>>164955>individuals have been absent, but the group has made it happen.That doesn't always work in some games.
Sometimes, a treacherous dungeon requires nothing less than the entire party's combined strength to conquer, so it's likely to result in a TPK if the party's Cleric, Martial tank, Trapfinder or Mage vanishes in the middle of it and the party pressed ahead anyway (resulting in the death of every character who's player showed up, but not the one who was absent). Sometimes a game has character-specific content developed over the course of a year that would be disappointing for said character to miss out on.
Or sometimes the party would just rather wait for the player to play, because they like that player and know they'd appreciate that part of that session's content more if they were there. Sometimes parties are willing to wait for their friend, even if it means some frustration, because the value that their friend brings to the table is better than whatever fun they might've had pressing ahead with the story.
For cases like that, I'll sometimes prepare a backup session with some inconsequential, low-crunch sidequests for the remaining players to enjoy, or let them talk to NPCs and explore the world through dialogue and skill checks, instead of tackling the death-trap megadungeon or going through the climatic peak of the story's dramatic arc.
My most recent games that I DM'd have only luckily missed a couple sessions out of 2-3-ish years, but on the couple weeks I did cancel it was either because the group was cool with it, or because it happened that more than one player had trouble (college exam season).
However, I've born witness to other groups with exited players and dedicated DMs who all really wanted to play but couldn't because of cursed scheduling that prevented them from even having session 1.
>You still havent grasped the Roleplayer's Social Contract yet.Now you're just being pretentious. Every table is unique, and everyone handles scheduling differently.
You must not played with very many different groups to have that outlook, because scheduling difficulties are the one of the most prominent frustrations for roleplayers everywhere, especially for new GMs who don't always have the skill to handle it. Not everyone has the same favorable circumstances as you.