*worst no show group I ever had*

it was the mid 2010s when I was running a homebrew Pathfinder game at a local store and was expecting five players. One of the players was my brother Crow, who carpooled and was on my way to pick up Joe, who midway decided to say he was bowling out that session. He was taking care of his mother, and his mental health and didn't have a character ready. He had the bad habit of switching out characters every other session, from wanting to play a different build to the hair color needing to be right. Yes, I was willing to recon character traits or looks but was always told "it would help my mental health and yours if we do it this way."

I thought, "Okay, I wish you had told me sooner, but at least I do not have to deal with the character reintroduction this season. Besides, I have four more people to play with this season."

group dad and an IRL dad who posted around midnight that they had to take their kid to the ER room. I gave them a call and he told me that it was a false alarm but was too tired and worried about his child to play right now. So now we were down to 3 players I could make something work, maybe rent out some board games. 30 minutes passed, and the last two players didn't show up, being Stone loop, a man I dont think I ever saw not high on medical weed due to anxiety issues and his friend he was bringing as a plus one.

I called Stone phone and heard someone screening in the background about people lying to them. he answered and roughly the following happened:

ME: hey are you close?

stone: close to what?

Me: the game store for the game?

Stone: Oh, I thought you were busy, so I didn't come. I didn't see any activity on Discord.

me: I send out a reminder last week?

stone: yeah, well you should have send out a reminder the day before, it takes me 2 hours to get down there.

me: when does it take you 2 hours to get downtown?

stone: O I moved last week for work.

me: ok I didn't know that, well than sorry for the miscommunication. Can you pass off to new guy?

stone: o he's pissed right now that there was no game today. that you lied to [him.](javascript:void(0);): what? what do you mean by lying?

stone: he asked me if there was game today as he had it on his calendar and i send you lie about stuff like this all the time. so he's pissed are likely dropping out.

me you said i lied?

stone: lied or misinformed you know me and words, I suck at them but yeah he's pretty pissed at you.

me: can you put him on the phone?

stone: don't like to give people my phone man.

me: can you give him my number?

stone: I don't really play Massager Man, not my style.

me: can i get his number from you.

stone: no, he doesn't want me giving out his info, just ask him yourself.

and than we started to loop about getting him to do anything about it, get the info needed to resolve this fight, or to get my info to the new guy. I just politely ended the call and told crow that we are down another two players. Crow told me he was going to go for a little walk as I called the last player, Kevin.

so now it was just Crow and me at the store for the game that ismade plans with his grandkids. He hasn't viewed the Discord server at all and was depending on the other group members to tell him when the game was happening. I asked why he didn't just call me from the start and I was told that "you seem to be one of them text-only people and frankly I don't need an excuse to see my fucking grandchildren." before he hung up on me.

I gave Kevin a call and turns out he never got the reminder and made plans with his grandkids. He hasn't viewed the Discord server at all, and was depending on the other group members to tell him when the game was happening. I asked why he didn't just call me from the start and I was told that "you seem to be one of them text-only people and frankly I don't need an excuse to see my fucking grandchildren." before he hung up on me.

so now it was just Crow and me for the game, I decided to call him and got this:
[
Crow: hello

me: hey Crow looks like no one show-

answering machine: beep the mail box is full and cant take any more messages good bye.

so I waited 15 minutes to call again than another than half-hour, and nothing. I called my folks to see if they could get a hold of him, they did and only got a "I'm fine" and not much else. My dad outright said I should just leave without him if he doesn't come back in the next 5 minutes and frankly I should have listened. I did try texting first and didnt get any replies other than, "I cant talk right now."

3 hours passed and he walks into the store with a bag of popcorn and large drink in hand. he was at the movies just down the block, he had turned off his phone during the first film. he turned his phone on in time for our folks to talk in and asked him to check in with me but saw a 2nd film he wanted to see and hopped theaters, completely forgetting to call or text me back. "It would have been rude to talk or text in a theater and you were in a game store, you had a number of fun things to do." any questions I tried to ask about the few text replies was met with him putting on his headphones and saying "I dont want to talk about this"

wonder why i dont talk to most of the people here years later.

TLDR; everyone missed the game ranging from medical, not paying attention to reminders, leak of tech knowhow or ghosting for something more interesting.

edit: if you are wondering if I play with any of them, I don't really play with any of them other than Crow. only after a long personal talk about a number of personal things between us. the group dad ended up moving to two states over, Joe...here's an IRL horror story that I may or may not post here. Kevin was a chronic cheater and had very boomer opinions that he won't stop sharing, stone after every which way of trying to talk out anything, mostly about the "wordy words" he tells other people, just cut out of my life.