Three Campaigns, Nine Scheduling Polls, One Saturday Night in November

The eighth poll for one Saturday in November offered five options, and the one reading "Sunday works better" led by two votes at this desk's last check. The ninth poll opened before the eighth closed. Three campaigns, six players and a quorum of four are what all nine are for.

The field narrowed early. The main campaign needs its regular night. A makeup session, lost to a November birthday, needs the same night. And a one-shot a player has promised to run before the holidays needs a night of its own, which she will not move to a weekday because, in her words, a one-shot on a Tuesday is just an errand.

Three districts remain undecided. The retail player, whose schedule posts Wednesday and is therefore permanently one step behind the polling. The household with the birthday, which cannot host and will not travel. And the sixth seat, occupied by a man who has answered every rules thread since September and posted four paragraphs on overland travel pace into the poll thread on Tuesday. The poll moved one vote that night, in the wrong direction.

Ada Gable, who lives with the game master running two of the three campaigns, says she has learned to keep quiet. "I asked once why they didn't just pick a time and hold to it," she said. "That was in March. We were four polls in by the weekend."

Tessa Caldwell, who runs the shop meetup on the same Saturday, has three of the six players on her volunteer roster and did not spot the collision until the second poll. "I get whatever's left," she said. "Whoever books first keeps the table. I booked in August."

Ada Rourke, as is her custom, issued a ruling: "Availability posted publicly within the thread is a binding declaration unless retracted in the same thread within one hour." Nothing has been retracted. Nothing has been posted.

The game master has prep ready for nights that may not run at all: a coastal town with a working harbor schedule, and a scene the party reached two sessions ago and resolved in eleven minutes.

Correction: an earlier version of this report put the sixth poll's close on Friday. It closed Thursday and reopened Friday, which cost the campaign a yes from a player who had already answered.

Nine polls have produced three yeses, two nos and four players who will commit the moment somebody else does. The ninth poll closes Sunday. Its question is whether the group should meet on Saturday at all, and its leading option, at last check, reads "Sunday works better."