Hello GMs of Lemmy!
I have been a GM myself for about 7 years or so, with more or less the same players in most of my games. What I have started to run into in the recent year or so, is that I have started to lose the interest in campaigns if the sessions get canceled often.
So my question is that how do most of you deal with this issue where you might start to lose interest in a campaign in the middle of it?
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!
Gather the crew to talk and establish clear rules. Explain the issue and if you can all make it work, it will happen. If not, mayhaps it’s better to lose that motivation and invest it somewhere else.