How do you manage scheduling with your fellow players? Do you have any specific tricks that help make it any easier?
My group is currently having a massive headache trying to find a time in the week where everyone is available for Veeky Forums stuff, which isn't an easy task seeing as several people in the group live in different time zones. What are you supposed to do when the only times player #1 is available are the exact same times where player #2 is unavailable?
2 groups
Alternating groups
Hope someone drops out
Not being american helps a LOT.
Having a functioning economy means we're on decent work contracts and not scrabbling for every hour we can get, and not under threat of firing/tarring/feathering if we so much as utter a 'no'.
Most of us are free on weekends, so we're mostly at the mercy of the one guy who works on the weekends sometimes. Not to mention the times we have real life social events on the weekend. Nothing to do about it but
A) Have one or more players totally restructure their lives to fit in a game
or
B) Start a game with an ironclad time and schedule, inviting only the people who can make it, probably inviting strangers just so you can have a full group
Or play-by-post, but fuck that.
We play same time and day every week. The younger under 30 players are perpetually late. My grognards are early and raring to go.
If the schedules of every single one of your players are in conflict, scrap everything and start again.
If the problem you're having is that Player 1 can only come on X-day but Player 2 can only come on Y-day, while Players 3 through n+3 can come both days...then you're going to have to drop one of them and there's no way around it.
>What are you supposed to do when the only times player #1 is available are the exact same times where player #2 is unavailable?
How is this even a question?
Something has to give.
To put it in Veeky Forums terms:
>Player 1 is 100% only available at times X.
>Player 2 is 100% unavailable at times X.
>Player 1 and Player 2 must play together in the same group.
Pick two.
Either someone has to adjust their availability or they can't play together.
That's it.
Since you seem to have trouble with the basic concept of scheduling, I'll give you this one for free:
If neither can or will budge, go with the one who's availability more closely matches the rest of the group's ideal game time.
Next time, we'll go over what to do when you have more drinks than you do coasters.
Protip: America varies a lot by the state and region and your description is a slight exaggeration.
Alternatively, you can play with one player short sometimes.
It is conceivably possible..
>europoor has to feel superior by citing a sedentary life style
>startled to hear that 40 hours a week is common for middle to high class work schedules
I'm sorry, we have interesting things to do.
My bad, should have been: "Pick at most two."
You have to have a contract just to work? Jesus,I'm sorry. What happens if you break your contract, are you just automatically terminated? I personally prefer being able to just take time off when ever I want it. If I don't need the extra money, I'll just take a long weekend or a week off out of the blue. It's pretty nice.
I work 40 hours a week, but can change my hours as I need to.
I don't get fucked around by management due to strong labour laws.
I have a goddamn union stopping me being fucked about, too.
So, you don't have an assured minimum hours, your employer isn't bound to a code of conduct, and you can just be dropped without notice or warning?
Nope. I'm guaranteed 40 hours, free to take any days off with at least 12 hours notice, can't be fired or reprimanded for taking tame off, I get paid sick leave and vacation time. All of that with no contract thanks to amazing labor laws that almost universally empower employees over employers. GG, eurotrash. Not only that, I'm not stuck in a contract so I can quit anytime I want. I could find a better job, find a job with less hours, find a job with more hours, or just live off my savings for a while.
Can I ask which state do you live in?
>All of that with no contract thanks to amazing labor laws that almost universally empower employees over employers
>I live in a state with all this swag
>Laughs a Europe even though there are places in his country w/o this
You're obviously an exception, then, or a fucking liar.
How much notice do they have to give to be rid of you? Have you any legal recourse if you come in one day and they say 'nah, you don't work here no more, man'?
Even working for a mass-market retail magacorp, I get 15 hours a week minimum, no weekends, just under 6 weeks of holiday a year (paid, and with overtime pay up to my usual amount) due to the way the law interacts with my contracted days and overtime arrangement, paid above minimum wage, and they have to give at least a week's notice (or at least a week's pay) before getting rid of me for any reason.
Pretty much the only way to lose the job these days is to make a habit out of not showing up without notifying them, or being completely and utterly useless within your 3-month trial.
I work in Oklahoma for a company based in Texas being managed by a firm some where in the west coast.
Most of these laws and protections are on a federal level. The only states that are less stringent on labor are heavily rural areas that rely on seasonal work and don't maintain regular "business" hours.
Sorry Europoors, I know you like to look down on the US because you don't live in the greatest country in the world, but unless you're in Switzerland you don't have a leg to stand on. We just went through the worst depression in the last 75 years, are finally recovering, and we STILL have the strongest national economy in the world.
MANIFEST DESTINY MOTHERFUCKERS, WE'RE JUST SO GOD DAMN BIG!
>are finally recovering
The mass of sub-prime debt and lack of job security in the younger generations says otherwise. It's going to come crashing down again, and soon.
There are these fantastic things called "employer policies". They're essentially an agreement by your employer on how they can alter your job functions and under what conditions they can fire you. They are legally binding and if your employer violates those terms you can sue for wrongful termination which often means you get your job back, any lost wages, and the employer will often settle out of court for more than they technically owed you to avoid legal fees. This is how most non shit jobs work here. If you're not working at Mackey D's then you have protections in place to protect your career. If you DO work at McDonald's, then you're either not a real adult or a completel failure by no one's fault but your own.
>sub prime debt
You mean all the credit that ghetto rich retards buy into to buy 24 inch rims for their 20 year old pontiac?
>younger generation job security
Gee, you mean 18-23 year olds who are trying to juggle school, a job,and a social life don't stay with the same employer very long? It's almost like working at Taco Bell isn't actually a career.
>A-America is going to fall!
Says increasingly nervous europoor for the 37th time this decade.
I usually have 5 players when I GM and I run games if at least 3 can show up. We are all adults, so we are usually free on weekends. We've been gaming together for years so we have a routine that everyone is comfortable with regarding missed games, scheduling and advance notice.
Several of us are GMs and we play in each others games and talk together about scheduling so there's normally a game planned for each weekend, but not more than one and no single game goes too long without a session.
The result is that there's a game nearly every weekend, and the exceptions are the weeks when a majority of us have better things to do, so it's not a big loss. It's great.