Heroes beyond thirty

Most of us have probably started playing when they were teenagers or when they entered college. We didn’t have a significant other, probably no job, a lot of free time and an overflowing imagination. Ah, those were the days. I can still remember roleplaying sessions that started early in the afternoon and ended well after midnight. We played every week and met in a friend’s cellar room that was heated by a wood stove. It was our roleplaying “dungeon”. 😉

Later at the university we usually met every two weeks with our Rolemaster group and almost every weekend with my Shadowrun group. We had a lot of free time and everyone was living close enough to organize weekly meetings. I am now 33 years old and have a 42 hours per week job. Although I have much more money to buy all the nice miniatures, roleplaying rules and dice, it’s harder than ever to organize a roleplaying sessions.

Since we are all occupied during week days, we only meet on weekends. And even then it’s hard to get all players to the table. Someone always has some previous appointment, like a friend’s birthday, marriage or something like that.

I still enjoy roleplaying games very much and I would like to play much more often but real life always comes in the way. How do other “heroes over thirty” cope with these problems? Do you just accept that you can’t play that often or do you have some tips for your fellow senior gamers?