It happens from time to time, but what I have in my adventures are scene summaries (I call "story chits") of important information I hand to all players at the end of an important scene.
Players usually get about a dozen or two of these important notes throughout the game: some are just 1 sentence, some are a paragraph in length.
For example: if a player arrives late in the middle of the story they would get this (the most immediate thing happening and several story chits of things that happened since game started):
B26
You re-call hearing a story about dragon’s creating “false treasure rooms”. False treasure rooms are designed to pacify treasure hunters and that they won’t look any further - that might lead them to the actual dragon’s horde
If players are habitually late and can't be bothered to learn the rules, said players should be cut free. This is a group activity and anyone who doesn't respect the members of the group doesn't belong within the group. It's difficult to find people to commit fully to a game. There are 1000 good reasons to not do something, so any player unwilling to ignore all of those and prioritise the game is just going to kill the game slowly through a battalion of good excuses that you might feel unreasonable when getting upset at. However, the reality is that D&D is a demanding and difficult to schedule activity that requires active participation from its players. Anyone not willing to work on their character or learn the rules while expecting you to put in the effort to "entertain them" is a liability.
Don't even bother penalising them. Tell them, if they are more than 30 minutes late to just not come at all. I know that's a difficult thing to do and that it's difficult to find players and will likely break up your game. However, as trials by fire go, it's pretty modest and if your game can't withstand it, then it's better that it fails now rather than later after you've put a lot more work in.
There is nothing that breaks immersion like inconsistency. Talk with everyone at once to figure out a schedule that includes the day and exact start time with a general end time that works for everyone. For example mine is every Wednesday from 6:30 - 10 pm.
If someone consistently fails to make that timeframe, nobody gets to play. So find people that can stick to a schedule and remove those who cant.
On my Meetup Group, if you don't attend or back out after RSVP - you are banned from the group - no exceptions. Rather have 100 considerate players than 3,000 unpredictable members. Group By-laws are stated before joining group on Meetup and emailed when some joins group:
Group By-laws: if you are a "no show" or back out of going to a session after RSVP, you will be banned from group. This ensures nobody time is wasted catering to people that don't commit. Better to have 100 considerate players than 3,000 unpredictable members.
Thanks, this really hit home
Thanks & have already changed my house rules
Thanks to the feedback I received
Much appreciated 🙏🏾
Makes sense & I’ve already abandoned the idea of penalties for lateness
Just haven’t updated in this thread yet
Thanks for chiming in 👍🏾
Points taken… thank you 🙏🏾
It happens from time to time, but what I have in my adventures are scene summaries (I call "story chits") of important information I hand to all players at the end of an important scene.
Players usually get about a dozen or two of these important notes throughout the game: some are just 1 sentence, some are a paragraph in length.
For example: if a player arrives late in the middle of the story they would get this (the most immediate thing happening and several story chits of things that happened since game started):
And game continues.
That's how I handle tardiness.
If players are habitually late and can't be bothered to learn the rules, said players should be cut free. This is a group activity and anyone who doesn't respect the members of the group doesn't belong within the group. It's difficult to find people to commit fully to a game. There are 1000 good reasons to not do something, so any player unwilling to ignore all of those and prioritise the game is just going to kill the game slowly through a battalion of good excuses that you might feel unreasonable when getting upset at. However, the reality is that D&D is a demanding and difficult to schedule activity that requires active participation from its players. Anyone not willing to work on their character or learn the rules while expecting you to put in the effort to "entertain them" is a liability.
Don't even bother penalising them. Tell them, if they are more than 30 minutes late to just not come at all. I know that's a difficult thing to do and that it's difficult to find players and will likely break up your game. However, as trials by fire go, it's pretty modest and if your game can't withstand it, then it's better that it fails now rather than later after you've put a lot more work in.
Agree, Verenti: once, twice, life happens. Forgive and move along.
There is nothing that breaks immersion like inconsistency. Talk with everyone at once to figure out a schedule that includes the day and exact start time with a general end time that works for everyone. For example mine is every Wednesday from 6:30 - 10 pm.
If someone consistently fails to make that timeframe, nobody gets to play. So find people that can stick to a schedule and remove those who cant.
On my Meetup Group, if you don't attend or back out after RSVP - you are banned from the group - no exceptions. Rather have 100 considerate players than 3,000 unpredictable members. Group By-laws are stated before joining group on Meetup and emailed when some joins group:
Dungeons and Dragons D&D 5e Adventures