Attendance Policy

Adventuring Commitment

StartPlaying was built to make scheduling easy and fair for both Game Masters and players.

However, when players cancel late or miss sessions often, it disrupts the story, hurts committed players’ enjoyment, and directly impacts the professional game master who depends on filled seats to maintain a consistent schedule and income.

This Attendance Pledge exists to protect everyone’s experience to ensure campaigns stay stable, immersive, and rewarding. By honoring this standard, you help create a dependable table where every player’s time, creativity, and investment are respected.

1. Attendance Expectations

Players are expected to attend sessions regularly and on time to ensure consistent storytelling, balanced gameplay, and fairness for your fellow adventurers.

2. Early Campaign Commitment

Early inconsistency is one of the strongest predictors of campaign instability.

To ensure a strong foundation, players are expected to maintain consistent attendance during their first four play sessions after campaign onboarding to establish themselves as a member of the party. Otherwise, their spot will be offered to another player who’s able to commit more consistently, to help keep the campaign stable for everyone.

3. Ongoing Attendance Standard

After proving initial commitment, occasional absences are understood and manageable as long as they’re communicated promptly. Even when absences are understandable, the impact on the table is the same.

Players who miss more than two sessions within any rolling eight-week period for any reason, regardless of advance notice or emergencies, will be asked to step down from the campaign.

4. Communication & Responsibility

Please openly communicate any attendance updates in your party chat to help your party plan and maintain group cohesion.

Players are responsible for:

Updating their attendance through StartPlaying at least 24 hours in advance.
Understanding that late cancellations or no-shows will result in a non-refundable charge, per platform policy.
Notifying me as soon as possible in the case of emergencies (fees may be waived at the GM’s discretion).

5. In-Game Absences

If absent, a player character fades into the background and does not appear in roleplay or combat.

6. Game Master Cancellations

If the game master ever needs to cancel for any reason, the group will be notified promptly.

No charges will apply.

7. Engagement & Group Energy

Campaigns are sustained not only by attendance, but by active participation.

Players are expected to bring energy, curiosity, and collaboration to each session, including roleplaying with one another and taking initiative in the story.

If a group consistently lacks engagement or cooperative energy, such as a table where players wait passively for direction or avoid interaction, the game master reserves the right to pause, rework, or retire the campaign to protect the quality of the play experience.

8. Refund Policy

You can learn more about StartPlaying's refund policy here.