Holidays Killed My Game

Posted on Dec 20, 2010 | 1 comment

I ‘tis the Season for traditions and family, all normally scheduled programs are off the air, you have holidays from classes and work, and unfortunately most game sessions are put on hiatus too. Unfortunately, Newton’s Laws affect games too, to paraphrase the late great father of physics: A session on hiatus tends to stay on hiatus. So if you’re anything like me you have also noticed that the holiday season is often a death knell to running campaigns, regular game nights, blogs , and best intentions of gaming groups all over.

After losing many sessions to this annual extinction, I’ve tried several strategies to nurse them through this cold time usually to no avail. Still I want to share my newest strategies to beat the holiday blues.

1. End your game on a cliff hanger before you lose any players.
2. Set a firm return date; I find firm schedules are essential to keeping regular game nights alive.
3. Keep your regular day as long as possible with one shots and board games.
4. Finally, as the holiday season dawns, whatever you do, do not let your game day just fade away. Go out with a bang! Make sure it is something fun or otherwise fulfilling. Leave your players excited about the next session. Give them something to mark on the calendar and return to in the New Year.

I hope these ideas help you keep your games alive and feel free to comment with any of your own ideas. As the holiday season is here, I will, like most of your games, be taking a break till the New Year. My priorities for this holiday is to explore specific holiday activities of our new city, set up plans to join the Toronto Gamer Community in the New Year (such as the TAG Meetup Group), and to catch up on Free Spacer.

Happy Holidays!