So What Now?

In the last few weeks, my D&D 5e game has lost both of the two original players. This takes us back down to only two players, which is really less than I would like to continue the game with. I've put out a call for more players, but there weren't any takers, nor do I really expect there to be.

The most likely consequence of this is that the game will simply stop. Indeed, unlike the Star Wars campaign earlier in the year, this one will not be brought to any sort of a conclusion - it will simply die. Which is a real shame, but given that we're only two sessions in, that's not too bad.

As far as I can see, the root cause of the issue here is simply one of bandwidth: we have several campaigns running concurrently, and people simply don't have the ability to commit to one more. Plus, given that my schedule basically restricts me to alternate either Tuesdays or Wednesdays, this further limits the number of people who can attend.

Unfortunately, I can't see that changing. And I really don't want to set up a campaign and then find myself scrabbling around for a quorum every session - the ideal is to have a group of five players signed up and be assured that we'll reliably have four of those (not necessarily the same four) in attendance at each session. But that dream scenario really seems like an impossibility just now.

The consequences of that are... less than ideal. Firstly, in the immediate term, it looks like that D&D game is dead. I'll give it to the weekend, but if we don't get at least one more sign-up then I'm going to call it.

Secondly, my plans to run two mini-campaigns next year are also shelved for the time being. The mooted Firefly game in February has attracted surprisingly little interest, and since it should be the more popular of the two there seems little point in even contemplating the other. There's obviously just too much else going on, and I just don't have the fortitude for a third fizzled campaign.

That leaves the question of one-shots. Again, this year hasn't been terribly successful - neither "A Lament for Lustivan" nor "Ultraviolet: 2XS" managed to attract a quorum. I'm still hopeful that the Christmas Game will go ahead, but we'll need to see - Christmas is always a tricky time for gaming. Beyond that, though, I'm not planning any one-shots.

The answer to the question "so what now?" once again seems to be an enforced break from gaming. I'm not entirely sure that that's such a bad thing.