I’m usually the one who cancels my online game – my job requires after hours work semi-regularly – but planning out way in advance with a big roster has been really nice and relaxing. Everyone is respectful of everyone’s schedules, so there haven’t been any real problems across the three games mentioned above.

I am glad you enjoy them. Wrestling is largely storytelling on fairly tight timelines, using action to carry most of the weight – 3 hour programs not withstanding. I’m a big believer in taking queues from other, successful mediums.

I think the crossover is of fair size. It might be disingenuous to call it large, but probably 1 in 4 tabletop players I know are either active or past fan (sample size of 200ish, probably).

Luckily in this part of the world we do not have to cope with that big gaming groups and even more particularly, yours truly has to do with a gaming group of 7-8 (theoretically) grown men. The good thing about this is that six (or seven in rare occasions) PCs consist a manageable group at game time plus we can proceed to the game even if half of the PCs are absent.

Should any of the players is absent, his PC participates in the session as normal although he is played by one of the other players. All of the players send me copies of their char.sheets after each session, so we can cope with cancellations easily.

The real problem is when the DM cannot attend, but let’s just say he tries his best to do so.

Piggybacking on Colin’s point, I’ve run my campaign in the Stable style since 2012. We’ve missed fewer than half-a-dozen sessions that I could have attended due to lack of player availability, and in 74 sessions I don’t think I’ve ever had to cancel at the last minute because too many people bailed. Sometimes that means I run a session for just three people (this has happened, uh, once? twice?), but that is fine and good – three-person teams have been some of the best, because everyone gets so much spotlight time. There are 18 active players (“active” here is loosely defined, but let’s go with “have played in the past 12 months”), 14 former players (“have not played in the past 12 months”), and in total 54 characters.

The nature of the kraken-related accident is yet to be determined – the plotting of some things was done via connection webs and through the Technoir story method, so it will be revealed as they look into it. The players have thus far decided it’s far too high-level for them to do yet – a decision they came to because they decided the kraken was a specific ancient sea monster of lore. It could be the kraken of the rum brand. I have no idea.

I have found the rotating roster method to have less last-minute cancellations for a few reasons. Since the spots are generally limited – more people could play than may play – there is a certain level of social pressure to live up to your commitment. Claiming a spot and then not going is sure to draw the ire of others that could have made it to the session. This goes hand-in-hand with posting the schedule far in advance and confirming the roster prior to the game occurring. Since it’s public, it doubles down on those group pressures.

Since the games run rarely, each one is scheduled for a longer time and is treated as more of an event. I focus heavily on set design, custom miniatures, soundtrack, and a few other tangibles, the estimable Brandes Stoddard focuses on text props and does company management, the third game focused on text props, city building, and “quick-time events” that were about world discovery.

It’s important to note that the rosters between the three games have overlap, but are not the same rosters. The game Brandes runs has maybe 30% overlap with my roster, and my roster then has maybe 50% overlap with the third person’s roster. It’s possible all 30ish of us are likeminded to that degree, but the leverage of the societal constructs are probably doing the heavy-lifting for us.

The kraken was drinking and got behind the wheel?

Anyway, I’ve tried this sort of thing, to some extent. It can be challenging and I’ve found that players aren’t always as up for it as they claim to be or have expectations that are out of whack with the reality of the game. In other cases it can get kinda abusive, with last minute cancellations and such really throwing the DM’s plans in the toilet. The players really need to step up to be able to make things work. But if you’re getting it to work, fantastic.

Online gaming helps a good bit, but it too has some notable challenges. However, online has let me keep alive some longtime gaming groups that really worked well for me. We get together in meatspace a few times a year but otherwise do things online. That works out well.