Big group, few seats: who comes to game night, and who moves up?

A nice problem to have: your gaming group keeps growing. At some point there are fifteen people in the group chat, but the game everyone is excited about seats five. Who do you invite without anyone feeling left out? And what happens when two people cancel the day before?

This question comes up again and again in board game forums. The answers are usually the same, and they work: set the number of seats clearly, have an order for people moving up, and be open about how it works.

Set the seats before you invite

Put the number of seats right into the invitation. Five seats means five seats. Anyone who says yes when the night is full goes on the waitlist. That is more honest than "let's see how many show up", and nobody has to watch from the side on the night.

If you have room for more tables, a second table is the easiest fix: ten people, two games for five each. Then the number of seats applies to the whole evening and you split up on the spot.

"Maybe" is not a yes

A "maybe" does not take a seat. It sounds strict, but it prevents the most common annoyance: the night looks full, and in the end three people turn up. If you want to be sure to play, say yes. If you are unsure, leave the seat for someone else.

Move up in order, not by preference

When someone cancels, the next person on the waitlist moves up, in the order they replied. That is fair and takes an awkward decision off the host's shoulders. The only important thing is that the person moving up hears about it in time, not on the evening itself.

For regular groups: whoever waited goes first next time

If you meet regularly, say every other Friday, there is another risk: whoever is in once stays in, and the waitlist never gets a turn. So flip the order: whoever waited last time gets a seat first next time.

How Playnexi does it

We built exactly these rules into Playnexi, on every plan. When you set up a game night, enter how many people can play under "Seats". The invitation page then shows "2 of 5 seats left" or "fully booked", and anyone who says yes when the night is full goes on the waitlist automatically and sees their position.

When someone cancels or switches to "maybe", the first person on the waitlist moves up. They get an email with the date and place, and the host gets a notification in the app. If you add seats, the same number of people move up. This also works for guests without an account who reply with their name and email address. For recurring game nights, the people who waited last time get seats first at the next date.

How to invite guests without an account: playnexi.com/en/einladung-ohne-konto. How a game night works in Playnexi overall: playnexi.com/en/spieleabend-planen.

And if you cannot agree on what to play: there is a vote where everyone says beforehand what they feel like (playnexi.com/en/spieleabstimmung).

This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed editorially.