Episode 159: You're Not Going To Like the Bit Where Your Eyes Start Glowing

Role-playing games Improvised Radio Theatre with Dice
1

This month, Mike and Roger look at socially grounded characters and ask what difference a game’s schedule makes.

We mentioned: En Garde!, Traveller, RuneQuest, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scotsman in the lift, graphviz, Roger’s notes on game recording, and Monads.

Here’s our tip jar. (Please email or leave a comment as well; they don’t always tell me when money’s gone in.)

Music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com and other royalty-free sources.

5 Likes
2

I try to run my current game every two weeks (fortnightly), but we often have to shift or reslot sessions based on my players’ schedules. My ideal would be to have 2 ongoing, interleaved campaigns with 2 GMs, each running fortnightly.

1 Like
3

That’s pretty much the Wednesday group, fortnightly campaigns with two GMs alternating, as I may have said. We tried it with Whartson Hall as well but it was too much context switching for comfort.

1 Like
4

I’m in:

  • a weekly game which runs about 3 weeks in 4.
  • a weekly game which runs about 3 weeks in 4, but (a couple of times a year) will suddenly be cancelled for a whole month.
  • a fortnightly game which is pretty reliable, but there’s one player who habitually wants to end the session early because they’re tired.
2 Likes
5

I was going to do a poll wasn’t I?

Which of these game schedules are you currently playing? (For individual games, not overall.) Approximate as needed.

  • More often than weekly
  • Weekly
  • Fortnightly
  • Monthly
  • Less often than monthly
0 voters
2 Likes
6

I’m GMing seldom and irregularly, and have been for years. Playing a character even less often. I’m starting to wonder whether I ought to give up RPG as a bad job, and take up something like macramé instead.

2 Likes
7

Other career exits include RPG writer, RPG pundit.

1 Like
8

Join a macrame class and lure them all into the RPG world! :smiley:

3 Likes
9

For comparison purposes… I am in 3 games, two of which are (allegedly) weekly and the other is fortnightly.

  • January: 1 session played, 4 sessions run & 1 session of chargen.
  • February: 4 sessions played, 2 run & 1 session of chargen.
  • March: 6 sessions played, 2 run, plus 1 session of a one-off run for visitors.
  • April: 2.5 sessions played (very late start to one), 3 run
3 Likes
10

I have a weekly Wednesday game, which meets a little more than 3 weeks in 4 (as in, we often have several months where we meet all 4, and it’s rare we miss more than one week in the other months).

There are also some occasional games a friend runs, which average out to about 6 Saturdays a year.

2 Likes
11

I’m in an interesting place, here. Only playing with one group (no GMing due to general lack of spoons, and being an eternal player), which used to meet weekly to play one campaign. This has recently gone to fortnightly, due to GM availability, plus as hoc “movie nights” (which I rarely attend as I work nights, but my beloved wife often goes to).

I also play in a PBeM game, which I suppose is monthly, but I often send in supplemental orders up to 3 times a month in addition.

Would love to GM, or play more, but constantly awaiting delivery of extra spoons (current order backlogged at the Straits of Hormuz).

5 Likes