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This is why we have a group of like 10 people that are in a chat together and we have an algorithm that decides who gets to play that day. If they can't make it, they say that to the bot and the bot messages the next person in the algorithm's list and asks if they're down. With 10 people odds are we'll have 4-6 players ready to go that day and so far we've had consistent play times every week without having to handle scheduling anymore. If someone leaves the chat we do a manhunt to find more people from local clubs and groups and open up their skull to determine if they have 'homophobic' etched onto their brainpan. If they don't notify the bot they won't show up they get points deducted from their social credit score.
How do your games work with that amount of drop-in, drop-out? Seems like it'd be a struggle for the DM to plan stuff and have set-pieces balanced correctly. Is this 5e, or are you based?
We had a similar thing in college with World of Darkness, where as long as at least 3 players showed up (physically at the student hub), its game time, but that was a bit more manageable, as WoD isn't really party based the same way DnD is, though it definitely was still a struggle at times.
How do your games work with that amount of drop-in, drop-out?
We choose narratives where it makes sense to have random assortments of adventurers. Right now we have an exploration ship that sails from island to island and we have a small description of each session that we post in chat after each session so everyone knows whats going on previously. Still allows for character development and RP stuff.
We've done basic 'you're in a guild hall with all the other adventurers' or 'you're scouts/special ops in a vast military operation' or 'you are protectors of a frontier city and are building it up' sort of stuff too.
Seems like it’d be a struggle for the DM to plan stuff and have set-pieces balanced correctly.
We have a bunch of stuff printed out and we use AI generated maps for almost everything. So AI generates a map on top of a flat monitor and throw our 3d printed minis and structures on top of it. If someone plays with us and are reliable they get bribed with free minis for characters, bonus points if they bring food.
Sounds cool! And I've been a PF2e enjoyer the past year too :party-parrot: Tight math of PF2e probably offsets some the difficulty of balancing encounters. Seems like more personalized stories are a small price to pay for regular game night.
I've been running two premade modules for 2e over the last year or so, and we've probably average a game every other week for each of them over that time, which is better than a lot of groups I've been in. Haven't really been a module DM in the past, but TBH I really like Paizo's work, and its pretty easy to still personalize and modify to fit the players more tightly, while still being less of a workload on me. Run on FoundryVTT currently; still hermit mode due to Covid unfortunately. Foundry is super quick and easy with its automation, but I definitely still miss the coziness of in-person play.
If your social credit score is high you're gonna be at the game every weekend anyways so you do get to develop your character a lot. Theres a lot of little things that effect the algorithm, like we keep track of people bringing food, getting new books for the dm, messaging the bot before a session that you can't come, whether or not you joined the group recently, etc. so that it isn't 100% on the DM to host and do everything. Makes it quantitatively fair without having to fret about stupid stuff.
This is why we have a group of like 10 people that are in a chat together and we have an algorithm that decides who gets to play that day. If they can't make it, they say that to the bot and the bot messages the next person in the algorithm's list and asks if they're down. With 10 people odds are we'll have 4-6 players ready to go that day and so far we've had consistent play times every week without having to handle scheduling anymore. If someone leaves the chat we do a manhunt to find more people from local clubs and groups and open up their skull to determine if they have 'homophobic' etched onto their brainpan. If they don't notify the bot they won't show up they get points deducted from their social credit score.
Oh yeah, its big brain time :galaxy-brain:
How do your games work with that amount of drop-in, drop-out? Seems like it'd be a struggle for the DM to plan stuff and have set-pieces balanced correctly. Is this 5e, or are you based?
We had a similar thing in college with World of Darkness, where as long as at least 3 players showed up (physically at the student hub), its game time, but that was a bit more manageable, as WoD isn't really party based the same way DnD is, though it definitely was still a struggle at times.
PF2e :comfy-cool:
We choose narratives where it makes sense to have random assortments of adventurers. Right now we have an exploration ship that sails from island to island and we have a small description of each session that we post in chat after each session so everyone knows whats going on previously. Still allows for character development and RP stuff.
We've done basic 'you're in a guild hall with all the other adventurers' or 'you're scouts/special ops in a vast military operation' or 'you are protectors of a frontier city and are building it up' sort of stuff too.
We have a bunch of stuff printed out and we use AI generated maps for almost everything. So AI generates a map on top of a flat monitor and throw our 3d printed minis and structures on top of it. If someone plays with us and are reliable they get bribed with free minis for characters, bonus points if they bring food.
Sounds cool! And I've been a PF2e enjoyer the past year too :party-parrot: Tight math of PF2e probably offsets some the difficulty of balancing encounters. Seems like more personalized stories are a small price to pay for regular game night.
I've been running two premade modules for 2e over the last year or so, and we've probably average a game every other week for each of them over that time, which is better than a lot of groups I've been in. Haven't really been a module DM in the past, but TBH I really like Paizo's work, and its pretty easy to still personalize and modify to fit the players more tightly, while still being less of a workload on me. Run on FoundryVTT currently; still hermit mode due to Covid unfortunately. Foundry is super quick and easy with its automation, but I definitely still miss the coziness of in-person play.
If your social credit score is high you're gonna be at the game every weekend anyways so you do get to develop your character a lot. Theres a lot of little things that effect the algorithm, like we keep track of people bringing food, getting new books for the dm, messaging the bot before a session that you can't come, whether or not you joined the group recently, etc. so that it isn't 100% on the DM to host and do everything. Makes it quantitatively fair without having to fret about stupid stuff.