Improvising a Plan B (or: What To Do When Players Cancel)

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Adventurer, the podcast for role players. Hey game masters, to help level

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up your game. We are your
dungeon masters. I'm Jus and Portiso,

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I'm Joe McCall and I'm Jim Crocker. And today we're kind of doing a

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little no. We always like doing
our our mail bag episode, but this

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one kind of this This goes beyond
a short mail bag episode. This is

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a whole episode in itself. So
we got a voicemail here from Haron,

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So thanks so much for calling in. But let's let's hear from Haroen real

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quick and we'll talk about what we're
going to talk about today. So Haron,

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go ahead, Hello, this is
Haroen from Jersey. I was hoping

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to get your opinion on people missing
sessions. So, right, if you

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have a five person session and one
person cancels, I usually just do it

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the same way. We just have
them jump in the next time. They

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were busy doing something and they game
late, so that's what their character did

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too. But at what point do
you feel it's worth just breaking out a

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different board game or canceling with different
amounts of people, And at what point

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do you try and do like some
kind of side quest or something or maybe

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try to do just a different one
shot, maybe in the same universe.

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I've had DMS tried to do like
a prequel thing, which always felt kind

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of weird, but it did give
characters the opportunity to do some character development.

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Maybe if you're the two people who
show up or still friends or were

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friends beforehand, you can still build
up how that relationship is, how that

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relationship got where it is. Thanks
guys, big fan. Oh we're big

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fans of you two harn thanks so
much. I thought he was telling us.

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See he was a big fan.
He is a big fan. Yeah,

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yeah, yeah, they wouldn't know. Yeah that he's that thing of

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offshore that's been bringing us energy and
making people mad for some reason. Huh

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so. Yeah. So the gist
of it is when you got players or

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a player or players who can't make
a session, what do you do and

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how much does that does that answer
change? With how many players can't make

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it, you cut them out of
your life and you never speak to them

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again. Then I would have zero
friends ever ever, ever easy. Non.

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I worked hard at this. Okay, God, our session would have

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our says would be dead years ago. Yo, Yeah, because of me.

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That's what I'm stopped talking about.
So I'm going to open this up

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by saying my answers at least,
and I am sure yours as well,

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are going to change with how many
players are you expecting? How many players

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are in your game currently. And
this kind of change is a little bit

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because you know that's going to affect
you know, one player is gonna be

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taking up a smaller percentage of your
table. So in a six player game,

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like like we're playing right now,
Joe, you know, one player

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missing is like okay, that player
is just kind of that that character is

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just, i know, off looking
around for something and while the other five

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are doing stuff. In a six
player game, if one player says they

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can't show up, that's what I
call a relief. Three actually like players

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only because I couldn't bring myself to
say no to that sixth person right,

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So where we're at. But yeahs
like six player game, one player defa

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we like having Zach. I don't
know Zach, so I got no beef

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with Zach. I just had a
name somebody. Yeah, I think Zach

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is the most recent addition to our
game. But so you know, going

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from six person game to a five
player games, Okay, yeah, we

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can. It's actually a little easier
to balance now, and we can still

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continue your canonical game, have them
level up with you also, and then

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just kind of say like, okay
that that player is like or the character

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is is back at wherever we left
them looking for stuff, Like I'm going

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to make the argument that that is
not the first question, okay, And

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I think the first question is is
this an absence you knew about in advance

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or didn't I and I think that
that's where it starts. And then from

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there, Okay, you look at
the table and how many players and stuff

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like this and everything, because your
options are going to be different, you

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know, and and one is going
to require you to, you know,

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kind of have a protocol in place
to deal with that unexpected situation, and

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the other one someone says, hey, I won't be here in two weeks.

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You know, you can have a
discussion with everybody about what's going to

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happen, and you've got some time. But the yeah, I think that

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first question is is you know,
like did somebody just know show or do

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you know that you know? Their
sisters getting married in a month, and

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so they're not going to be there
for that session sure, and so okay,

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so that sounds like session zero stuff. So I think that is I

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think, and I think that's one
of the things that setting that protocol for

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that that we got to get into
here, is that is that this is

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stuff that should be laid down in
advance and and and not a like it's

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not a question you should be asking
day of Oh, should someone didn't show

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up, what do we do?
Yeah, like you should have probably have

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that down, you know, and
know what's going on, all right,

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So let's say that this is a
discussion to be had at session zero.

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And the reminder that you are allowed
to have a session zero mid campaign.

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So if this is the time to
start thinking of these protocols, whether you've

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been playing for you know, two
weeks or two years, you can you

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can always set down those protocols and
get a game plan in place. So

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let's let's help hower and come up
with a game plan. And I think

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the other thing that I want to
that I want to call out is that

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people's, especially if you're an adult, people's schedules change during the year,

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and so one thing that might make
a lot of sense is to say,

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you know, like September to June
during the school year. Here's our policy

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for for how we handle it,
you know whatever, except Christmas and New

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Years, and then we do it
a different way during the summer or something

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like that, because a lot,
you know, we're gonna have a lot

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more absences or whatever. And and
this doesn't have to be like a one

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size fits all all the time.
You can revisit it. Yeah, And

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it is that you always do a
temperature check every couple of months or whatever,

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or even every month if you're playing
that often. And say hey,

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or just like you're buying into your
insurance at work, any any life change,

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you're allowed to change your insuranceitating event
or whatever it is. So what

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is this but game insurance? All
right? And so anybody has any sort

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of life change, No, and
say hey we're hey, we're pregnant,

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Hey we got engaged. Hey I
started school. Hey I got a new

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job, Hey I lost the job. You know, all that kind of

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stuff can change your your schedule.
And I think we've had all of those

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things happened too. I think I've
had all those things happen just to me,

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like Balder's Gate guys. Sorry,
oh yeah, I can see you

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later. Things are going really well
with me and shadow Heart right now,

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So I need to concentrate it.
I get that game, maybe I don't.

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It's really good, it's so so
good. If I have one of

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the options I was going to give
where if too many players cancel, just

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play with balder Skate for that night
until I want to stay home. So

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with that aside, so I'm going
to kind of like fear this towards like

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my preferences. Yeah sure, And
obviously everybody chime in with your own preferences

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and we can make adjustments therein.
And this is not for us to say,

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hey, haren this is the correct
answer. This is like, these

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are the kind of things that go
into my decision making process, and I

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invite you to also consider the same
things for you and your table and come

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up with a solution that works for
you. Guys. So the first thing

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I says, so, let's I'll
let I'll let Joe kind of handle the

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game that I'm playing with him,
because Joe is dming a table of six

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players. I just two days ago
from the time of this recording, had

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my session zero for a game that
I'm gonna start dming for four players.

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And this is the kind of thing
that we and that by session zero,

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I mean it was entirely character creation
and we didn't really get into anything else.

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But this is kind of thing that
we'll have to talk about with them

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as well. And you know,
Jim, you've had how many tables over

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the years, So we'll go as
your preferences, and then of course I'll

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kind of gear this towards my public
one shots as well, because I have

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very different answers for those. And
in fact, if I seem distracted of

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all this, because my discord is
blowing up, because I might have to

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cancel the game tonight. So this
is very very relevant right now in the

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moment. There we go. So
Jill, let's let's start with let's start

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with you with with the larger table. What kind of things are you considering,

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Like, what are some of the
factors that would make you kind of

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change your answer? Yeah, so
our game is a little bit different than

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most games, because I feel like
most games are going to be playing once

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a week or once every other week. We play once a month, so

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lucky if we're lucky. And but
part of it is our schedule, the

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way we schedule it, and and
so we Basically, we'll play a game

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and we'll start discussing it kind of
at the end of that game, and

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then and then we'll take we have
a discord, and we take our discussion

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usually there and say, okay,
you know what dates. You know,

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these are the dates that are looking
good. Hey, this is the holiday.

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So we have this month, we
have Father's Day coming up, and

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you know that's that's a day for
me to half of our tables or fathers.

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Yeah, just bend my kids and
and you know, we have some

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other dads some that are celebrating that
for the first time this year, and

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so that's kind of a big deal. And I don't want to I don't

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want D and D hanging over you
know, somebody's head to say, hey,

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you gotta you know, you got
to get here because we've made this

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commitment to each other and and I'm
busy. So so there are months sometimes,

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especially when there's holidays involved, that
we just don't play that month,

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and that stinks, but you know, we just you know, come ready

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to play the next time. So
that's number one is usually we're scheduling a

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few weeks out and everybody kind of
understands it, like, hey, listen.

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Once we put that, we all
agree this is the day we're playing,

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Like we've made this commitment and you
really got to play if you say

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you're going to play the other part
of that is we can move on probably

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without two to three. I would
say three is like pretty rough. Usually

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it's not going to happen. Three
is kind of a stretch, but doable.

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But in those instances, I just
moved the story along. So if

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there's not a major story beat that's
going to be taking place in the session

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the following week, or if it's
nowhere near a major story beat, I'll

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usually play on with up to two
to three players missing. If there is

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a major story beat, I kind
of make that known, like, hey,

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I really would like to get as
many of you guys together as I

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can because something big is going is
coming, or this is a important this

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is an important session, but we're
still For example, we had like two

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whole sessions that was like an extended
dungeon crawl, right where like, no,

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we can continue a crawl without any
major story stuff happening. Yeah yeah,

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yeah, but if there's major story
stuff, I kind of want everybody

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there just just so you can experience
that but we have again just because of

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our age and everything, we have
like a player that's taking care of a

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parent that that needs you know,
kind of a constant companion and they need

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to be there for their parent,
and that that trumps any anything, right,

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that trumps any any D and D
game or game or social outing it

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whatsoever. So for that player,
usually I think we've just been like,

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yeah, he's there, he's there, he's leveling up and he's off doing

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his own things, or yeah,
just we just don't. We don't include

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them in the action, but as
far as from the storytelling place, they

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are there and have experienced everything that
the party has. The other way that

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I've heard, I think it was
actually you that that told me about this

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is like there's different mechanics that you
can kind of put in place, like

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oh, they went off on a
boat or they went on a side quest

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or whatever, and you can the
boat the boat method is something I'll talk

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about, Yeah, like that's that's
all. You can do, all those

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things. But for us, it's
just they're there. You're just not going

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to hear from that character this week, or maybe you are, but nothing

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major. And I mean that's pretty
much how we deal with absences, like,

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out of six people, we very
rarely have three missing. And most

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of the time people aren't canceling last
minute unless it's me. It's usually me

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if if it's a last minute cancelation, and in those cases we just say

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Jason has run a one shot for
us, or we call it board game

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night, and you know, I
think we all for the most part,

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give as much notice as we possibly
can, so it's at least a few

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hours. It's not like a last
minute, last minute just but before I

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chimed on that part of it,
we had a player that was unavailable that

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night, and uh, He's like, no, me know if anything big

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happens. And there was one point
where like he's he's our rogue and we

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just need like a lock of picture
or something. I'm like, I'm like,

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oh, he's still with us,
right, You're like, yeah,

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I guess he's kind of just hanging
out the pack, like hey man,

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I'm just kind of grabb him by
the scruff of his neck. But here

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picked this lock. Yeah, and
we called the player or I think I

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texted him and I was like I
was like roll D twenty for me.

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Yeah. Yeah, He's like why
I'm like, just just do it.

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The next day, He's like,
I was so scared. Yeah, he

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was. He was at like he
was at an outing that he had to

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he could not miss. Yeah,
but we could still have side job work.

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00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:43.639
Yeah yeah, and right, Yeah, so he did. He rolled,

205
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He rolled the D twenty while he
was at his event, and he

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ended up succeeding if I if memory
serves, But we never told him why

207
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why. Yeah, I'm gonna tell
him why. You gotta we gotta make

208
00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.559
him, make him sweat. I
told him later. But we got one

209
00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.759
in the sweat for a little bit. Yeah, I make I make a

210
00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:05.240
regret messing the session. Yeah,
it's it's not life and death. But

211
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if somebody has taken their time out
of their schedule and and made an effort

212
00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:16.120
to you know, post a great
night, put together a game for players,

213
00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:22.679
and they've made a commitment to you, it is it is your responsibility

214
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I think to like give as much
notice as you possibly can. But but

215
00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:31.080
things happen, right, But you
have to give have respect for the other

216
00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:37.320
people that you're playing with because usually
they're at least in our in our game,

217
00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:41.279
like we're all friends, are connected
in some way, like they're friend.

218
00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:45.240
They're a good friend of your friend, right, and so we try

219
00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.279
to I think I think the important
thing there is mutual respect. Yeah,

220
00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:56.919
I think that's the biggest thing.
But and that's how we deal with absences.

221
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Yeah, Now, because we have
a player who is, you know,

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00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:01.559
a in taking care of a parent, it's it's difficult for us to

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even have all six for our players
present at any given time. And that's

224
00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:11.759
the other part is that we play
some of our players are that's one of

225
00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:15.000
the hardest. That's that is really
tough. We are we are a hybrid

226
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table. We have a dungeon master
and sometimes two or three players in person

227
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and a couple of players who live
over an hour away and don't want you

228
00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:28.879
know, and even once a month
that's a big trip. So we have

229
00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.000
some players that are online, some
players that are in person, and that

230
00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.759
makes some of that dynamic a little
bit difficult. Like if if Joe can't

231
00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:37.639
make a session that's our dungeon master, then like you know, I could

232
00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:39.159
run a one shot. But like
if we have players that are kind of

233
00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:43.440
all over the place and now we're
doing something that's that's not cannon and different

234
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.320
characters, it's like you know,
they're just like that, we'll just take

235
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the night off. Yeah, And
it's also like there's a different consideration if

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everybody's just there online. Then if
you know, people have driven to your

237
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house and brought pizza and all that
kind of stuff and everything, that's that's

238
00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:02.240
another thing that's kind of like before
you decide what to do, you got

239
00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:04.000
to like, you know, did
we know that? Like like if you

240
00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:07.480
show up and then just somebody texts
you saying I just got in a car

241
00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:11.480
accident or you know, we had
a medical emergency or something like that,

242
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then you know that then that creates
a different situation if there's people sitting there

243
00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:18.120
in your house already, and then
if you're lock, you know, then

244
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if you can all just go do
something else. Because it's an online game.

245
00:16:22.039 --> 00:16:26.759
I will say, luckily that the
gentleman that hosts our games physically,

246
00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:30.000
even though I'm the GM, we
have our games at Jason's house and it

247
00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:34.159
is filled with board games. So
if that ever happened, no shortage of

248
00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:38.039
other things. Two player game,
one player games, twelve player game,

249
00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:42.440
like whatever you need that is a
tabletop game, sheez and has it.

250
00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.919
Yeah, everything from like the ware
rolls two Rooms in a boom. Yeah,

251
00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:48.159
we get we get eighty players.
I can get eighty player games going

252
00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.600
if I needed to. I don't
want to do that by the wa Yeah,

253
00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:53.039
bring you over seventy eight of your
friends. We'll play. You'll play

254
00:16:53.039 --> 00:17:00.000
t Rooms in a boom. Hello
Adventurers, just been in here to remind

255
00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:04.079
you guys that we're actively looking for
submissions for our Hello DMS episode that gets

256
00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:08.640
reported every month. Send us your
burning D and D questions the Helloadventurers Podcast

257
00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:15.200
at gmail dot com, or send
us a voicemail by visiting Helloadventurers podcast dot

258
00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:19.359
com slash voice. Don't forget to
begin your message with Hello DMS. You

259
00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.200
can't wait to get your questions to
talk about them on the show. Send

260
00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.440
us your questions today. That's Helloadventurers
Podcast at gmail dot com, or you

261
00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:32.799
the voice doing at helloadventurers podcast dot
com slash voice. Now let's get back

262
00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:38.880
to the show. So, and
that's something good that you mentioned, Jim,

263
00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:42.039
So like, let's hit the car
accident. So let's take the day

264
00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:47.240
of cancelation, the last minute cancelation
in good faiths Yeah, is going to

265
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.680
be very different than just the no
show and this is another thing to consider

266
00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:55.519
where like what happens then is the
same player unable to know just let's let's

267
00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:59.400
let's say you're both in good faith
and not when it's the one is to

268
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:03.880
repeat, repeat offender. Of course, if it's in good faith, you

269
00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:07.640
have to consider what the what the
actual situation is. You know, a

270
00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.400
player taking care of taking care of
another one, that's that's I think fully

271
00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:15.759
excusable indefinitely. But like now the
player that's just like you know, car

272
00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:18.599
broke down. I got into another
argument with my mom. Yeah, I'm

273
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:22.599
sick, kids sick. Everyone else
is sick. Someone's sick every week.

274
00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:26.640
Well, I mean, and I
joked about like I just downloaded Balder's Gate.

275
00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:30.039
But there is some of that that
can go on where somebody decides on

276
00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:33.680
the day of that there's something else
going on. It's just more interesting than

277
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:37.480
the game. Sure, yeah,
and you know and then that that precipitates,

278
00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:41.319
see my girlfriend, my girlfriend will
let me come over. You find

279
00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:45.799
out the girlfriend's shadow herd, which
you no based but yeah, sure,

280
00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:49.039
what if that happens a couple of
times? You know my es So yeah,

281
00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:52.759
there you go. But if that
happens a couple of times, then

282
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:55.640
then you have a discussion about it. But for the most part, I

283
00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:57.319
think you want to assume that you've
got you know, in the indie game

284
00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:02.359
space, when we talk about safety
tool with open door is one of the

285
00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:04.599
things we talk about, and you
just kind of want to assume that if

286
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:08.160
everybody's there and you you know that
that if people can't make it, it's

287
00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.880
because something happened in their lives and
they may or may not want to talk

288
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:18.599
about it, right, And that
if you're going to have a policy about

289
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.400
if you miss X number of sessions
in X number of weeks, that that

290
00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:26.839
like you can it's totally cool for
you to have what amounts to like a

291
00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:33.200
no fault divorce, right sure,
you know, where like it's you know,

292
00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:36.920
we know it's no one's fault.
It's not you know, nobody's angry,

293
00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:41.119
nobody's upset. But you know,
but like if you miss more than

294
00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:45.640
three sessions in a row, clearly
something's not working out somewhere and we're gonna

295
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:51.000
we're gonna part ways and you know, either find another player or whatever,

296
00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:55.079
or you know, but to have
all that stuff in place that you know

297
00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.680
what's going on with it and like
the most common reason for that, I'm

298
00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:03.799
going to assume is going to be
scheduling su where like somebody, somebody just

299
00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:07.799
cannot you know, maybe their schedule
change and they didn't realize it was going

300
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:10.720
to be as long term of a
change as they thought. And like you

301
00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:12.880
know now for schedule reasons, they
just missed session after session of your session.

302
00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:15.000
And this is when, like I
said before, you kind of just

303
00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:18.160
take a temperature checks check everyone,
no checking out everybody? Is your schedule

304
00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:22.160
still going to work for this time? And you know, are we still

305
00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:25.119
still in this? We're gonna We're
going to have another episode about session zeros

306
00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:27.880
and temperature checks because that's something that
Joe and I are going to work on.

307
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.400
There's also there's also the possibility that
you are your friend is flaky.

308
00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:37.799
And here's the thing. You probably
know that your friend is flaky, So

309
00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:41.480
don't invite that friend to be part
of your D and D game or or

310
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:47.000
treat their character as a drop in
character, understanding that they may or not

311
00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:51.079
be there, you know, the
presuming they're not going to be, and

312
00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:53.599
then when they are, it's a
little extra bonus they you know, they've

313
00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:59.359
got some extra help in the fight
whatever. I did actually have that rule

314
00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:03.920
a little bit with Walter Wilson.
With our friend Walter Yeah, who I

315
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.240
said to him, I said,
hey, you know, I know you

316
00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:08.279
want to play d ind and I'd
love to have you be at my table,

317
00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:11.480
but I know work sometimes because at
the time, I think he was

318
00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:15.720
working at a liquor store. Okay, He's like, yeah, I don't

319
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:18.759
know. Sometimes I can and sometimes
I can. You know, I'd feel

320
00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.319
bad, I'd feel bad committing to
the game and then like having to cancel.

321
00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:25.000
And I was like, well,
I'll tell you what, if you

322
00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.680
ever, can you get the guest
spot, you know, like you know,

323
00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:33.079
so I did have a kind of
an open door policy for do a

324
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:37.400
wizard who was casting Blink and it
went awry, And you can do so

325
00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:40.599
much fun, so many fun things
with that. But that's also a thing

326
00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:44.720
where if you kind of have in
mind that you've got a kind of like

327
00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:48.759
an open chair like all the time, then you know whatever, like like

328
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:52.440
a buddy who lives on the West
Coast who's home to visit his parents for

329
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.680
a weekend, you know, you
can have them drop into the game because

330
00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.759
you're kind of always ready to have
somebody drop in something like that, you

331
00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:03.839
know whatever, your cousin's in town
and they want they want to get down

332
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:06.279
in the game. One of the
other things that I wanted to kind of

333
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:14.920
piggyback on this is that this is
all a lot easier if you're disciplined about

334
00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:19.880
making sure your sessions start on time
and end on time, giving you know,

335
00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:25.240
leading by example and showing some commitment
to yeah, commitment to commitment,

336
00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:30.799
yeah, and making sure that you
know that you're clear about like session starts

337
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:36.519
at seven, and we like dice
hit the table at ten after something like

338
00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:40.079
that, you know, or you
know or or Dice hit the table at

339
00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.640
seven, which means you hear any
time before that getting ready and stuff,

340
00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:47.440
and you know, dice hit the
table at seven, you know, last

341
00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:52.119
roll ten o'clock and you know,
and then your wrap it because if it's

342
00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:56.039
one of the things that can make
people question what's going on is you know,

343
00:22:56.359 --> 00:23:00.200
if you're willing to wait forty minutes
for someone to show up, that's

344
00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:02.799
going to cause problems on the front
end. And it's gonna you know,

345
00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:06.799
for the people that were there on
time, that's you know, not valuing

346
00:23:06.839 --> 00:23:10.759
their time and their commitment and and
if if you let it run over too

347
00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:14.880
much at the end, then people
start to get you know, you know,

348
00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.039
am I going to be here for
three hours tonight or four and a

349
00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:19.279
half and I don't. And if
you don't know, that can make it

350
00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:23.160
tougher to commit to showing up as
we're awful where our table is awful at

351
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:26.480
both of those things. Yeah,
starting, I think is something we should

352
00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:30.240
work on better. And ending I
feel like that's something where we are consistent,

353
00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.400
just like, oh, we're done
already, one one more, one

354
00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:36.799
more, Like I think like we're
always like, oh, we'll do it

355
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:38.160
for thirty more minutes, and then
I look down and it's been an hour

356
00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:41.079
and a half and I go,
oh no. And that was one of

357
00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:45.519
the great things about when I ran
in the store, right like we started

358
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:49.160
at the time the event started,
yep, because people paid to start playing

359
00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:53.720
at seven and it ended at nine
because that's when the store closed. Well,

360
00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:57.480
I should start selling the players,
it was I should start closing.

361
00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:03.839
But that made sure people showed up
on time. And we were really clear

362
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.319
about like, yeah, like,
you know, you got to be there

363
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:10.200
before seven if you want to get
seated. Yeah, and maybe maybe if

364
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:12.000
you walk in a couple of minutes
late, you might still get a table,

365
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:15.279
yeah, I think, But if
it's seven to fifteen, you're not.

366
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:17.759
We're not going to I'm not going
to see you. Yeah. The

367
00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:21.000
other thing that you said that I
had actually made the light bulb go off,

368
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:22.279
that I really liked was that you
said, like, bring pizza,

369
00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:26.240
because we do that wrong too.
We like, for like an hour game,

370
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:30.119
we're like're ordering in the middle of
the game is death? That'side.

371
00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:33.359
Yeah, And I know we're dumb, and I know we're dumb every time

372
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.359
we do it. It's good to
know that you're deaf. Yeah, at

373
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:41.440
least you know there's a level,
there's a level of stupid where you don't

374
00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.119
you're too stupid to know you're stupid. I know, I'm so dumb,

375
00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:48.240
like like, but like at the
same time, like why didn't I think

376
00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:52.319
of that? Why didn't I think
about bringing the pizza, especially because you

377
00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:56.480
don't know and like like if you
order door dash or whatever and it's like

378
00:24:56.519 --> 00:25:00.759
you could be here anytime between thirty
and ninety minutes, then like you know,

379
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:03.039
everybody's kind of watching the door and
it's just stress. The other part

380
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:07.680
is it should be pizza because they
have a special right by Jason's house.

381
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:11.680
It's thirteen dollars Sicilian pie every Monday
or Sunday and Monday. One of the

382
00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:15.839
best Sicilians ever. It's a really
good one of the I don't even like

383
00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:18.160
Sicilian pie. Yeah, delicious.
You get pizza and Jersey get Sicilian.

384
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:22.599
That's that's how that's how I disagree
that one. Yeah, I disagree.

385
00:25:22.759 --> 00:25:26.599
But this, if you're in Tom's
River and you're anywhere near me, is

386
00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:32.400
thirty seven. That's the Sicilian to
get. Okay, sponsor us, Yeah,

387
00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:34.599
give us, give us pizza for
our game. Well, we'll keep

388
00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:40.359
talking about you can just it can
even not be free. Generally say sell

389
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:42.400
us a pizza. That's the worst, the worst sponsorship it could have possibly

390
00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:47.039
asked for, a Joe. You
will keep them for advertising your product if

391
00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:48.720
you just sell it to us,
like, oh, I guess so,

392
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:55.160
it's gonna be a coupon money on. But making sure that your schedule is

393
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:59.440
locked in, including when you take
meal breaks and you know, bio breaks

394
00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:03.680
and stuff like that. All of
that helps keep things consistent in a way

395
00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:07.519
that makes people more likely to attend
because they understand what they're getting into and

396
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:12.720
it's reliable, and that's that's huge
yelly, and again like leading by that

397
00:26:12.759 --> 00:26:15.599
example, but he listen, I
was here on time. We all started

398
00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:18.559
on time. I need need everyone
on the same page for that. Yeah,

399
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.119
it's funny because this now it's in
a good way. I think it's

400
00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:26.279
bleeding into table etiquette, yes,
which is this whole thing is table Yeah,

401
00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:29.519
yeah, yeah, yeah, And
I think a lot of it does

402
00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:36.279
come down to that because the more
respect that there is at the table and

403
00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:38.480
for your group, I think that
right, you're going to have less of

404
00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:42.440
these like yeah, I'm not going
to make it this week, you know,

405
00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:45.160
and that's going to help help you
identify the ones that are just like

406
00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:49.000
it's just D and D whatever and
like and if that's not the level of

407
00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:52.240
commitment that you want at your table. If that if that's the level of

408
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:53.799
commitment that you want and this is
just like a way to hang out,

409
00:26:53.960 --> 00:26:57.400
that's that's a totally fine, you
know. The blase attitude is is totally

410
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:00.559
totally totally fine. Like I'm not
I'm not I'm not dissing those types of

411
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:03.720
players, but that's not your table. And you've got one that's there,

412
00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:06.240
and that's how they think of this. It's like, all right, well

413
00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.720
this is now that's one identifiable.
So that's why I think session zero,

414
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:12.400
zero point five, whatever you want
to do there, those check ins,

415
00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:17.839
those are super important and to more
of what Jim said too, like the

416
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:22.960
safety tools of of that, like
setting an expectation. Yeah, right,

417
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:29.799
setting an expectation early and often,
like is the best medicine for a well

418
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:34.279
run meeting of any kind? Right
is I was a manager. I managed

419
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:40.039
a group of you know, nine
or ten people, and that's something that

420
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:44.519
was super important in that managing those
relationships as well. It was like,

421
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:48.799
hey, listen, there's going to
be an expectation we're going to meet when

422
00:27:48.839 --> 00:27:52.359
we have meetings. We're going to
meet these times per month and at these

423
00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:57.440
times and it's not different anything else
meets. We want to touch on with

424
00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:02.359
this. I mean, maybe the
question is there is a little side question

425
00:28:02.440 --> 00:28:06.400
here, and that is how are
you going to handle mechanically the characters that

426
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:10.119
don't show up for those sessions?
You know, do you do progression?

427
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:14.240
How do you do xpeed? And
you know, like if you've got someone

428
00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:18.880
who just has a job that means
they miss one session a month or something

429
00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:22.519
like that because they've got a staff
meeting they have to attend. You know,

430
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:26.160
is their character going to advance twenty
five percent more slowly than everybody else?

431
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:30.599
Or and how do you handle that? Because people are going to have

432
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.119
those questions, you know, because
we're talking about D and D where that

433
00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:37.640
stuff's important. You want to make
sure that's another session zero thing is not

434
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:41.839
just what do we do how do
we handle it? But if you play

435
00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:45.960
and your character's not there, how
do we handle the rewards and the advancement

436
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.319
and all that stuff, And just
make sure you have that down and everybody

437
00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:51.839
understands how that works. There's no
right or wrong way to do it.

438
00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:55.000
Necessarily, I know how I would
handle it. You can do it however

439
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.160
you want. Just make sure everybody
knows what's going on with it when they

440
00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:00.960
do that. Yeah, a lot
of it relies on what kind of game

441
00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.359
you played, too, Like we
do a milestone ye progression, so everybody's

442
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:10.960
just at the same time. Yeah, and that seems to be a huge

443
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:14.480
five E thing too, where like
the game seems to be like pushing people

444
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:18.319
towards doing a milestone thing, and
that's that's that's a different topic really,

445
00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:21.920
but keeping that at milestone and just
like you know, you can figure out

446
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.519
story wise what's going on with those
characters. And I promised I would come

447
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.440
back to the boat thing before I
really was playing. When I was just

448
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:33.559
you know, as we mentioned in
the the Broadway episode, I was just

449
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:37.319
a fan of the culture and enjoyed
hearing my friends play. I had a

450
00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:41.240
bunch of friends that were playing very
casually where everyone had the whatever, it's

451
00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:45.000
just D and D attitude, and
that's and again totally cool. They all

452
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:51.519
have blast where like nobody was expected
to commit to showing up every week and

453
00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:52.279
it's just like, hey, listen, we're going to meet with this guy's

454
00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:56.400
house and if there's enough to play, we're going to play. And whoever's

455
00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:59.839
not there is on the boat.
And like they kind of just like had

456
00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:03.839
this centralized location where there was a
boat that was docked and your character is

457
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:06.960
just on the boat doing boat stuff. You know, you're swabbing a poop

458
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.160
deck whatever it is, while the
other players are out having an adventure.

459
00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:15.799
And and that worked for them on
something that's a little bit more like overarching

460
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:18.799
story wise, you guys can figure
all that out and you guys can figure

461
00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:21.519
it out on the day of if
you need to, like when we had

462
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:23.720
our Roague missing and say, okay, he's there, he's with us.

463
00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:27.559
He's just being really quiet today,
you know. And when I need to

464
00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:30.079
he's a sneaky boy. Yeah,
when he needs to pick a lock,

465
00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:33.960
I just don't meet me. The
barbarian just picks up the the halfling and

466
00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:37.519
just and just holds him at the
door. He doesn't have to talk for

467
00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:40.599
that. So, like, you
know, that's that's up to you,

468
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:45.079
guys. And it seems like the
real answer to this is that and like

469
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:48.200
everything and it's just almost it's almost
even like boring to keep saying it.

470
00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.160
Talk to your players, but there's
a lot of things to consider, and

471
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.200
that's like, you know, if
they are going to have like an off

472
00:30:56.519 --> 00:31:00.319
story thing to be doing, that's
something and you discussed as you need to,

473
00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:04.480
but heard it sounds like you had
like a lot of options there and

474
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:08.000
it's all they're all good options.
Yeah, And then the question was,

475
00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:11.680
you know, the question on the
surface was at what point do you do

476
00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:15.400
this? And I'm not going to
give you like you know, when there

477
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.000
are two players missing, do this. I'm not going to give you,

478
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:21.799
like the flow chart for your table, that's for your table. But you

479
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:26.839
guys can absolutely have a mid campaign
session zero or zero point one as Joe

480
00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:29.759
and I like to call it.
Yeah, and you guys can make that

481
00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:33.039
flow chart whenever you want. Yeah, it's a lot. Like it's a

482
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:34.240
lot like smoke and a brisket.
How do you know when it's done?

483
00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:37.920
Depends on how it feels done when
it's done. Yeah, try asking it

484
00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:42.039
you're done yet? Yeah, at
our particular table, since we play at

485
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:45.640
my house, if there's two or
three people over and that's all it's and

486
00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:48.799
like we're it does not have to
play a D and D. We'll play

487
00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:52.599
you, We'll play one of my
board games and still eat the pizza that

488
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:56.319
Joe definitely brought. Yeah, I've
got to start now. I love that.

489
00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:01.640
Where like I have like warm up
games that we play while we're waiting

490
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:05.400
for people to come to the table, mostly D and D stuff. I

491
00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:08.079
have a Rock Paper Wizard which is
a ton of fun. And what's the

492
00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:13.759
dungeon mayhem? I think it's called
yea also a ton of is that a

493
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:19.640
preconstructed deck card game? But it's
made it's made by Wizard's like it's just

494
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:22.440
a little casual game, and like, maybe that's what we do tonight.

495
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:25.759
I have plenty of one shots ready
to go that that I keep prepared with

496
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:29.519
Minis to set aside for them,
that I keep prepared for the for the

497
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:31.799
game store and breweries. So if
we have enough for a one shot and

498
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:36.359
there's not enough for a canonical campaign, or if the DM can't make it

499
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.400
and I can and I can d
M for the night, that's another option.

500
00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.680
I actually really like your prequel idea. And I couldn't tell if Jim

501
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:46.359
was making a face about the prequel
thing or not, But but I've played

502
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:52.160
in a prequel canonical one shot on
D and D four O four which I

503
00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:55.920
haven't decided if that interview is coming
out next week or last week, so

504
00:32:57.119 --> 00:32:59.839
go back and listen to it or
wait a week, whichever I decide.

505
00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:04.160
But prequels are fun. You do
prequels, You can do dream sequences,

506
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:08.480
you can do you can do the
thing where like if currently what you're doing

507
00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:14.640
is rescuing some farmers that got captured
by goblins, you can play the union

508
00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:19.680
going back and show the farmers getting
captured, you know, like like you

509
00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.359
can almost use it like a retcon
a little bit. That's what we did.

510
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:25.759
We did you can do. Yeah, we did a prequel one shot

511
00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:30.599
for like in their story there was
like the event. It was something like

512
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:34.039
really really bad that happened that people
alluded to, but like no one really

513
00:33:34.119 --> 00:33:37.359
told exactly what happened. We played
out what happened and we were the bad

514
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:39.079
guys. Yeah, so you want
to save the farmers. That was not

515
00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:43.960
what we did. Yeah, you
can play the goblins who capture the farmers.

516
00:33:44.039 --> 00:33:46.880
Yeah, that's cool. I cast
Fireball, right, it was awful.

517
00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:54.799
But just the one player like uh
like silently messaged the d M and

518
00:33:54.839 --> 00:34:00.400
he's like, I have the opportunity
to create a time paradox right now.

519
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:02.720
He's like, please don't. I
don't know how to handle that, So

520
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.920
just make sure you're not creating any
paradoxes. And by killing your big bad

521
00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:08.760
while he's a baby, you can, like you know you can, and

522
00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:14.679
then you know, maybe it's worse
or this is the reveal that that's that's

523
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.800
not the real big bad. This
is the the guy who took his place.

524
00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:20.440
Well it would be really great about
that though. Is the player that

525
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:22.920
missed that session coming back and be
like, wait a minute, what did

526
00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:27.800
I miss? No? No,
no, you shot Gary Hitler. He

527
00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:30.039
was gonna win no Bell Prize.
Dary was a good guy. He gott

528
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:36.639
to art school. So but I
like the ideas that you're laid out and

529
00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:42.199
they're all totally viable options. So
the question about like when do you do

530
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:45.639
this, when do you do that? That is up for your players and

531
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:47.159
you and I will chime in on
that if you invite me to play,

532
00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:51.920
and that's that's kind of that's kind
of my thing. Any other any of

533
00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:54.760
the major things you want to drop
on this, No, he covered this

534
00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:59.639
pretty thoroughly. I covered everything I
want to talk about, so hear,

535
00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:01.639
I think so much for listening.
I will I think I've we got we

536
00:35:01.679 --> 00:35:05.079
got some mutual friends, and I
think I promised to run one shot for

537
00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:07.039
you guys, so looking forward to
that. You know what, I Am

538
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:08.880
going to say. One thing please
that we didn't really cover, and that

539
00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:14.199
is that every now and then sometimes
it's okay to take a week off.

540
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:16.559
That's fine too. There's nothing wrong
with that. You can totally do that.

541
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:20.400
And if you know, and if
everybody's going like I don't know about

542
00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:22.559
this, week, take a week
off, take a breather, you know,

543
00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:27.159
play some video games, go you
know, go for a walk outside,

544
00:35:27.559 --> 00:35:30.239
and then pick it up next week
when everybody's freshing him. That that's

545
00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:32.719
totally cool too, Like just because
just because someone's there doesn't mean you like

546
00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:37.360
have to come up with an alternate
activity. It is okay, every now

547
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:38.960
and then, it takes sure,
Yeah, well we do that pretty often.

548
00:35:39.400 --> 00:35:44.400
It's a little too often, but
it's yeah, keep us us going

549
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.920
on, us playing much more infrequently
as than most tables. Lets us do

550
00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:50.320
that. It's like, hey,
next week instead where we're like, we're

551
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:52.000
not really losing anything, but yeah, totally fine as well. And it's

552
00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:54.440
going to come as a shock to
a lot of listeners, but there's other

553
00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:59.159
things to do then play D and
D. It's true, we just lost

554
00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:02.000
ten subscribers. Okay, you can
go to the theater and watch a show

555
00:36:02.039 --> 00:36:06.880
about Dada. You can go back
an episode or possibly two, depending on

556
00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:12.239
how I feel. Listen to Jim's
synopsis on that go outside, slow down,

557
00:36:12.280 --> 00:36:15.920
Joe, all right, relax,
Okay, we speak like, that's

558
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:16.800
cool if that's what you want to
do. But yeah, dude, thanks

559
00:36:16.840 --> 00:36:20.679
so much for sending you a question, you can send yours in that you

560
00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:22.920
can need the email us at Hello
Adventurers Podcast at gmail dot com, or

561
00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:27.239
you can leave a voicemail just like
Karen did at Hello Adventurers Podcast dot com

562
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:30.880
slash voice that'll bring you to a
little web page you can do right from

563
00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:34.599
your phone without actually having a dial
anything. It's literally one button. It

564
00:36:34.599 --> 00:36:37.960
cannot be any easier. Because we
love to hear your questions. Will we

565
00:36:37.239 --> 00:36:39.519
try to do a mail back show
where we enter them a bunch of these,

566
00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:45.000
but this particular question warranted its own
episode. So and if you got

567
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.199
something that is that's that deep and
that also, we will set up an

568
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:51.599
episode for that as well. I
think it's going to wrap it up right.

569
00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:54.280
Yeah. Cool, So, Jim, Joe, thanks for hanging out

570
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.199
with me, Thanks for having me, and thank you for listening to Hello

571
00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:00.719
Adventurers. We are your host Jason
Tiso, Jim Crocker and Joe McCall,

572
00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:05.239
producer, editor and engineer Jason Portiso
and used by Nick Spurrier, Artworth,

573
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:08.000
Battison Broderick. You can reach out
to us with any feedbackward suggestions by emailing

574
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:21.360
Helloa Adventurers Podcast at gmail dot com. Helloadventures is a JTP audio production Goodbye Adventures,