The most common complaint I hear from people who play tabletop roleplaying games is that scheduling is hard! Life these days moves fast and lots of us seem to be busy all the time, despite a glut of technologies that once promised to make our lives easier. Whether your friends work or go to school, have kids or travel a lot, getting everyone together in one place can be a nightmare. But fear not, dear adventurer, because I'm here to help! I have some tips that will make scheduling easier and get you and your party playing your next TTRPG sooner. 

 

Let's Get Scheduling

So, you're trying to get some friends together to play D&D (or Pathfinder, or Daggerheart, or GURPS, or Monster of the Week, or some other TTPRG,) and you already have a bunch of friends you want to play with. Let's start there. We aren't just going to schedule this session, we're going to make it easier to schedule subsequent sessions as well. (I know. Trust me.)

 

First thing's first, let's get a group chat going. Loath though I am to suggest anyone use a Meta property these days, most people at least have WhatsApp, so that's a good place to start. If, by some chance, you can convince your friends to install Signal, that's my recommendation. Regardless of the platform you and your party choose, having everyone in one group chat makes scheduling way easier, and it gives players a nice place to chat about their favourite moments after the game. My players have taken to listing their favourite moments in the group chat after the game, which is really fun for me to see as the DM.

 

Once everyone is in the group chat, the first thing you're going to ask them is their availability on a weekly basis: "What days of the week are you usually available?" The goal is to figure out which days of the week will never work. Sandra has a samba class on Mondays, so those are out. Tim's family does game nights on Thursdays, so no D&D on Thursdays. Once you put all this information together, you'll have a list of days of the week that should work, barring one-off things that come up. These are the days you'll pick from when suggesting dates. 

Even if not everyone in your party has a regular weekly schedule, having this information is still helpful. Peoples' work and life schedules sometimes change often, but rarely are they truly random. Some days will work better than others. 

 

Going through this exercise, you may discover that some peoples' schedules are complete opposites of each other, and that you'll have to choose someone to join the next campaign you run. That's a bummer, but at least you're figuring it out up-front. 

 

The hard work is out of the way! Pick a few dates on days of the week when everyone is usually available, and throw those out to the group. One easy way to do this in a group chat is to send an individual message with each date and have people react to the dates that they can make it. Alternatively, a poll tool like Doodle is nice, but why use another app? Don't forget to give the GM some prep time before the session. 

 

Done! Pick a day that works for everyone, get your dice and your minis ready, and play! The great thing about this approach is that you don't have to start from scratch every time; you now know that if you suggest four Wednesdays (or whatever day of the week,) you're likely to find at least one that works for everyone. 

 

One final trick for this approach: if you're playing multiple sessions, try scheduling the next session at the end of the current session. That way everyone is present and excited about playing, and it's harder for people to forget to respond.

 

Scheduling for an Online Group

One exception to this strategy is when you're trying to set up a game from an online group or a big pool of people. If you're posting on the local gaming or D&D group trying to start a game with strangers, it's often easier to pick a date and ask who can make it than to get some folks and try to schedule. "I'm running a 5th edition one-shot set in the Underdark on April 18th starting at 6pm at the local game store." is an easy thing for people to opt into. It won't always work, but you can always change the time and try again. 

 

Featured Image photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash