From time to time, my weekly gaming group (now almost a year old!) goes through a period where almost half of the players are unavailable, usually for six to eight weeks at a time. In the past, we’ve handled this in a variety of ways, alternately proceeding with the game we’re already playing (currently 4e D&D) or playing one-shot games (Zombies, Munchkin, Kobolds Ate My Baby). However, as I have a subgroup of players who are nearly always available, I’ve recently been thinking about adding a “side campaign” to the roster, and pressing forward with that.

This, of course, would bring the number of games I’m theoretically actively running to four, which could be somewhat complex. We’re playing 4e right now, while the Mutants & Masterminds game we began with is on hold (though soon to return, I think, based on the general tenor of the group’s assessment of 4e). Meanwhile, I’m running a separate M&M game for a different group of folks. If I started up a fourth game, I’d want it to be something different…maybe Hollow Earth Expedition? Star Wars?

Something to ponder…I’m not sure I could manage a 4th campaign even if I wanted to.

Neverless, I sometimes wonder how others deal with problems like these…what do you do when you just don’t have enough people to push forward?