AITA for kicking my friends out of my game
I've been running a Pathfinder 2E for a year. A few players have come and gone (conflicting schedules, mental health, one just ghosted), but from the beginning, it's been me (the GM), my fiancée (Kate), my friend Albert, and my other friend Sophie. Eventually, we added Zack, whom we met on Discord, and who has been an absolutely great player.
Quick context: Albert likes D&D 5E, which he has DMed occasionally, but all his games fall apart because, frankly, he can't deal with any scheduling issue and just calls the thing off as soon as any inconvenience arises. It's no secret he prefers D&D 5E to PF2E, which I respect. I am the opposite and still would play at his 5E games when he ran them. He refuses to run games online, so there's that.
So, last year I decided to start my game, and invited Albert and Sophie. I live way too far from downtown to either expect people to come to my house or go to Albert's or Sophie's apartments, not to mention my fiancée is living in a different city at the moment, so the only realistic option was to play online. I know it's not the same, but I've spent a lot of time learning how to run games on Foundry VTT, and a bit of money on hosting and premium modules. Albert has complained about online gaming not being the same, but frankly I can't do anything about it, and there are some upsides.
One thing that stood out to me from the start is how plain and basic Albert and Sophie's characters were. Not mechanically, because who cares, but all Albert gave me for his backstory was "my character is a married city guard" and Sophie's was "I run a potion shop". No NPCs from their past (aside from Albert's wife), no goals, no conflict, nothing. I know this is how some people make their PCs, but I've seen their characters for other games and they put way more thought into them.
Anyways, we play the game, and once Zack joins, we hit our stride. I start adding bits and pieces to the game from their backstories, adding mystery, linking their personal stuff to the overarching narrative, all that. But Albert and Sophie were just... there. They didn't engage with NPCs or other players. They didn't make decisions. I made up a long lost brother of Albert's, and he just went "ah, okay".
To be brutally honest, the sessions when both Albert and Sophie were missing (which were quite a few, way more than Kate, who works as a nurse with chaotic shifts, and Zack hasn't missed a single one) were the best. No awkward silences where Kate and Zack tried to give Albert or Sophie the spotlight, no Albert getting pissy because I wouldn't just let him do something that his character wouldn't be able to do, no decision making where 50% of the party just sat in silence.
Sophie's birthday was on the first Saturday of june and Zack wouldn't be able to make it either, so I set the first session of june for the 13th (yesterday) when Zack told me, on the 19th of may, 26 days in advance. The date was pinned on both our Discord server and WhatsApp group chat.
So yesterday arrives, and when I ask everyone if they are ready for the game, less than four hours before the session was supposed to start, both Albert and Sophie told me that they forgot that we had a session and that they made plans. The sessions have always been on Saturdays at 4 PM, so it wasn't a matter of tracking a changing schedule.
That was the last straw. I can forgive someone for forgetting a session once, but the fact that they didn't tell me in advance, the fact that the session of the previous week was cancelled specifically because of Sophie and she still didn't remember, their disinterest in the game and the fact that they didn't even apologize was too much. I told them that I was burned out and kicked them out of the group chat and Discord server. They have not reached out.
TL;DR: players who showed little to no interest in the game forgot our weekly session. I kicked them out. AITA?
Posted Jun 14, 2026, 12:17 PM UTC