I don’t plan for every character to have their personal arc advance every short session. Sometimes it’s only main story with perhaps a minor recall/reminder of an earlier point.

I draft the next few plot points for each character by: knowing the What; have a couple of ideas for How; maybe put in a loose relative chronology, but not deciding When.

So I can always throw in another characters What and semi-improvise with their most suitable How. The missed character plot point can happen next time.

Depending on the players and the story: The king wouldn’t demand the Orb if the player was unavailable, or another player would magically have had the Orb the whole time, or the king would get upset and the adventures would now be wanted criminals at risk if beheading for refusing to give up the Orb, or the kingdom would fall and the Orb would implode and warp everyone to a separate dimension made of goo.

All my groups are very good at showing up. Sometimes they can only show up online for an irl-table, or half the session, but we make it work.

If I had one be a no-show a lot I would probably suggest they DM a mini-adventure. It might make them more engaged if they’re the omniscient role and have to do the planning, or they’ll quit, or they’ll learn to appreciate the DMs time. Depending on their reason for being unreliable I would perhaps ask them to pause and return when they can prioritize the group more. And I would definitely make their arc detached from the main story and the other characters.

I’ve only invited people who have enthusiastically agreed to take the time for the campaign, and are proactive in creating their character ahead of time. The players who left so far told us several sessions in advance, so I could weave their personal finale into the story.

Not every group or player is able to do a set schedule, some tables can only book one session at a time. We make that work too.

It’s frustrating being the guy pulling his hair out freaking out over things. When people look at you they see a tin foil hat man, but you know how it works.

A few tips to better avoid the tinfoil hat-similarities:

Break up your text into more easily digested paragraphs. One chunk of text like this just seems rambling regardless of how poignant it might be.

Stick to one topic, or make the transition from one topic to another make sense. Going from spying cars, to a whole country collecting DNA through pee samples, to corporations are gangs, to fascist world order, to intelligence agencies collect child porn, to not wanting subscriptions in tech, while sprinkling in the Wizard of Oz at random times (in a more thought-out text it could be a powerful comparison to explain the issue or tie in to a red thread, but not just by mentioning the name and moving on)… It gets quite similar to the speech patterns of someone with untreated schizophrenia.

Clarify why you are making a claim. For example the one about intelligence agencies having lots of child porn: Is it a good or a bad thing? Why do they have it? And how does it relate to the topic of seniors issues with tech, or mass surveillance through phones?

Share your sources, especially for the lesser known claims. Put the relevant links at the end of each paragraph so it’s clear what each link refers to and it’s address.

I visualized “try” as watching a young child climb something that might be out of their comfort zone, so you’re letting them, but stay ready to “catch” them if something goes wrong. I suppose “throw” would be if they soiled themselves in their fall, you can throw them back into the arms of their loving parent for cleaning.

But fuck_around, find_out and yeet would be fantastic.

It’s crazy. My short stint working in child care I would always call the male parent first if I had their contacts, but it seems deeply ingrained in people to consider a mother “parent” and father “helper”.

Maybe they’d be more comfortable calling you if you called them every day “just to check up, to see how the kid is doing”, making it abundantly (and annoyingly) clear that you have nothing but time for your kid. And encourage your wife to respond “Have you called the primary contact?” whenever someone calls her.

I only have my own phone calendar, no shared alternatives unfortunately, but there is a multitude of options when you search for “family calendars”. Or create a personal calendar for your child with both of you having the password and colour code it for who is responsible for each entry.

Talk through how you want to deal with this in your family, but here are some suggestions:

Give daycare, pediatrics, classmates parents, and family and friends your contact info and instruct them to call you first hand for appointments, meetings or emergencies. Don’t ignore calls from babysitters, daycare or medical staff regardless of how important your current meeting is. You’re the primary contact.

A lot of them will still probably call your wife first no matter how hard you enforce this, so enforcing this will split the burden and responsibility.

Make sure you know your child’s SSN, birthday, allergies, sizes, current number of socks, favourite toys, and teachers and friends. Dress them for the weather they will be in throughout the day, and always pack extra because they will get wet or dirty or lose stuff.

Keep a family calendar where you can see appointments, and make sure to take a majority of those appointments if possible (plenty of responsibility will be pushed onto your wife regardless).

Add playmates and family members birthdays and other events to the calendar, and go shopping for gifts at least a few weeks before, without being prompted by anything other than the calendar. Wrap the gifts yourself or pay for wrapping at the store.

Let your wife know (or maybe add a checkbox to the calendar and check it off when the preparations are done) that it’s taken care of if it’s a shared task, but don’t bother her with it if it’s your specific job - that’s your responsibility and nothing she needs to keep in mind at all.

Keep count of diapers and socks and formula etc, and buy new (in the right size) without being prompted. You don’t need instructions for every little thing regarding your own child, you can take responsibility without being given it.