Just got the player count right for my gaming group after months of guessing wrong

I've been running a weekly game night for about 6 months now and I kept struggling with how many people would actually show up. I'd pick games for 4 players and get 6, or prep a big 6 player game and have 3 people with nothing to do. It was driving me crazy because I'd spend an hour setting up Dead of Winter only to have two people cancel last minute. Last week I started a simple trick where I message everyone 24 hours before and ask for a firm yes or no reply by 9pm the night before. Turns out three people in my group were just saying 'maybe' and then flaking. So I set a hard cutoff and now I plan for exactly the count I get. First time I did it we had 5 people and played Cosmic Encounter perfectly. Has anyone else dealt with people being flaky about RSVPs? I'm thinking about starting a small fee to lock in a spot.

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarm241d ago

Haha, you basically had to become a bouncer just to play board games!

joseph_west591d ago

Man that whole maybe thing is the worst. People think theyre being polite by not saying no but it just messes up everything for the person doing the planning. Your 24 hour cutoff is smart, Ive been doing something similar for my dnd group and it cut down the flaking by like 80 percent. The fee idea is risky though, some people get real weird about paying for stuff like that even if its just a couple bucks. Maybe just stick with the strict rsvp system for a while and see if it holds up before you go that route.