Should I postpone Session Zero, so an irregular player can attend

absent-playersattendancesession-zerosystem-agnostic

I am currently trying to start a campaign with a group of friends and our Session Zero was scheduled for next week.

One of my players has now told me, that he is unsure, if he will be a part of our campaign. I suggested that instead of leaving entirely he became an irregular player, i.e. he will be there when possible, but I will not count on him being there. This is fine for me, as I have 3 other players who will attend regularly. And it won't make a big difference whether a session has 3 or 4 people showing up for it. Of course, I will ask the other players first if this is fine for them as well.

This player has also told me, that he is unable to attend our scheduled Session Zero. This makes me think. If this player decides to only attend on an irregular basis, should I reschedule Session Zero or hold it without him?
Should I postpone the start of our campaign for the regularly attending players, so an irregular player can take part in Session Zero?
If I reschedule, there is no guarantee, that this player will be able to attend on the rescheduled date. I might have to reschedule multiple times until he can be there.

Other things, on my mind are, that Session Zero might even take 2 evenings for us, as I have a lot of things that I want to discuss with the group. What if he can attend only one of them? I am also planning for him not to be present at the first Session, but to join the group after the regular players and I have played for a few (let's say 3-5) sessions and have become accustomed to each other, as to not overcomplicate things.

The obvious answer would be to talk to the other players, which I will do, when we meet next week. But still I am wondering, what a general best practice would be in such a case. Should Session Zero only include people who want to attend regularly? Should I hold of on starting a campaign so that someone, who isn't as much part of it as the others, can attend Session Zero?

Best Answer

Short and to the point, and this is actually general life advice for a lot of things: If one person is not committed, and assuming they aren't critically important for the thing you are doing, make your plans with and for those, who are committed. Trying to accommodate uncommitted people will only lead to frustration, in the likely case that they never join. It can even lead having whole thing (your RPG campaign here) lose momentum and fall apart.

Also, having been in the shoes of the uncommitted person (unrelated to RPGs but similar activity), it can be frustrating when someone tries to accommodate you, but you know there's a good chance it's in vain, and you will not be able to do the thing at all. I mean, I get it, they want me there, the thing could really use one more person, but there are lot of overlapping priorities in everybody's life.

So just do session zero with three players. Let the fourth player know they can join over video call (or just normal call) between X and Y o'clock, if it's not too much of a hassle.


In general your plan A should always be that infrequent players won't be able to attend. Make a rough plan B if you need to adapt to them showing up, but use your prep time for your regular players and maximizing their (and therefore your own) fun. Until an uncommitted person has proven that when they do say they will show up, they will show up, assume they are likely to cancel or just not show up. After they've proven to be reliable, you can and should start including them in your plan A, but until then do not let them get in the way of prepping for the regular players.