Scheduling sessions so far in advance

#1

A thing I do not understand about Gauntlet online gaming is how people can plan sessions months in advance. I feel lucky to know what I’m going to be doing, like, two weeks from now (though I suppose that’s less true given our current global circumstance). How do you schedule games two or three months ahead?

This is not mockery at all. I genuinely would like to understand, because I’ve been a patron for a while at the lower level for the publication, and every time I consider bumping up to get priority calendar access, I realize I’m probably going to be signing up for games in (at this point) July.

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#2

It’s just about deciding to make that commitment. Like someone may buy a concert ticket now for a concert scheduled in August and that transaction is their commitment — if I were to do that, I have no idea what I’ll doing in August, but I know I’ve set aside that evening for that concert. Same idea with the calendar.
And signing up for a session isn’t actually a strict commitment, which is why games, more often than not, fill from the waitlist (which changes all the way up to the day of the session). People’s plans change and we, with the open table culture, roll with it because there’s no way to anticipate everything, right?

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#3

I have my Star Wars Saturday and Gauntlet Comics game series RPG choices planned out until October at this point. For me, I like putting a stake in the ground for a particular new RPG. If I don’t have the “threat” of what I’m running soon out there, I won’t sit down, read and learn the game and make a Character Keeper for it.

To be clear, I only choose the RPG system, figure out a loose frame for how it would fit into the series, and work that into a pitch and post it to the RSVP system. From there, I have a couple of months to do the “work”.

Rich

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#4

Also, two months out is the maximum. GMs can post games as little as one week out. Some GMs have taken advantage of that and I think we’re getting a larger number of games posted in the 4 weeks out or so time frame. One-shots are good if your schedule’s uncertain as well. Darren’s point is a good one-- we have a lot of sessions where players come off of the waitlist, when we last looked at the data the majority of games had this happen-- often a week or so out when the GM sends the set up email and people realize that their schedule has changed or whatnot.

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#5

I appreciate the challenge, but as noted above, just because they go up 2 months out doesn’t mean there isn’t player turn over before kick-off. As a GM … if I don’t plan 4-8 weeks ahead other stuff will creep into my diary.

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