In praise of the monthly game

If you go on any forum or look up any RPG pundits videos, eventually, you’ll see someone ask how often a group should game. Some take a hardline stance, insisting that weekly is the only way forward. Other groups (generally those who are a bit older with more demanding calendars) will land on every other week. Today, I want to try to sell at least a few people on the least popular option:

The monthly game.

My calendar is a mix of bi-weekly and monthly games, and I love it. I have a large group of people I want to play with, and a ton of material and systems I want to run, and adding a few monthly slots has helped me get more of what I want. Right now I’m in / GMing six monthly games, something that would be impossible if I stuck to games that happened more often.

Pros

One thing that will always stun me is how casually people will ask for a weekly game. That feels like such a huge ask when you have a family, a job, and other hobbies. Unless I have a legal obligation to you, you’ll probably not get a chunk of my time every week.

Once a month, though? That’s a much smaller ask. That’s easy to schedule around. I can clear my evening one Sunday afternoon a month, but it’d be a rough sell, saying I can’t go out ANY Sundays from now until whenever.

There’s also more wiggle room. While I tend to keep games on the same day of the week, the date we play can shift to fit everyone’s schedules. As long as I get in early, I can get a quorum. I consider three players enough, since my groups are okay with adding a GMPC to the party for a session or two.

Finally, you can fit in more games! A monthly slot takes up way fewer evenings that a bi-weekly or weekly, so you end up having more room to run different systems or adventures! This has been one of the only ways for me to work through the Paizo Firehose of Content and satisfy my cravings for different systems.

Cons

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, of course. There’s some downsides to running a monthly game.

First, people can lose track of where they were after a long pause. This even applies to the GM, who may have forgotten exactly what rooms were cleared or who the players met or what hooks had been tossed out. A month can feel like a lifetime between sessions.

You also build less familiarity with a sheet you touch less often. Even if you have an aide, like Hero Lab, many players will struggle to remember how certain feats slot together or what they have rattling around in their bag.

In the same vein, missing a session hurts a lot more when the game is only once a month. Two months between sessions can lead to a loss of momentum, and more than that can lead to people assuming the game is dead. It can be difficult to recover from long gaps without being extremely proactive, and that’s not a trait everyone has.

Also, unless you plan for it, games can feel like they drag. Every campaign has a session or two where not a lot gets done, but these don’t hit as hard when you play more often. There’s a need to keep the game going at a decent clip when it doesn’t happen very often.

And… some people just don’t want to do a monthly game. Even if that’s the only thing that works, even if that means they’ll have no game at all, they just don’t want to bother. So, you might have to cull some players from your roster at the outset.

Suggestions

Even with all of those cons, there’s ways to work around them! Well, except for the last one, but that’s the case for pretty much any choice in the TTRPG landscape: Some people just don’t wanna.

Over-recruit. If an AP suggests four players, I recruit six. If we have three who can make it, we have a quorum. This keeps us from missing sessions and losing momentum, and it doesn’t kill the game if one or two decide they really don’t like the format.

Cull beforehand. This kind of game requires communication, because you’ll be setting up dates every month that aren’t regular. If you have a friend who is the kind who says they’ll get back to you and then never does, this isn’t going to be a fit for them. I’m sure they’re lovely, but stick to regular games with them.

Consider speedrunning! I’m currently doing this with my Frozen Flame group, and it’s working quite well! Players can get through a ton in one session, but are still challenged at the end of the book.

Cut out the fluff. Unless you think your players will really love an extra encounter or a side plot, cut it. Time is precious in a monthly campaign, so spend it wisely.

Focus is key! Start sessions on time, and watch the banter. Use every second you have to move the plot forward and have fun in game. If you know a friend is almost always late, either consider culling them, or have an in-game explanation for why they always wander into the action late.

Reset between sessions. At the end of the session, everyone gets a chance to rest and reset. Keeping track of sheets can get rough with larger gaps, so it keeps things simple if you always know that you can reset everything at the start of every session. Also, it gives you a chance to shift the party if you need to pull someone different in, or let someone else stay at the inn because life got hectic.

Finally, record your sessions. You will 100% forget small details after a month, and if you have a recording, it’s easy to go back and check to see if the players triggered a certain hook or found that important piece of treasure. There’s dozens of apps for screen recording, but I use OBS, since I already have it set up for when I stream. If you do this, though, make sure players know ahead of time that you’re recording sessions, and what your policy is on uploading the videos later. Some groups, I’ll make an unlisted YouTube playlist, others get a link to the files in my Dropbox account, and some I don’t share at all because a player requested it.

Final thoughts

Look, I know the monthly game isn’t going to be everyone’s bag, but I do think everyone should try it at least once. It can be a great way to play with people who have busy schedules, get through material you otherwise wouldn’t have time with, and maybe mess around with some systems you don’t want to dedicate a ton of time to otherwise.