have to call it at a certain point. Frankly, the second time someone cancels on me, I'm like "either this personal doesn't have scheduling discipline, or they don't wanna do this badly enough. Let's call it!" These people are gonna always exist, which is perfectly fine, if we're able to be honest with ourselves and them!
We have a Friday game on Discord that's gone strong for like 3 or 4 years now. We are all pretty slack...very fluid as it were. We have experimented with different things... like west marches, and weekly one shots. Right now as long as three people are there we play. Any other characters without players are controlled by the GM. Nothing sinister, sometimes randomize their decisions or do what we think that player would do. The only thing is that Character does not gain XP. West Marches work too, but developing that story can be hard between sessions. You gotta get everything done that session so the crew can get back to what ever Hub area you have designed.
I don't even attempt to game anymore. It's not worth the effort. Most people are flakes. Everyone in this world is so distracted. Keep in mind, from a psychological standpoint, people MAKE time for things they really want to do regardless of how busy they are. The same goes for people who are perpetually late. What they are saying is my time is more important than yours so you can wait for me. Yeah, I'm done with all that crap. Good video, though!
Wow I don't think any of this is necessarily true! I think if you care about something deeply, there is very little in this world more satisfying or important than finding those people and making the time to see them!
@@Jack-gs6sd well, according to some of the psychology I've studied , the main points I was making are true. if your experience is different, consider yourself lucky.