CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
My gaming group and I always struggle to coordinate our busy schedules with our gaming schedules. It seems that no matter how many tools I use, no matter how many text messages or emails I send out, there is always at least one person who refuses to participate.
But on a bad week? Hoo boy. Tom will yell at Joe for not answering his email, and then Bob will cancel at 6:45 p.m. which causes the whole session to get cancelled, so Jan now has to call the babysitter and tell her not to come, and then Chad will send a blast message to everyone on Discord about basic consideration and being respectful of everyone's time, and Bob will get his feelings hurt and leave the group, and then I'll have to go outside and scream for a few minutes. The neighbors are starting to complain.
So anyway, yeah. I'm curious how everyone else coordinates their gaming sessions. Are there any tools or apps that you use?
- Joe doesn't check his email. Like, ever. I might as well be sending emails to donotreply@google.com or something. According to the return receipts, he hasn't opened a single gaming-related email since 2014. (He will open other emails from me, just not the ones from the gaming group.) He's quite responsive with tweets and texts, but if you need to send him more than 140 characters, he will ignore it.
- Bob won't update the online calendar--it's not because he can't, or that he forgets, or that he is too busy, he flatly refuses. "I like to keep my free time open, I don't wanna be tied down," he will say, in an infuriating tone of voice that suggests he is wiser and more learn'd than the rest of us, the same tone of voice that is usually reserved for pithy proverbs like "patience is a virtue." He does what's easiest for him.
- Jan is highly allergic to social media. She doesn't have a Facebook account, does not have a Discord login, does not use Twitter or TikTok or Instagram or Pinterest, and she has informed us that she will never, ever, have any social media programs of any kind, god as her witness. "If you want to get ahold of me," she says, "you know my phone number. You remember how to use a phone, right?" She will read and answer emails and texts with frightening efficiency, though: she's always the first to read our D&D correspondence, and always the first to respond.
- And on the other end is Tom, who loves social media so much that he has a new favorite program or app every week. If you send him a text or email, he tries to respond via Facebook. If you connect with him on Facebook and direct him back to the Discord channel, he will send multiple angry texts to Google Chat, MS Teams, and Facebook before he finally remembers "oh yeah, this group uses Discord." He never has the current email chain, or the current calendar.
- Chad and Kevin are diligent at reading and responding to our messages, and keep the calendar updated. No complaints. (They are also former DMs of this wacky group.)
But on a bad week? Hoo boy. Tom will yell at Joe for not answering his email, and then Bob will cancel at 6:45 p.m. which causes the whole session to get cancelled, so Jan now has to call the babysitter and tell her not to come, and then Chad will send a blast message to everyone on Discord about basic consideration and being respectful of everyone's time, and Bob will get his feelings hurt and leave the group, and then I'll have to go outside and scream for a few minutes. The neighbors are starting to complain.
So anyway, yeah. I'm curious how everyone else coordinates their gaming sessions. Are there any tools or apps that you use?
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