(Draft Proposal for Feedback)

Dicehaven is a game club with multiple game groups. One of the game groups is Saturday Night Dice (SND), a group that has met bi-weekly since March 2014. We periodically switch Gamemasters and campaigns. Here’s a proposal (discussed by Jim Bob, Kevin, Jeff, and Stan over lunch on June 29, 2017) on how the SND group should operate long term (but only for SND; other campaigns within Dicehaven can operate differently).

  • Membership — We’ve had at various times either 6 members (1 GM + 5 players) or 7 members (1 GM + 6 players). We want to grant the 7 past members of SND ‘permanent membership’, meaning that (outside of sabaticals), all members of SND are invited to all future campaigns. [Jim Bob volunteered to sit out Fallout if Kevin wants to play (which he does) and if Mason wants to cap it at 5 members; might be moot if Jim Bob needs to take more time off past January.]
  • Group Size — The group over time will flex between 4 and 6 players (plus a GM). We won’t expand it past 6 players, and if we lose current members long-term we will discuss as a group if we will replace them.
  • Group Consensus — The group is focused on maintaining the same membership across multiple campaigns. As such, we will do surveys prior to picking a Campaign to find the intersection of what GMs are willing to run and what players want to play. We will seek to avoid campaigns, settings, themes, or RPG rules systems that one or more members simply detest. We have Campaign Charters to dig deeper into group preferences before all campaigns.
  • Regular Attendance and Sabbaticals — Members should strive to make at least 2/3’s of games within a campaign. If the member foresees falling below this average (due to travel, family situation, work/life balance, etc.) then the member should consult with the current GM. If the campaign is heavily episodic, perhaps the member can still participate when they are available. In many cases a sabbatical may be the answer. A sabbatical consists of a member exiting the campaign for a period of several months, and returning to play once they are able to consistently attend games.
  • Exiting Members and Extended Sabbaticals — Sabbaticals should normally last a few months at most. If a member needs (or wants) to stop attending regularly for an extended period of time (maybe more than 9 months?), then the group should discuss with the member if they should exit exit the group, effectively giving up their membership and allowing the group to back-fill their slot by adding a new member. There may be exceptions to this. Consider a case where a member takes a 9+ month sabbatical from a campaign that is likely to end in 12 months. The group has 6 active players, and they may simply decide not to replace the player and instead grant the member an extended sabbatical and wait until the next campaign begins to see if the member on sabbatical can at that time return to regular play.
  • Options for Alternative Dicehaven Campaigns — All SND members are also members of the broader Dicehaven game club which has 3-5 concurrent campaigns running at any given time. If SND’s schedule becomes problematic for a member, keep in mind there are other campaigns that come and go, and our hope is that you’ll find another game in our broader club that more closely matches your schedule and needs. As a Dicehaven member, we’d like to game with you for years to come, even if you switch game groups from time to time or take time off.
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