The perils of scheduling conflicts

[Dog_O_War]

Wow, good on you for continuing on without that player. Seriously.

I have played and ran so many games where we'd call a session because someone couldn't make it one week, so that the storyline remained intact and interwoven with the players. And every time we've done this, it has ruined what had the potential to be an awesome game. Now we just continue on with the ones who show up; your player had some very good reasons for not coming, wish I could say the same (work my ass...).

[LostOne]

It would depend on the player. I've had players that when they say they cant' make it, they legitimately can't make it, and that is reflected by the fact that they are always there every time, except for once in a great while, and they're enthusiastic about the game as well.

I've had players that show up whenever they apparently feel like it, missing many games. Sometimes they don't even bother to call.

If it's clear to me they really want to be there and they rarely miss games, I'm willing to cancel and we can play cards or video games or go to a movie. If it's someone that misses a lot, well, screw them, their player is an NPC played by one of the players (something we usually agree to as a group) and what happens happens.

[Cinos]

I've been blessed with great players (though smaller groups with just four total players at this time, myself included, though before the collage years, was at 6), whom always showed up, though typically an hour or two late (aside from my GM assist, who became such for showing up 1-2 hours early )