When will you game?

New week, new Game WISH. The question today:

How do you prioritize gaming in your life to make sure it happens on an ongoing basis? Are there circumstances or scheduling issues that make it more or less likely for you to participate in a gaming session or a campaign? How do you work around these issues, or can you?

I don’t really have that many commitments outside gaming — I tend to like to live a relatively unencumbered life. Even taking dating into account, I can swing a couple of biweekly games fairly easily. On the other hand, weekly games are a bit much of a commitment for me, which is the flip side of that attitude.

What works for me is firm scheduling, as far as possible in advance, preferably with reminders a couple of days before the fact. I like solid dates that don’t change. As I’ve hit the dire thirties, I’ve found that it’s easier to find gamers my own age who can make dates when they promise they will.

Not missing a date is important. Once a game misses two or three sessions, it’s really hard to get back into the swing of things. I’ve found another useful trick is to have something else to play — a one-shot, generally — on nights when you don’t otherwise have quorum. I’ve been thinking it might make sense to actually have characters generated for just such a night, too; I may try and convince the campaign I’m currently in to try that. (Hi, guys!)