what it's like scheduling D&D

[@XPtoLevel3]

Thanks so much to Ginny Di for d̶e̶s̶t̶r̶o̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶k̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶&̶d̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶n̶s̶!̶ appearing in this dumb video! Her channel is AWESOME and full of great advice, skits, music, cosplay, and TTRPG content. Go check it out! kzbin.info Also don't forget to check out Fables 2: Pirates of the Aethereal Expanse! There's some pretty awesome stuff in there: ghostfiregaming.com/XPT3_FB02_2022_9_021

[@GoldenseatGaming]

nice

[@Scorpious187]

I love how Ginny cameos for literally 3 seconds, and that's enough emotional damage to send Jacob to the Shadow Realm.

[@atocanboi409]

what's the name of that music you used at the end?

[@ArturoT96]

@@atocanboi409 A Way of Life by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen

[@atocanboi409]

@@ArturoT96 thnx

[@criticalgeek9187]

Only missed relatable beat is, as a DM, after finally figuring out a possible session for everyone, realising that actually you yourself can't do it

[@Lilly-Lilac]

and then you end up rescheduling a very important event so you can finally have a session this month. That surgery can wait

[@chaosmastermind]

@@Lilly-Lilac And nobody shows up at all.

[@Lilly-Lilac]

@@chaosmastermind Worse, only one person shows up.

[@Haseo135]

My groups DM has done a few times lol. Usually the day of play someone will text the group chat asking if we're still on and he comes back revealing that when we scheduled he forgot he had work deadlines or meetings with clients. 🤣😅

[@lordpepper6932]

Sacrifices must be made

[@stordarth]

As someone who's last group literally collapsed because of constant scheduling conflicts, I felt this on a visceral level.

[@Kristiekins2]

Yeah we had such a cool campaign with my one group but literally, in the span of two months, we had like one session. So...yeah no, it ended.

[@DMofBriseras]

Yeah same. Even when you think you have things figured out and you’ve given all you can give to make things work, you quickly realize two hours twice a month is still somehow too difficult for 5 adults to commit to. 😭

[@jeremiahcourter8352]

@@DMofBriseras It ultimately means they do not enjoy it enough, unfortunately. They say they do, but action speaks louder than words.

[@apothicaire7907]

I am afraid of this happening in my current campaign...

[@denzelpanther240]

yup only that they wont just all text one after another, i had to constantly ask everyone at least three times to get them to answer if they will be there

[@TheThirdPrice]

Oh my God the final person not participating at all and then just rejecting everything after all the planning is too real

[@StevenKR]

All while not giving another solution. Too real.

[@LiamsClan]

Dude spoiler for the ending of the video…

[@Murmaider4]

@@LiamsClan I'd suggest not scrolling through comments until you're ready to be spoiled, I guess

[@travisbergen2807]

@@Murmaider4 correct

[@bamcki991]

There was 2 OF THOSE PLAYERS in my group and 1 of them JUST MOVED AWAY WITHOUT ME EVEN KNOWING

[@pierregrubb7323]

Jacob just standing while the sad music is playing PERFECTLY captures the feeling of having *almost* everyone's schedule's lined up and then the last player who you have to ping in the chat can't make it. Fucking incredible

[@SSJKenpachiZaraki]

*It's always the player you have to ping* *WHY WOULD YOU TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS. IT'S. IMPORTANT.*

[@GinnyDi]

HAHAHA the shot in the field absolutely SLAYED me 😂😂😂

[@rakdosintolerant5610]

Hi Ginny! You nailed your lines in this vid

[@tbs_Incorporated]

It was so well done too! The lighting, the music, the framing... oh yeah, I felt that. XD

[@GinnyDi]

@@rakdosintolerant5610 I have lots of practice being the absolute WORST player to schedule with 😅

[@goodgulfgas]

Ginny Di with the sneak attack

[@ZaneCrownover]

Two of my favorite D&D celebrities in one video! What a great day for D&D and KZbin! Thanks Jacob and Ginny!

[@cautiousninja1994]

The fact D&D is ever played is a monument in and of itself.

[@octo5042]

true

[@ZombieApocalypse09]

Planning to get any group of adults together for anything is so hard. But it's especially heartbreaking when you're the DM. Getting cancelled on for D&D on the day is like having a Laser Tag & Pizza Birthday party nobody shows up to when you're a kid.

[@teisonedwards7111]

I could die

[@liaminator4950]

Boy do i know that feeling :(

[@qwopiretyu]

Ouch

[@jrg305]

Sorry that happened to you. People are shitty. I only do paid dnd now. My heroquest group is shitty too. Ppl last min don't show up. They lose their spot for future planning. I am a counselor too and I charge no show fees for clients or don't let them reschedule if they do it more than once.

[@themagescorner]

Been there, that’s when I decided that spending two days planning each session wasn’t worth it when ppl would just casually last minute cancel. Afterwards I just ran prepared adventures with minor changes so I wouldn’t waste my time if people cancelled lol.

[@Scented_Shadow]

Shoutout to my DM who opted to give my character a text-RP only side quest for him to go on for a few weeks because I can no longer make the main sessions due to scheduling conflicts 🤩 I can type an entry whenever I am free, and same for my DM. My player character is away from the party but he's still helping them. I intentionally cleared up my schedule for the last few sessions of the campaign and at that point my character will return to the party with vital info he gathered in his side quest for the final fight and such. Top tier solution!

[@vanhin30]

That's awesome! Gonna have to tuck that one away, that's a great solution!

[@Scented_Shadow]

@@vanhin30 Hell yeah, I recommend it. It's been great fun!

[@calebbridges4748]

Love this a lot.

[@Scented_Shadow]

@@calebbridges4748 Yeees me too!

[@zoromax10]

That's actually pretty neat, I might do that in the future actually I once did something like that, but more involved. One of my players couldn't make it to a very important session, so instead we ran a solo session. The thing is, his character is very skeazy and self centered, so while he was going after his objectives (that were actually pretty helpful to the party overall), he left a lot of NPCs pissed at him, and even foiled some of said NPCs plans. It was really fun, not only because the edgy loner could actually be alone, but then in the actual session all the players were hearing about how their team mate was running around and antagonizing and generally being a nuisance without knowing why, and THEN when they got together on the next session they got to have a cool confrontation and the loner could show how much of a cool manipulator he was. But boy, never doing that again

[@bearsbite95]

It's all sunshine and rainbows at the beginning of a campaign, when everyone is totally 100% definitely sure they can play every Saturday night

[@c.flaganigan6378]

This video hits right in the feels... I am in the middle of planing a One-shot for halloween and my players are like. "Dude, why are you planing so far in advance". *Me staring in anger at our campaign that we paused in march. "I don't know..."*

[@Minodrec]

Change player. Host for DM. DM are usually more invested in the game. And they know how much flakiness can hurt.

[@ADT1995]

Had one player in one of my groups who is always flakey, everyone in this group is extremely good friends and he happens to be my best friend. It'd be really awkward to kick him out but the last minute cancellations were extremely detrimental to the rest of us (especially when some of the other players started to count on us not actually having session, which was annoying but in hindsight I can't blame them). So after bringing it up a few times and no change we decided that we would continue playing the campaign with everyone who showed up, and if he actually joined he was welcome, but otherwise we were going to continue..... This led to the widespread adaptation in our group of "the show must go on" where if even two people show up to campaign we play (depending on the DM even one player), sometimes running a side quest or doing the main story with the characters in question brought out of the dungeon by a wild magic surge, teleportation trap, or some other weird phenomena that we've all collectively decided that making sense has a lower priority than actually playing the game. It also fixed everyone else's attendance as people started to realize that they would miss out if they didn't make it to session. I now use "the show must go on" at every table I run (currently DMing for 4 a week, although in one of those I'm about to pass the captains seat to another player in a few weeks).

[@alotofbaddecisions2046]

One shots should be "whoever shows up plays"

[@violetmorgan8641]

just had to cancel my Halloween one-shot because everyone's schedule changed, I wish u luck in this difficult planning period ;-;

[@krystofmichajlovfrancisko8224]

my dude, this doesnt help either. I tried to schedule a dnd session half a year in advance and of course every now and then guys keep telling me suddenly stuff happenned

[@romanrickley5733]

The tarrasque is literally nothing compared to the fight of scheduling

[@davidanddragons5339]

A tarrasque is literally nothing compared to anything

[@FeralSparky]

@Zyzz Damn Bots

[@blazemegatron919]

@@davidanddragons5339 So a Kobold would beat the Tarrasque you reckon mate?

[@davidanddragons5339]

@@blazemegatron919 a kobold would get it's friends to help and yes, yes it would best the tarrasque

[@tylerbremer6696]

Unlike the Tarrasque, scheduling cant be fixed by a single clay golem and and hour.

[@richhalter2909]

This hits too hard...I think we DMs look forward to DnD so much harder than the players do. Its funny cause honestly the player get to come and WIN or feel like their accomplishing and we DMs are literally the punching bag every encounter. Session after session , the DMs get smeared just to see our players living it up in a story we play out in our imagination. But the worst defeat is no Game Night due to scheduling...

[@user-cx9un9fs7q]

Indeed, most DM’s just simply want to watch the players explore the world they made and talk about how cool and for the most part original it is. That is why DM’s suffer the most when they can’t play D&D usually. I hope this doesn’t happen to me often, and if it does, just like any good DM I will just die inside but somehow stay optimistic.

[@simondimock]

This is so relatable. I also hate when Ginny Di ruins my game schedule.

[@TheGIJew.]

Yeah all I want is a normal, standard d&d game with three exact copies of myself but Ginny Di is always fucking it up

[@MTLion3]

The ending - both the final person shooting it all down AND Jacob’s dejection - is perfection

[@Sophie-mv7bd]

words could not express how sorry I feel for my DM and the shit she goes through scheduling an online game with friends across the world

[@quendi5557]

yeah, It's bloody insane the hoops the doing that makes you have to jump through

[@AzaghalTheBadger]

I somehow manage to schedule for an online group that is in 3 different timezones. American friends just have to play at noon their time which somehow suits them.

[@Sophie-mv7bd]

@@AzaghalTheBadger I live in the UK and my DM lives in Massachusetts with other friends also in the US so for our first session I had to stay up super late which did not go well and ended getting sick

[@gamercore5216]

I feel that every one of my players has a different timezone

[@Mr.Unpredictable]

my dm doesn't schedule shit lmao i have to do all of it

[@williamdorfer7748]

The home brew character has no special abilities. It’s just a baby whose mom is a cleric and whose father is a monk.

[@DMingThoughts]

That sudden collab with Ginny was perfect

[@nnickplays9713]

(Who's Ginny?)

[@catalyst9953]

@@nnickplays9713 the girl with blue hair at the end. She does her own dnd videos. They're pretty good

[@featherfiend9095]

Some loser.

[@JosiahTheSiah]

@Bully peter spam

[@JosiahTheSiah]

@@nnickplays9713 Ginny Di, look her up! She's excellent.

[@NebDaMin]

This was already so relatable and funny, then Ginny's cameo sent me over the edge. Very well done :)

[@RuneKatashima]

The out-of-the-blue cameo really sent me too ;D

My feelings exactly, lol. (luv u Ginny!

[@benhramiak8781]

who is she?

[@BreakerX42]

The fact he easily could've used his friends but instead made every contact himself. The true enemy of the DM is truly himself.

[@Jonathan_D12]

+ ginny

[@thomasbirmingham4371]

he was going to but they all cancelled last minute.

[@howlingarmadillo]

Remembering what this felt like with my old group makes me feel so lucky to have a group now that can just meet at the same time each week. Shoutout to the 'creative writing classes' I'm taking every Monday that leave me unable to work those nights!

[@Viperspider1]

Consistency is key! Pick a day, say Wednesdays, pick a time, 7:30, pick a frequency, fortnightly - BOOM. People keep it in their calendars, they know what to expect. Remind them on Sundays. Next, set a metric. If 50% of the party comes, run the game regardless. If a particular player is consistently missing sessions without notice or giving you a reason why and/or suggesting a new schedule - politely remove them from the game as they are the outlier, this day works for the others. Can't change everything for one guy! If a player tells you Wednesdays don't work anymore, try change the day/time via a vote. If another day suits everyone, then change it! Otherwise, that player might have to bow out until their schedule changes.

[@FunctionallyLiteratePerson]

I wish this worked with my group. We chose weekly on a specific day/time/length and we had a total of 2 or so sessions and it's been months since the last one (I am not the dm)

[@Viperspider1]

@@FunctionallyLiteratePerson In my experience weekly is *too frequent*. People think "Meh, if I miss this one it's not that long before we play again, no big deal". With fortnightly, if you miss a session that's a whole month between sessions. Or 6 weeks if you miss 2! People are more likely to make the effort to scratch the DnD itch. Plus, a week off is good for player/DM fatigue. It's easy to feel run down when you have to make this big time commitment each week.

[@alexmarich504]

Right. If a person makes the commitment it's reasonable to expect a person to make efforts to make it happen and also not commit to something that they will have problems with.

[@frogsoup7443]

Couldn't have said it better, exactly how I run my sessions and it works well!

[@Zayllyaz]

@@Viperspider1 Exactly, this is how my group does it, we have been lucky to be consistently playing every other Sunday for years

[@shreeshfuup7058]

This is why I like doing one shots. You just say “I’m running the session 12-17, come if you can, too bad if you can’t,” and then everybody shows up.

[@holden426]

Then you realize that "that one guy" refuses to do one shots and "that other guy" doesn't play if "that one guy" doesn't and "everybody's best friend" needs everybody present or it's *not fair* to the group.

[@Minodrec]

Yeah that's the main solution. Kinda frustrating to never play more than 2 or 3 sessions.

[@CritCrab]

I cancelled my D&D session to watch the new xptolevel3 video

[@Bigslam1993]

I cancled my Pathfinder session to watch old CritCrab videos

[@necasperaterent29386]

My group has been playing almost every sunday for like the last 10 years since college, even though we're online and half us lives pretty far apart from the others. It's great to stay in touch and not lose each other. I mean, sure, there have been 1-3 week breaks where none of us could make it, but overall it's been fairly consistent. I consider myself lucky every time I see a video like this. The friends that slay together stay together. ☝

[@cameronmaas2644]

You truly are blessed Mr. President. You have some mighty special people in your life if they can keep that up. 🙂

[@justinfabela4899]

This man be playing with Abraham Lincoln and George Washingon as his DnD mates. Along with Andrew Garfield as the DM.

[@necasperaterent29386]

@@justinfabela4899 I'm the DM, Garfield used to be the bard and is taking a break recently. Tommy Jefferson is back again, though, but all his recent builds are some weird shit he found on Reddit. 🤷‍♂️

[@brandongalvan6603]

After two months of my coworker - a veteran player - and myself trying to schedule a day to play with other coworkers wanting to try out the game, we elected to just run the game every other Wednesday at noon at a nearby game store and whoever could make it makes it. One coworker and her husband managed to join us for the first session and it went really well. Their party of Level 1s managed to take out four wolves, tracked another to its den, and then managed to take out six wolves and a dire wolf all while getting severely underpaid for the pelts.

[@drilltotheheavens1695]

Never have I seen one of your skit videos and simply thought “mood” with such resonance. 100% accurate.

[@LaM0NK3Y]

The myth of scheduling : Player 1: I consent ! Player 2: I consent ! Ginny : I don’t 😡 Isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?

[@ooterman]

I play in a "Dad group" with 4 other guys. We all have wives and 1-3 kids so we usually play around 10pm-2am on weekends. Also since sometimes people can't make it we have 3 concurrent campaigns so we can play according to who is missing. The struggles are real.

[@ajsouza3720]

Soon all ur kids will be playing with you.

[@keyboardkomments9152]

Most of my ttrpg groups collapsed because of scheduling conflicts. Been playing with one consistent group for almost three years now because the DM and I were insistent enough to hold them together. Using a regular timeframe also helps, say every second sunday between three and nine or something. We've been playing a lot more frequent since our DM put a regular schedule in place, it's been great, I highly recommend it.

[@fractal_gate]

Scheduling: The real BBEG in the game.

[@AsSereneMonstersRest]

This is why I'm a fan of the 6-8 groups. Adults have scheduling conflicts that will occure but if more than half can show up, then the game is still on. The DM NPC's the missing, and you'll get filled in next week. One day, I missed our session in this mode. My DM played this smart. He narrated my character as stepping out of bed and falling into a portal to the Fey because it was a talking session. I thought this was a weird decision until the next week, we had our 7th join the group, and she was a Saytr Paladin that I brought back with me. This also presents fun story inspired decisions. I took Fey touched as we had all leveled to 4th that next session back. Also, since I wanted to multiclass as a Sorlock anyway instead of the obvious and OP Hexblade. Which would've made the DM have to create different and possibly more convoluted storylines to justify how and why I just became a Hexblade. Instead, I went ArchFey pact, since the how and why was already built in. So, with this model, even missed sessions can become fun and important events for both the characters and players

[@jasonbritt2497]

This is how our DM does it as well, we have 8 people who play if they all show up (which is rare). As long as we have three that can make it we play. Helps though that it’s the same core of 3 that can always make it.

[@thinkngskeptic]

This makes me feel better about 1 or 2 out of 6 players not showing up every couple sessions

[@bartspiering3624]

Also group of 6. Rule is if 1 can't come we just play. 2 missing it's boardgames.

[@fatbean2000]

Same we play with a group of six and we rarely miss people

[@OnlyKaerius]

Been years since I had a group, but we had a group of 4 + DM... and we played Kingmaker for like a year without hitting the big story points because the DM didn't want to do them without all the players present, and we were constantly short someone. I was in every session... by the time we gave up the campaign (because we'd had a few months of scheduling fubar) I think I was lvl 8. We hadn't gone to sycamore, we hadn't gone to the staglord's camp, etc.

[@Xenibalt]

those 4 core players are your REAL team

[@existinginaspace8347]

@@bartspiering3624 Your assuming the players will even want to stick around for board games or have those games on their computers. Most people aren't blessed with local friends who want to play this level of nerd game who ALSO have schedules that even remotely line up. My closest player is an hour and 45 from me. The next is a 14 hour drive and the next after that is 21 hour drive. ( None of those numbers include toll roads. Fuck tolls )

[@DJB3lfry]

That feel when every player can make a specific session and nobody calls out last minute, save for the _one_ player whose character is supposed to be the focus of the session.

[@headcrab4]

This has happened to literally every PC who has passed through my campaign. Somehow, every single time, their pivitol session "oh so sorry but I can't make it".

[@Spuds44]

This is so relatable, we can never seem to all get together

[@johnmilius3031]

Depends on where your priority lies.

[@TLBainter]

However much work you put into that ending, it was 100% worth it.

[@benjaminrecalde7628]

He just went outside

[@AzureKite]

I feel this in my bones, I was just about to start a campaign of Rime of the Frostmaiden but I got a new job and my work hours are gonna conflict with my group's usual sessions and now we're not sure if I'll even be able to run it or play with them anymore. It's so tough to schedule.

[@Echo-S-Official]

I literally related to nothing more than this video, knowing the person who stays silent the WHOLE CONVERSATION of planning, only to chime in late and say no to all of the planning

[@bificommander7472]

Our group had the cancellation cascade. Even when we had a big group, what would frequently happen is: One person says they can't make it. A second person says that it was pretty difficult for them too, so if the other one doesn't come they don't either. Then a third one says they have something else that needs to be done, so if two are out then they are out too. Then one more person says they don't want to come with so many cancellations, then whomever is left decides the game can't continue with so few people.

[@OnlineSarcasmFails]

Yeah, felt that one too. Granted I can't blame them because I was part of the cascade myself a few times.

[@bificommander7472]

@@OnlineSarcasmFails Oh, so have I.

[@Minodrec]

The truth is cascade is normal. Any cancelation can kill the game. Ppl should know this cancel early and help reschedule. I have to filter out so many flaky player when hosting game online. That's insane. Anything but a one shot is a nightmare.

[@isolationnationn]

Oh how satisfying it is to know that we’re not the only ones. We all feel it broken DMs, you’re not alone 💔

[@nathaniel-shields]

Something about that first pose at the end is just. Incredibly sorrowful. So much emotion packed into one shot. Pure cinema

[@silveryphoenix44]

Woe is such unto me, when I seek unfounded mirth. I thought that all was free, scheduling is a party's worth. The ravens hark to battles, kings to thrones, yet players never come and only have moans.

[@FlyJonat]

I relate to that. I barely played d&d but have been trying to organize a single oneshot to introduce some of my friends to d&d for 6 months. I first asked if they would be interested, but because of schedules they refused until I mentioned a oneshot and that I would DM. Then I made a poll on discord to know which ones would be interested to participate (5/7 were interested). Then I waited after them to make their characters while offering to help them. Because they were taking so long, I told them they had until late august to make their character otherwise I would make joke characters for them. I ended up making almost all the characters. 2 weeks ago, I made a poll asking for available moments during september and october (mostly friday nights and weekends). I had to wait a few days for everyone to answer but I finally managed to get 4/5 players for october 1st during the evening. I hope this will be worth it. All those efforts for 1 oneshot. Update august 2023: it was okay for a while and I was more forgiving at the beginning but I'm going to announce soon that I'm done dming for them. I was going to start sunless citadel and forge of fury but I will keep it for other people. I never started those modules because I told them I would play them if they cared by making new characters. I will simply tell them that I won't be dming for them anymore, that it's obvious that they don't want to play my game and that I'm tired to be disrespected as a dm. Thank god I found 2 groups to play as a player this year (started curse of strahd recently as a dwarf light cleric and played forge of fury with my other group and that group will start a oneshot of pathfinder2e this week to test the game). To describe my group of friends as dnd players: All: I'm writing a few house rules as pinned comments on discord yet they never read them and act surprise when I enforce those rules. No UA or hexblade multiclass for example. Yes I tried session 0 but there weren't interested. 1: This one is great actually. He played and dm dnd for years (also other games like pathfinder) and he loves board games. He never did anything wrong. The only inconvenience was that he couldn't be in a lot of oneshots because of his job. 2: Always procrastinate his character sheet, barely pays attention during a game and doesn't seems to care about the game. One time he shared an event happening in town for an evening to the group that was the same date as a oneshot. He said he couldn't be there yet shows an event happening the day he claims to be busy. Also at a cabin, we played a session of a short adventure made by friend 1. He told me he completed his character a few days earlier but I told him at that moment what was missing from his sheet (on dndbeyond among that). He never fixed it and we had to complete his character during the game. He's not organized at all and doesn't seem to care. Also he was rude during my second oneshot when I had trouble with remembering turn order (I take notes now). 3: Guy that doesn't remember events. When I remember people about a oneshot a few days before, he told me he forgot and that he had a family gathering. The other players decides to cancel and asked me to dm the next evening (on a sunday). I told them that I won't cancel my plans because of them, but I would do it if I came back home before 8pm. Also one time during part 2 of a oneshot of quest-o-nomicon. The guy spent 1 hour summong a pet rat and screamed at me because he put it at the front of the group and I attacked it (and killed it) during combat. I replied angrily "f***ing fine,you can keep your pet rat" and attacked another character instead. At least he apologized after the game but I'm still a bit bitter. 4: Powergamer that just wants to be broken (even if he thinks that hold person is a useless spell). Is also often 30 minutes late. Sometikes cheated like when he claimed to roll hp yet always picked the max. At level 4, I told him always rolling the max is impossible and forced him to change his character hp. Also he made passive agressive comments when I said I would limit races to a few books for sunless citadel/forge of fury. He claimed that I cared more about my rules that his enjoyment of his character just because he couldn't pick booming blade as a lvl1 bard who wanted college of swords. He made his character despite my rules and was mad when I pointed it out. Thas was the breaking point for me. 5: Chaotic player (I said that because in part 2 of night to midhallow from questonomicon, he caused so much trouble as a simic hybrid acting like randy marsh spiderman in the theater) who always want to change the game by asking 15000 questions on discord on how I would rule rules even if I already answered in the messages or the house rules. Most of the time, he can find the answer by just reading the official rules. I became more strict on restricting content because he kept draining me by analysing all the stuff he kept asking me about. Also he wrote passive agressive replies when I didn't allow his homebrew subclass from critical role for SC/FoF modules. Update 2: I talked with the players. 3/5 (the worst ones, 2, 4 and 5) said that they were frustrated with my restrictions. That's only one of the problems though. Those restrictions were only for the adventures, but after months of explaining they still didn't understand the difference between that and a oneshot. They label everything a oneshot just like mothers label every consoles a nintendo. They only understood when I said that an adventure is more serious than a oneshot. They never understood all this time why I kept telling them I would allow certains things only in oneshots, that I wanted to link their backstories to the story (I doubt they ever read that message), that the adventure would last months. Players are supposed to know that's the sign of an adventure and thus a more serious story, I'm not supposed to explain it to them. They now put all the blame on me for miscommunicating (even though they didn't want the session 0 and never asked me why I was restricting books) and that I needed to give an explanation for every thing I wasn't allowing. I simply told them that dms restrict content all the time, that they don't need to always explain, that we want to play rather than only do QA (we already have so much work) and that players normally ask what a dm allows and doesn't allow. Yes I could have communicated better (everyday struggle with dysphasia). I wonder though if they would have read those messages because most of them rarely do. Now with new players, session 0 will be an obligation even with people I know for a while. Player 1 wrote to me in private and told me I did the right thing. That the guys don't understand the job of a dm and that I deserve to have fun as much as the players. He hoped I have more groups (I do as a player) because I had so much enthusiasm to play.

[@pontiffsulyvahn3898]

Dear god. Good luck.

[@alexa3825]

Really sorry to tell you that but if they’re dragging things out this much it could mean it’s not really something that they’re interested in, 6 months of arranging just for a oneshot is frankly ridiculous, imo you’d be much better finding players who actually want to play rather than trying to get people who would rather be doing something else into the game. I wish you best of luck though, maybe i’m wrong and it will turn out amazing!

[@mumbles4763]

This is why you should roll premades character sheets for people who are new. Learning the creation process is difficult and time consuming for new players. Gets straight to the action. Players get to know how the game works, what they can and cannot do, and you can get them to most likely partake in the world rather than seeing it like a game. On the long note. Its a oneshot. Unless they were playing a previously made character they can carry over to other adventures and one shots they can invest in. I'd suggest premades. That way if they do die. They can understand character death is a thing and you'll have another character ready on the spot.

[@SlayerOfTheDamned]

You putting all that effort should hint lack of enthusiasm. I would’ve stopped much sooner

[@bluephoenix222]

As the others mentioned, it feels like they're just not that interested. Hopefully, if they show up, that oneshot will show them how much fun it is and they'll get interested afterwards. If not, I would suggest looking online for a group to play with, online play can be a ton of fun too. You deserve players who have as much enthusiasm as you do.

[@THEonlyAEON]

Yeah I feel this alot, DnD newbie here only had 2 sessions, 1 combat practice and 1 one shot. Going into my first campaign with online friends and sessions getting pushed back is truly understandable yet heart breaking.

[@caiogrande89]

I'm about to enter therapy and I must confess that this video gave me material to work with my therapist today. Huge hug to all fellow DM's out there

[@cameronmaas2644]

Sending positive vibes

[@Grozhevski]

Hang in there my dude

[@Silver_Knee]

Nice editing! Also, the handhelt camera shots in the end really lets you feel the despair.

[@valak0284]

I definitely relate to this as the most responsible player in the group. Scheduling is crazy for some adults, but it makes matters worse when nobody communicates properly. Heck sometimes even our dm cancels at the last minute.

[@anachronity9002]

3:21 this is so relatable the one person who was 100% able to keep the original schedule can't do any of the alternative days, but you'd feel like shit for excluding them when they were the only one who *could* keep to the original schedule.

[@Dave004]

Our group meets once every 6 weeks or so and even then its really hard to get people to agree to a time. I honestly don't know why half the people in my group even want to play D&D if they can only meet once every 6 weeks (and even scheduling that day takes so much effort and planning for everyone to agree).

[@BenRangel]

Reminds me of my group. Trust me - people might love playing, just don't wanna do it that often. I'm one of them. It's similar to other activities like going fishing or whatever - I love it, but I have lots of things going (fishing, dnd, board gaming, hiking, whatever)

[@Dave004]

@@BenRangel I mean i'd be fine if we were meeting once every 6-8 weeks and playing one shots, its just hard to keep a campaign going with those kinds of breaks in between I find. You get excited about your character lvling up or whats going to happen next in the campaign after you play and then realize you have a 2 month wait lol

[@MartyBrotherChannel]

That little cloud of dust floating up when he kneeled in the dirt was so cinematic, I loved that so much XD

[@JamesTaylor-oh1sd]

I could never express how true this is. I have started way too many campaigns just for them to fall through because of scheduling. Luckily I have a consistent group right now though!

[@RocKaFella57]

Are they like mid 20s and older? I swear I couldn't find consistent groups until I played with people nearing their 30s lol

[@VosperCDN]

A consistent group is like the Holy Grail for DM's.

[@louissaling1417]

An XP and Ginny Di collab? Hell yeah, i hope there are more in the future. I like both channels for different reasons and combining them is ideal. Is multiclass KZbin a thing?

[@noahmcdonald686]

I use Doodle to schedule everything with my players. It's got a pretty simple group polling system. Also there are some discord bots that can help with scheduling too! I scheduled my first session via texting and that methodology was put to rest REAL fast 😅

[@An123Observer]

I can really relate to this video. As a Dm, the hardest part isn't the endless hours of prep, or the running the session. It's scheduling the sessions. At least my current party is ruthless about players who can't make it. If you can't make it, you become a NPC and the remaining players vote on how to use you. It's a pretty good system. Once I missed a session, and then discovered that I had been pimped out... People generally try to show up. Also if too many people are away, we declare an in person games night.

[@zachariahedwards8817]

Me thinking at the end there was going to be some magical solution to this common problem we all face but no.. just depression

[@saintmayhem9873]

My D&D party feels personally attacked. Roll for initiative.

[@meta-less]

My group went on a 10 month hiatus because of scheduling issues, we recently had a game a few days ago, it’s amazing how far sheer drive and/or well meaning spite can get you

[@IgorBazelan]

After a certain age, this is scheduling literally *anything* with friends who have jobs and/or kids and/or have outgrown fun

[@theseekerofdankness959]

That ending made me cry 😭 such visceral acting from Jacob truly the best DM of our generation

[@bautispidey8864]

As being the only responsible person in the group and having 5 out of 8 people are almost always in vacation because i have rich friends, or they ignore the plan and get in 17 parties and arrive in the last 20 minutes, I can confirm this is how we feel, also when your entire 15 page document as the DM gets wasted because the group found a stripper club and decided to stay there the whole session. Thank Jacob for the Keeper

[@alexa3825]

Sounds like your game is just not important to them, do yourself a favour and get yourself some proper players, there’s a ton of people looking to get into a game, no point trying to force someone who would rather be elsewhere or for whom your game is the backup option in case their primary plans fall through. I used to bend over backwards for my friends like this too but then I realised there’s no point.

[@zozilin]

Imo 8 people is way too much anyway. Cut it down to three that actually care

[@bautispidey8864]

@@zozilin They all care, they have really busy lives, and we all have a good time, youre right about being too many people, that's why next session im dividing them into 2 groups with different adventures, its all part of the plan... hopefully

[@jamescanjuggle]

thats why you get poor friends with part time jobs, fantastic people with open schedules

[@bautispidey8864]

@@jamescanjuggle Could you elaborate on that? Im not sure i got it

[@kaelin9758]

Oh I relate to this so much. I left my first group because of the constant rescheduling. I played for about a year. Lucky if we got to play once a month. I just couldn't take it anymore because I know people could make time but didn't or constantly we were cancelling last minute and I'd make time in my schedule for it to never happen. I just got so fed up with it because it felt like no one took it seriously or wanted to talk about issues we had for improvement except me and the DM. So I decided to become a DM and make my own group with different people. Has gone a lot better so far

[@traxathon4464]

This is why you 👏set a 👏regular 👏day and stick with it

[@Drazakhan_Dynasty]

This is why I'm very impressed by this gaming group that a friend of mine is in, they play EVERY week, same time, same day. Some are online some in person, they make plans to get together in the DMs home town and make the most of it, but they keep it regular and consistent, and they keep it going no matter who can't come. And they've kept this going for years. They've changed a few players here and there and started different campaigns with new characters a few times but it's essentially the one story for years. Serious commitment, will one day be in the same league as that 40-year DnD campaign WIRED did a bit on.

[@ArianaArcana]

The ending hit me hard, right in the heart

[@cameronmaas2644]

Same

[@dazeen9591]

this is why you create an excel table where people can put in free days in advance

[@ManyVoicesEd]

This seems to be just as accurate as it could be. Plus the new Fables stuff looks awesome

[@hollyberry0602]

We used to do D&D in college as a group in our first year because there was a perfect opportunity for it on Fridays at midday Then in our second year everyone’s schedule totally changed and I couldn’t make it anymore, so it became so infrequent that we just stopped entirely 🥺 I miss it really bad

[@Leighv]

I DMd a game with 10 players (never do this trust me I learned my lesson), and every week some people would just not show up without saying anything. This continued for a few months until one day 8 of the players didn’t show up on the same day. That’s when i decided to switch to experience leveling instead of Milestone. I was absolutely done with putting up with my players behaviour. It just wasn’t fair that the people who consistently showed up every week, and the people who would often skip without telling me were the same level. Now, if you don’t show up for the session you don’t get exp. And let’s just say the day only two players showed up, we had the times of our lives. The others missed out on a riveting one shot, that I was making up as I went along, about one of the characters backstories; that included villains and NPCs such as David Bowie Jewler and mentor to the PC, Rocket from the little Einsteins, and the villain Gordon Ramsay (yes they had a cook off as their final battle). The other PC was a chef with a chefs hat so tall it reached into another dimension, and the classic you killed my father it’s time to die backstory except it was just Gordon calling her father a donut and firing him and now her dad can’t get hired at any other restaurants. Best one shot ever.

[@allnighter_boy8850]

Those field shots were awesome, absolutely beautiful

[@shanggodaygang8388]

I've learned to do well with just 3 hour sessions. Really helps with scheduling too, since there's not a huge block of time to work in. Also works well because one of my players is across the country, and I don't want 'em staying up past 1:00 AM.

[@Mastikator]

Sad thing is that if my DM scheduled 3 hour game I'd likely decline, takes me an hour to get to his place, then an hour to get back. That's a bad travel time to game time ratio.

[@shanggodaygang8388]

@@Mastikator much like every solution, the effectiveness is purely situation based.

[@alphanoodle1877]

One time had a guy cancel because "my hands are tired" His exact quote

[@zadok1337]

Unf...dice, HEAVY!

[@corbeau909]

Every time I'm stressing about a TTRPG thing, Jacob reads my dang brain and makes a video. Thanks for bringing humor to an otherwise crappy situation.

[@HarmonicHewell]

We just play d&d whenever we can so we just have these monstrous 10-14 hour sessions once or twice a month

[@drazeriusdarkfang]

That last segment after Ginny's rejection is how I felt with no new XP to level 3 videos

[@ZaneCrownover]

While I also crave more xp to level 3 content, I'm sure Jacob and Spencer have their hands full with the new baby. That pose was great though! Hang in there Jacob! Release those vids when your baby overlord deems it acceptable to their will. Y'all got this!

[@oldmanshinji9662]

I feel this in my bones, between 5 of us it's 4 time zones 💀

[@Xener09]

After all the talk of DnD players being socially awkward nerds, you quickly find out how vibrant everyone's social lives are when they suddenly can't make it to any sessions

[@triccele]

This is giving me anxiety for how real it is.

[@tosmornHOF4748]

Fuckin felt this. We went from 2 sessions a week during covid to it’s been three months

[@GreyEyedHunter]

A crossover I never knew I needed, but now I want more!

[@benjaminstiles]

The fact that Giny D. just showed up randomly is hilarious

[@jackzimmer5769]

Omg what a cameo literally screamed out loud. AWESOME!! Love both of you!

[@lathanwebb543]

To me, the hardest part about dming is trying to get at least 3 people in the same room at the same time on a regular basis.

[@DygoKnight]

What's the name of the song in the end?

[@AzureKite]

Also I love Ginny D I'm happy to see her on your channel

[@DaDewd2112]

"This pit of despair is unending and I will never escape its abyss". The amount of times I've felt that is alarminf

[@BlueFrenzy]

This is why you need to schedule a day and hour during session 0. Every Sunday 6PM to 9 PM. The session is played even if you cannot assist. Instead of milestones, XP per session and if you don't assist, you don't get XP nor gold or items. We may have exceptions on holidays. If you cannot commit, then, do not apply.

[@mimipeahes5848]

How long do your games run? People in my group have moved, gotten new jobs, had to help family members and a bunch of other stuff since session 0.

[@BlueFrenzy]

@@mimipeahes5848 In my current campaign we are 9 months in and we only missed one session in august.

[@mitchellbirkhead9214]

Saturday with the boys and Sunday with the family. I got everyone into D&D, I’m pretty proud of that. But 1.5 years in and the end of lockdowns, getting everyone’s timetables aligned is horrendous 😂

[@NotTheWheel]

Replace all flakes with doppelgangers unbenounced to the players (when you vanished that one time you were murdered by evil forces and replaced like a deep ops mission, every time they flake after that was just the doppleganger receiving orders from their dark master). That way when they need them most in the group they turn evil and under the DMs control. 😏

[@JT_Lich]

This makes me glad that I only DM for 2 players that are both always available on Sundays unless they specify a month in advance

[@BlueArmorDragon]

All of the Jacobs have numbers. I think the dm Jacob is Jacob #0. Great job on the vid as pre usual

[@cameronmaas2644]

Maybe he’s Jacob prime?

[@livhrefna3885]

You already caught me breaking a laugh at the end where it cut to the sad music, then the 2nd cut made me chuckle so much lol as always love your videos lad.

[@Herr_Nachbar]

A lot of the comments here are actually a little heartbreaking, so I want to share some advice that helped me not to lose my mind to scheduling. Let your players do the scheduling. They figure out what time they are all available and THAN they ask you if it fits with your schedule. Usually players are invested enough in the game to put that bit of effort in there. I mean this really should not be to much to ask of them after you already put in the amount of work it takes to write a campaign. If your players are not interested enough in playing to work out a time, then I have some doubt that the scheduling is the problem to be real with you. Now scheduling this way you probably wont get to play the campaign every week - at least that never occured with my players. However, it really does safe you a lot of stress and I think this way it's more likely that your players are engaged and motivated to play - because otherwise you would not be playing. You can use the additional time between sessions for maybe another campaign if you like. Personally, If I get bored waiting for the next campaign session, I host a one shot. I can really recommend this, because 1. One shots are waaay easier to schedule because you do not need the same people to show up every time. (use doodle or similar apps to make scheduling even more easy). 2. You create an opportunity to invite new people to your games, ever expanding your pool of players. 3. Because one shots are really cool. You get to experiment a bit, maybe try out a new setting or system, oh, and 4. replaying one shots with new groups can really help you improve your games, writing and GM-skills. Have some fun and don't let scheduling get in the way of your own enjoyment of hosting your campaign. Happened to me once, we stopped playing. That sucked. That does not have to happen to you. Talk with your players about this, more likely than not they will understand. Great video btw, got me good with those ending shots of Jacob paralyzed by utter despair 😂

[@sepiajoy2871]

These are excellent ideas! I love the idea of letting the players handle the scheduling. I am a dm and it sometimes is just way to difficult to do it all.

[@barwlface444]

You have clearly never been a DM LMAO

[@Herr_Nachbar]

@@barwlface444 No, YOU have obviously never even played it before LOL

[@mothwhisp]

This is good advice, I have run so many one-shots out of boredom waiting for campaign players to get back from the one-after-another holidays they always managed to book. I set them all in my campaign world, so it's fun doing the world-building and establishing stories that can influence the main plot. Unfortunately, sometimes it does feel like if I left the scheduling up to everyone else, we'd just never play. D&D is my favourite thing, so comes above pretty much everything else on my priority list, but I recognise that most of the people I play with prioritise time with other friends, or family, or doing other hobbies, or work events, and are perfectly happy to play only once a month, or even less. I struggle to go a week without a session (I'm in two supposedly regular campaigns, one campaign that plays only very occasionally, and then a bunch of one-shots filling in the gaps).

[@cantaloupegodling352]

There's something so funny about just standing in despair with sad music but it's also so relatable. We've all felt that exact expression.

[@tekkitfire3]

I've been in a d&d group since October 2020 and we've played nearly every Saturday since, sometimes needing to reschedule due to work/family stuff, or skip a week for a holiday here and there(though we still played most holidays lol), but otherwise its been super constant and I am still amazed how long we've been together. We started with 2 more people than we have now, one was an edge lord who left the group a few sessions in, the other played for a year before work obligations became too much to stick with us. All this started from our DM posting an ad for players on dndbeyond, I messaged him like less than 30 seconds from when he posted it because thats just when I looked at the forum, and I dragged my brother in as well, and I am so happy with how it has gone.

[@EstebanBrenesV]

Honestly as a DM i figured a couple of ways of avoiding this, first a date that is constant, so that people get used to it, second from session 0 I never try to do sason 0 with evryone at once, I do a kick start for each character separately before the actual session 0 for the group, as a way of doing 3 things, engage each player with their background and link it to the world, get the flow of the story more naturally avoiding the you meet on a tabern and turning it into a more realistic situation (they wont bond that easily with strangers depending on certain personality stuff) and third this gets me familiarized with their way of playing and characters, after that I ask with permisson for their background and sheet to have them in case they miss a session, I also when they have something that prevents them to getto any session ask them for a small review of what their chracter was thinking the last time, and if they are not at the table I follow from there, this leads to 3 things, engaged players, players that know i wont stop if thy are afk so the sotry moves forward, so more engagement, and players that are more aware of the details, also schedules make a habit so they miss less. Making an efective way to keep the table dynamic and the players happy without the issue of having them cancelling. Also as a DM using different quirks i just a usual thing so taking the role of some characters is not difficult, I even go as far as use their same humor and negative traits often and wirt those things in a notbook in case I need them. Sincethen I haven needed to send a character away if someone is missing, and funny enough have had less instances where someone doesnt show up.

[@OrangeDragon04]

What is the name of the song used at the end? The more players you have the more difficult it is to schedule. The next session we're playing is going to be on a vacation in the mountains. All the players will be there, so there's no escape. *Evil laugh

[@Lumberjane37]

Per comments down below, it is: "A way of life" by Christoffer Moe Ditletsven ^-^

[@Lunafeir]

Yo that field is depressing as hell what great cinematography

[@Blyadsuka666]

Hi Jacob, what is ur advice for warming new players up for long sessions because I feel like we can't go for a long time because people get bored (teenagers btw) but we don't have like a set schedule a week because of school or stuff so we play only far and wide apart any advice 👍

[@cubeofsoup]

snacks and breaks for longer sessions.

[@BeverageOfSorts]

When I sense people getting bored I talk to them outside of the game to see why.. usually they're just not respecting the game for what it is.., a 1970's interactive story telling experience

[@chickeneverythingisfine9338]

Probably your best video yet. Ive never had a video so relatable especially with the ending...

[@francisweller839]

This cuts deep. Too relatable. Thank you, thank you both