this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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As counter-intuitive as it sounds; Take a Break.
Take an intentional couple or three sessions off from the campaign where you're not even actively thinking about it. During that time, maybe try to consume media that reflects what you're trying to achieve in your campaigns.
Also, have a heart-to-heart with your players about scheduling issues and how you feel about them. I feel you with this problem. My table just recently ran into a 10-week stint where we only played two sessions; we're normally an every-week digital meet-up. Ignoring the two-week vacation that I took in there, that everyone was made aware of months in advance, most of the cancellations were from players cancelling the day of or day before with something that wasn't last-minute. Even though I have a staunch "Real Life Comes First" approach to the table and cancellations, it's intensely frustrating having players constantly cancel on you like that. I haven't had "The Talk" with them yet about this, we're back into the swing of playing regularly now, and I don't think I'm going to since we're rapidly approaching the end of my campaign, but it's in my back pocket, and it's slightly making me reconsider my next campaign.
Best of luck to you!
Thanks for the advice. A break has been something I have considered with the issue myself too, so it's more than likely the right choice to make. It would probably do good for the group overall too, as I have noticed that lately people seldom stay after sessions to talk.
Nowadays we play online most of the time, and I definitely noticed that affecting the time people spent chatting about things after sessions. In the past we had a meeting room at the work office, since all of my players were from the same company at the time, and we would often have at least 5-10 minutes of chitchat after the sessions. But now that we play over discord it has dropped to basically almost everyone vanishing as soon as the session is done.
Also the thought of mixing up the group or making a new group for the next campaign could be a good idea, as I have noticed that players were seldomly give feedback, or bother to answer simple things like: "Hey, what would you guys want to do in the next few sessions when our current adventure is done?"
It may be worth it for you to see if your FLGS has a regular TTRPG night, or if there's any "nerd bars" nearby that offer something like that.
I second this.
I've only ever gone to a "nerd bar" once, but it was refreshing. We paid a GM associated with the bar to host a DCC one-shot, and it was great. As a perma-GM and usual host, it was great not to have to worry about either planning an adventure or snacks and drinks. It worked out for all of us.