Players don’t want to start game when they’re supposed to. Players don’t want to wander into the allotted game space at the very beginning of a session. These two statements are like death and taxes, but if you take the proper measures you can inspire a culture where players expect the game to be on time, are incentivized to be there on time and get a lot more out of their session as a result.
Incentivize starting on time
I put this first because it is the single best way to get players hopping. Give them a reason to be on time. In the past I’ve used two different rewards that helped condition my players to be at the session ready to start at my usual time. If a player shows up before my opening circle began I always granted them an experience point. If they had an explained tardiness and told me in advance (email/phone call/text) I’d cut them some slack, since things like family and work can (justifiably!) get in the way of roleplaying. Secondly, and infrequently, I’d frontload my sessions with interesting story. If players got to game late they would every once in a while miss something cool and usually something beneficial.
Lay out your expectations
If you’ve been reading so far I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about the need for a player/ST contract so that players understand your expectations for them (and vice versa). This is a two way street. A player should never have any doubt about when a game is starting or where a game will be played because their expectation for you is that you’ll give them suitable notice and they should reciprocate by being ready to go when you told them to. Let them know that whatever they’ve seen in other games is irrelevant – in this game you expect your players to be on time, in costume and ready to play.
Be consistent
If you expect your players to start on time you must continually be ready to start your game on time. If a player sees that game start at 7:15 instead of 7:00 even once they are going to internalize that they can show up at 7:15 and not miss anything. Don’t change your start time between sessions, so that there’s never any confusion. This goes for dates as well; if you play every other Friday make sure you play every other Friday, regardless of how many cancellations you get. It is better to cancel a game date outright (in my opinion) than to try and move it.
Start the game anyways
It doesn’t matter how many people are there at the start time, just get the ball rolling. When players wander in to see roleplaying already occurring chances are they are going to try harder to be present at the start next time. You cannot wait for a single, important character whose player just happens to be running late, since it causes consistency problems and permits players’ bad habits. Instead, as a storyteller, come to the session with the expectation that the player is going to be late and have a pre-built justification for why the important character isn’t there. If your session absolutely demands the presence of a single character in order to be effective you are doing it wrong.
Restrict access
Players have an uncanny habit of dragging their feet and not going into game the moment the game starts, and very often have questions that could have easily been answered days and days ago. I understand that often these questions can be important, but more often than not these same players saunter into the game space with ten minutes until opening circle, when they could have come earlier to ensure their question got answered. My answer is to simply not answer their questions once the session has started, almost regardless of how important those answers may be. Usually I’m in the game space before the players are.
This may seem like a pretty obtuse solution, but trust me… once the players realize that it’s not going to happen they find a way to make sure that next time they give themselves plenty of time.
Explain yourself
Let your players know that you want your LARP to start on time because it means that there’s going to be more time to enjoy the session. Many of the venues that I’ve seen used have cut off times, and even if you don’t get kicked out of your venue many of your players have jobs that prevent them from becoming nocturnal. The more in game time, the more fun there’s going to be, and when you explain it that way how your players not want to help you out?
Thank your players
I think we all undervalue one of the best forms of positive reinforcement: the acknowledgement. When they do it right, and you’re happy let them know. This may seem like a radical concept to some, but trust me when I say it works. Fortunately it’s also one of the cat-herding techniques that is the easiest to do, and has the best returns out there. If you haven’t tried it yet, even if you’re skeptical, just give it a try. Oh, and don’t let your players catch you calling them cats. They don’t like that for some reason.
by Daemonworks
08 Feb 2012 at 21:30
Meow.
by rjp
09 Feb 2012 at 01:58
Ok if an ST ever did the following, I’d likely never return to that game: “Instead, as a storyteller, come to the session with the expectation that the player is going to be late and have a pre-built justification for why the important character isn’t there.”
If the player is late (important or not), the ST should NOT be deciding anything for that player unless such communication between ST & player have been made ahead of time and/or before game. This would be such a breach of trust and would break the ST/Player contract idea.
I fully understand keeping the game running on time but never at the cost of dictating anything to other players about a certain player. A huge draw for LARP is based upon the idea that the players have control of their characters. Take that away & that LARP game is no longer the same game anymore.
by larpdr
09 Feb 2012 at 21:29
Hey RJP,
I think you’re misconstruing what I said. I said “have a pre-built justification for why the important character isn’t there.”
Dictating an action as a storyteller for a character should be a matter of last resort, but finding a justification for a character to be late to a session is easy, even if the character was expected to be very prominent in that session. (The character was caught in traffic, lost track of time while hunting, got an important call that they simply had to take, etc…) Coming up with this justification in advance means having a better rationale than if I were to simply throw something together at the last minute.
If a player doesn’t extend the courtesy of getting in touch with me because they are running late before a session I’m going to start it on time, my way. Even if the player does get in touch with me, the game is still starting on time, but in a way that works for both the player in question and myself.
by Daemonworks
10 Feb 2012 at 18:05
Also, if somebody has contacted the ST and says they are going to be late, it’s pretty trivial to discuss options for why they’re late…
Also, it’s certainly not out of line for the ST to provide a reason like “you got caught in a traffic jam” or any of a few hundred other possibilities that don’t involve deciding anything for the character…