Your DnD Party is Too Big [the maths of scheduling]

The problem only happens when a group feels they need to delay if someone can't make it. As a GM I have a set day/time and play without the missing players.

Yeah, we have a set day and time, and will only reconsider if 2+ people are missing
- I still play even if 2+ can't make it. It will depend on your group but my group of 6 has 2 very flaky players.
If there are three players present I'll run. Unless there is something big upcoming, then we'll discuss if we want to postpone. I usually say "I want four players, so I'll recruit to five, and run with three".

Really fun video. Getting a consistent group together is probably the hardest part of running a game. If you can enjoy a game with even as few as one or two players, that can work well.

I use a few tricks to keep groups going:

Have six full-time players.
Have two "on call" players – these are players who are interested but might not be able to commit regularly and are willing to jump in when a spot is open.
Run with as few as four. This means it takes five people cancelling before you can't run a game.
Run at a consistent time each week.
Run shorter games – I go for 3 hours.

That's helped me keep multiple groups going for ten years with one group consistent for about 20 years.

I like six players, run with three, if you can't make it someone runs your character. If three can't make it everyone runs two characters.
- You don't even need to have someone else running their character. Just say that the character is busy/drunk/sick whatever match their role-play. Or simply have an agreement with the PC that despite being unrealistic for the sake of the game, nobody will wonder why a character can be absent in the middle of space or a dungeon without any justification.
  I understand that in game with a big focus on party balance/tactic it may-be different but this kind of the game is the exception not hte norm
My solution is to run with as few as 2+me (the DM), and use a play structure that doesn't require the same players to be present at every session. We always end rhe session in a safe location (town, safehouse, etc). If someone can't make it, they're just in suspended animation along with their gear and hirelings/retainers until they're back.
Just not sweating the fact that it's a game has gotten me a very consistent game every two weeks like clockwork.

I always set a quorum for my groups. Usually it's like "If there's 4 players, we play with 2"