In our group, historically if one player couldn't make it, that hadn’t been a problem and we would say that they’re sick in their room on the ship or something.

If two players were unable to make it, we might still be able to carry on, or maybe not.

But a lot depends on how many players you have.

Recently, our game was down to just two players and myself, and one of us took over as GM because the previous GM had some work issues that were conflicting. In that situation, if one player can’t make it, then there’s unlikely to be much that you can do with just one other player and the GM.

Now that we’re back to five players, one or two being out shouldn’t be a huge problem.

The only "---- move" I see is taking it to the court of public opinion when they decided that your desire for a non-traditional mode is not for them.

Most groups I've heard of aim for weekly play, and pretty typically, have a "50%" rule... if half the group is present, the game is still on.

Every other week is rare, as is monthly, but there are some... but they're far from the norm.

Actually, the second most common I've seen is "daily, at lunch" - at least, that's a pretty typical HS schedule of play. (And, at least in my home town, RPGs are thriving in the high schools and colleges.)

The only "---- move" I see is taking it to the court of public opinion when they decided that your desire for a non-traditional mode is not for them.

Most groups I've heard of aim for weekly play, and pretty typically, have a "50%" rule... if half the group is present, the game is still on.

Every other week is rare, as is monthly, but there are some... but they're far from the norm.

Actually, the second most common I've seen is "daily, at lunch" - at least, that's a pretty typical HS schedule of play. (And, at least in my home town, RPGs are thriving in the high schools and colleges.)

For adults, I've seen once every other week or once a month to be more common, by far, than once a week. It's hard to carve an evening every week, or a day out of every weekend, out of a schedule when one has kids to take care of, houses/apartments to clean, laundry/dishes to do, finances to take care of and work to do.

This is the reason the OP is in the situation in which they find themselves. Adults are busy and have lots of things in their lives they feel have to take priority over gaming -- as much as we'd prefer not to.

A big part of whether leaving someone out will work depends on the narrative structure of the game. If you have a heavily serial game with story arcs spanning multiple sessions, then leaving someone out often becomes problematic. However, if your game is largely episodic, its not as big of an issue - and if handled correctly - may not be an issue at all. It also depends on the size of the group. If you have 2-3 players, leaving a character out is much harder than if you have 4+ players, due to the amount of spotlight time each character typically gets. Personally, for adults, twice per month is more reasonable in most cases, but if the overwhelming majority of the group wants a weekly commitment, there is little you can do. Its not a moral issue, after all.