What do you do when a player flakes out?

[USS Sorceror]

Hello Playground.

So as seems pretty obvious, I've got a player who hasn't been coming to sessions as much. He doesn't flake out for several weeks in a row, but he does seem to not be there right before important stuff is going to be revealed. In this weeks session he's going to not be there for the final boss of a dungeon. His reason: he's not feeling well, which I'm thinking is more than likely due to allergies. This will be the third session he's missed.

So I ask you, what do you do when a player says they won't be there and the reason they give is not a mandatory thing they have to go to? Do you tell them to stop coming? Do you tell them to power through the "not-feeling well"? Something else?

[Choco]

This will be the THIRD session he's missing?

Damn dude, where do you get players who are so reliable? I would kill to have players that miss so few sessions! And no, I am not being sarcastic either.

As someone playing in (and sometimes DM'ing for) a group full of people prone to "last second plans", usually someone else just takes control of the missing persons character and we just play as normal. They can be filled in later. It may be inconvenient if you were planning developments specifically targeted at said character, but in that case they can usually be stalled a little while.

[Hitaro9]

Just let him. Dungeons and Dragons is a game. Note a chore, not a job, not work, it's a game. If he's not feeling well, don't force him into feeling uncomfortable.

[Roak Star]

Telling us that he's missed three sessions doesn't give us very good perspective for how serious the problem is. Have you been running the campaign for a month, or a year? Cause, let's face it, if you're mad about him missing three times over the course of 52 weeks, that's awfully trivial.

Or has it been three times is close succession that just started up recently? At that point, you might just want to talk to him and make sure he's not losing interest in the campaign.

[USS Sorceror]

@Choco: The thing is I really would like to give his character to shine in the spotlight and develop, but it's difficult to do that when he's not here. I haven't told him that of course so that may be a factor.

@Hitaro9: I don't think I would actually force him to come to the game. That was more just me being frustrated.

@Roak Star: This campaign's been going on since late January/early February. We only meet once a week so that's... twelve weeks, meaning he has missed a quarter of the sessions. Also yes, his missing sessions has been a more recent development, and his previous two were (somewhat) excusable. It's more to the point that I don't want him to get so behind the other players in terms of plot and character development.

And I should also probably mention that our sessions don't run very long (two and a half hours at the most) because one of our players has work and because this player seems to lose interest if we play for too long (he refers to 3 hours of gaming as a marathon, whereas I personally have participated in much longer sessions).

[Sturmcrow]

After the third time for a non important excuse or even with them if it has been many many more times I just stop inviting them.

Important = school, work, relationship, accidents, sick
non important = oh I made other plans, just feeling well (there is a difference between this and ill), and similar

I canceled a game because 1 or 2 players flaked all the damn time. Why should I work hard to create something and have it blown off, especially at the last minute. Even if they have an important excuse unless they are surprised by it they need to tell me in advance, if you make plans with me and cancel at the last minute dont expect me to keep making plans with you be they game, hanging out, etc

[valadil]

If it's habitual I stop writing plot for that player. Well, not entirely. But I won't write sessions that put the spotlight on that PC anymore until he regains my trust.

Some players just don't want to be there, but play out of a perceived obligation. I suspected I had one of those once. I told him he could leave the game if he wasn't into it anymore and I wouldn't begrudge him for it. He actually thanked me for offering that. He liked the game and all, but life was complicating and having one more thing to tend to was stressing him out, but he also didn't want to offend me by ditching. This was the solution that made everyone happy (especially the player who replaced the quitter).

[Anderlith]

Maybe he is being subtle & roleplaying. Mayhaps his character is struck by the oddest of statistical probability, that he is always missing the most interesting things. I'm pretty sure it's a trope but I can't think of it's name

[Bahamut Omega]

Dunno what to tell you. I cancelled my game when one guy flaked out another moved away. I was left with three players and one of them needed to get their priorities straight, so I wasn't counting on him.

That said, I bust my hump for games I GM. I have spent more than 12 hours preparing things for just one session. I'm not going to waste my time with that much effort if no one's going to show.

[KillianHawkeye]

And I should also probably mention that our sessions don't run very long (two and a half hours at the most) because one of our players has work and because this player seems to lose interest if we play for too long (he refers to 3 hours of gaming as a marathon, whereas I personally have participated in much longer sessions).

Wow, my group would hardly be able to accomplish anything at all if we only had 3 hours to play! But we have so many players it doesn't even matter if a few can't make it.

[Absol197]

I'm going to echo a lot of the other posters here.

Life sometimes gets in the way of gaming, and RPGs are just that: a game. You shouldn't force someone to participate, because then it's no longer about fun, it's a chore.

However, like many of the other GMs here, I do a huge amount of prep-work for my campaigns, and I usually try to work every character's backstory into my plots. A player that consistently doesn't show up, especially without advanced notice, for trivial reasons irks me something fierce.

The best thing to do at this point is to talk to the player. Sometimes, players do continue to come simply because they feel obligated to, but that's no fun for everyone else. So, see if that's what's going on (or if he's just bored with the game).

If he wants to take a break, let him, and then have his character leave the party. Emphasis on leave the party, not kill off. If the character leaves (something very important to him comes up that conflicts with current party goals, perhaps), then if the player wants to come back at some future point, he can, and his character isn't dead!

Of course, should he come back, make sure that he understands that you're going to need a commitment. It's like joining a basketball team in a local league. You do it for fun, because playing ball is fun! But you need five players to play, and if someone decides not to show up for a game for a trivial reason, or because they made last-minute plans over the basketball game, then all of the other players don't get to have fun, because they don't have enough players and have to forfeit. You do it for fun, but it requires a commitment.

[Oracle_Hunter]

@Choco: The thing is I really would like to give his character to shine in the spotlight and develop, but it's difficult to do that when he's not here. I haven't told him that of course so that may be a factor.
Don't do this.

As a rule, if a Player is flaky don't make their character central to the game in any way. By all means let him come if he wants to but don't pressure or guilt him to showing up more than he is. If all he wants is a social game he can drop in for when he feels like it, then let him have it if there's room at your table. Gaming is a recreation, not a job.

Personal Rambling
Flaky Players are pretty much a fact of life and it is usually best to deal with them at the outset. If the game is Serious Business tell them so -- when I run Bliss Stage I tell everyone that we need 100% attendance or we don't do a session. As a result only people who are committed to the game agree to play and they don't miss sessions. My D&D games are more flexible -- I will only cancel a session if 3 or less people are coming (for a table of 5) -- which lets me invite people I know are flaky but I still like to game with.

If you find a given Player is flaky through the course of play you simply have to adopt the story to suit it. Always suit the game for the greater happiness of your Players; you'll cancel fewer sessions if you focus the attention on people who always show up. Yeah it means you're not going to be "doing justice" to the Flake's character but hey -- if he cared more about the game he'd show up more often.

Additionally, if someone is usually a solid fellow but has to miss a bunch of games due to Life (e.g. school, injury, work) then I usually ask them whether they'd still want to play or if it'd be easier for them to just drop out until Life gets better. This encourages communication between the DM & Players (always a plus!) and gives them an easy exit if they were stressing about "ruining the game" by dropping out.

Finally -- if bad comes to worst, you just can the current campaign and start a new one with the non-Flakes. I had to do this in a recent D&D campaign of mine when two of the Players had Life happen to them. Rather than rework the game around my 3 remaining Players I simply put the campaign on the shelf and got around to retooling my SR3 Mod to run for them.

[AslanCross]

Three times is still pretty good, man. I've had players who came like once and never did again. In case of absences/last minute cancellations, I warn those who absent themselves that we WILL still have someone else steer their character but won't be responsible for what happens in the event of death/curses/magical diseases.

[Friv]

Well, it can't hurt to have a chat with him, as long as it's a friendly one.

If it's likely to continue to be a problem, you could always run two games - one when he can make it, and one when he can't.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Three games? That's nothing. Our group ceases to meet when a player can't show up. We've gone weeks since our last play session. Every once and a while we'll run a game with someone missing, but it's only when that person isn't a spellcaster/easy to run as an NPC.

[Slipperychicken]

Don't do this.

As a rule, if a Player is flaky don't make their character central to the game in any way. By all means let him come if he wants to but don't pressure or guilt him to showing up more than he is. If all he wants is a social game he can drop in for when he feels like it, then let him have it if there's room at your table. Gaming is a recreation, not a job.

Personal Rambling
Flaky Players are pretty much a fact of life and it is usually best to deal with them at the outset. If the game is Serious Business tell them so -- when I run Bliss Stage I tell everyone that we need 100% attendance or we don't do a session. As a result only people who are committed to the game agree to play and they don't miss sessions. My D&D games are more flexible -- I will only cancel a session if 3 or less people are coming (for a table of 5) -- which lets me invite people I know are flaky but I still like to game with.

If you find a given Player is flaky through the course of play you simply have to adopt the story to suit it. Always suit the game for the greater happiness of your Players; you'll cancel fewer sessions if you focus the attention on people who always show up. Yeah it means you're not going to be "doing justice" to the Flake's character but hey -- if he cared more about the game he'd show up more often.

Additionally, if someone is usually a solid fellow but has to miss a bunch of games due to Life (e.g. school, injury, work) then I usually ask them whether they'd still want to play or if it'd be easier for them to just drop out until Life gets better. This encourages communication between the DM & Players (always a plus!) and gives them an easy exit if they were stressing about "ruining the game" by dropping out.

Finally -- if bad comes to worst, you just can the current campaign and start a new one with the non-Flakes. I had to do this in a recent D&D campaign of mine when two of the Players had Life happen to them. Rather than rework the game around my 3 remaining Players I simply put the campaign on the shelf and got around to retooling my SR3 Mod to run for them.

+1 to this. Communicate with your player about his/her attendance, and whether they think it'll be an issue in the future. If it is, ask him/her if s/he would rather suspend playing until the situation improves. If you'd rather keep playing with the player, make the PC less central to the plot and/or have someone else run the character while s/he's gone.

[Nabirius]

I have a bit of the same problem at the time. This is why I always have a few sidequests lying around for the players to take. Pretty difficult when your in a dungeon admittedly. But if he's not feeling well he's not feeling well and that's that really. He's not flaking out, if he showed up he would be miserable.

Also tell him that you want to give him the spotlight after this week so that he has an incentive to come. I realize that this is a frustrating problem, but there isn't a ton you can really do.

[Jay R]

I once told the people in a large group (12 players), that if you didn't show up, you had two options:

1. Delegate somebody to play your character. that player will run your character as well as your own, and your character can fight, cast magic, use skills, whatever. He can gain xps, but he can also die, if that's what happens.

2. You don't want to risk character death? OK, the character is sick - throwing up, nauseous, whatever. He's there, but cannot fight, cast spells, pick locks or gain experience. He will not be affected by anything except a TPK.

[Mastikator]

Players that show up all the time are the main players, everyone is a guest at the table, and their characters are basically at NPC status.

[Man on Fire]

Have prepared a set of past adventures for each player - short, max hour long ministories about their characters before they became adventurers, in which other players playes some NPCs. When one player won't show up, just halt current campaing and play those adventures, one for each player (or more, in case some characters already knew each other when the game started). This way will allow you guys to have fun without him.

You can do it once, maybe twice (but not in a row), if guy flakes out third time, kick him out.

[Dr.Epic]

Tell him he he isn't there for the next several sessions he's out of the group.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I've only read the opening post, so sorry if I repeat something.

But well, if you think he might have allergy issues (which would make some sense if he's missed three just recently and said he's not feeling well) ask him if he does. He might not even have considered it himself and might need some allergy pills to help him clear things up. (plenty of good prescription free stuff out there too...)

If it's just a convenient excuse ask him why he's really missing sessions and see if you can work out the reasons. Maybe something that seemed more fun came up and he didn't want to say he was going to something that seemed more fun than play with you guys, or maybe he's just a bit bored with the game anyway.

Either way see if you can get to the bottom of it before doing anything drastic.

[randomhero00]

If a player is beginning to flake, you've obviously had them in the oven too long.

[Titanium Fox]

One of the things that pisses me off the most is when the DM treats his game like it's an obligation. I work 60 hours a week, and if I'm going to get a *****y phone call at 1 AM asking where the heck I was, because I wound up not showing, it's the quickest way to get me on your bad side.

D&D is, as so many others have said, a game. I go to this game because it's a fun, social time, with friends, pizza, jokes, and of course the centerpiece, that game we all know and love so well. However, if I'm not feeling well, not in a mood to be social, or heck, if I'm just run down, I won't show up. Or if I have a prior obligation. I'll do my best to give the DM notice, but I'm narcoleptic, so sometimes, that just doesn't happen.

Our campaigns usually run for about a year with weekly, 7 PM - Midnight sessions, and even with these caveats, I still usually only miss 2 or 3 sessions. And the worst part is, with my groups, this is a bad ratio. We have players who have been playing at my college for 5 years now, in 2 campaigns simultaneously, who have never missed a session the DM has not cancelled. And I personally don't understand how they do it. I respect them for being able to pull that kind of time, but I can't, and you really can't fault a player for not being able to.

It's all in the wording. Your players are players. Not employees. And if you know what you're doing when you DM, it's not that difficult to write a character off. Last time my Monk (Think Kamina with Fists) wasn't around, I had him dive onto a boat filled with guards, and get captured. The entire session revolved around freeing him, and the players got some nice intelligence from the prison / base they infiltrated to boot. Players being missing can be opportunities, if you're flexible enough with your DMing style.

[Cespenar]

If you're friendly enough with the player, using "come ooooon" would work surprisingly well, especially if you don't give in. :smalltongue:

[Man on Fire]

One of the things that pisses me off the most is when the DM treats his game like it's an obligation. I work 60 hours a week, and if I'm going to get a *****y phone call at 1 AM asking where the heck I was, because I wound up not showing, it's the quickest way to get me on your bad side.

D&D is, as so many others have said, a game. I go to this game because it's a fun, social time, with friends, pizza, jokes, and of course the centerpiece, that game we all know and love so well. However, if I'm not feeling well, not in a mood to be social, or heck, if I'm just run down, I won't show up. Or if I have a prior obligation. I'll do my best to give the DM notice, but I'm narcoleptic, so sometimes, that just doesn't happen.

Our campaigns usually run for about a year with weekly, 7 PM - Midnight sessions, and even with these caveats, I still usually only miss 2 or 3 sessions. And the worst part is, with my groups, this is a bad ratio. We have players who have been playing at my college for 5 years now, in 2 campaigns simultaneously, who have never missed a session the DM has not cancelled. And I personally don't understand how they do it. I respect them for being able to pull that kind of time, but I can't, and you really can't fault a player for not being able to.

It's all in the wording. Your players are players. Not employees. And if you know what you're doing when you DM, it's not that difficult to write a character off. Last time my Monk (Think Kamina with Fists) wasn't around, I had him dive onto a boat filled with guards, and get captured. The entire session revolved around freeing him, and the players got some nice intelligence from the prison / base they infiltrated to boot. Players being missing can be opportunities, if you're flexible enough with your DMing style.

Playing is also a responsibility. You promise other guys to have good time with them, to be a part of their team, to help them in their character's epic adventure. When you don't show up, then:
First, you show other guys at the table you don't give a damn about them. Second you have GM quickly adjusting everything he created, to made up for lack of your character, therefore ruining the game for everybody else, because you made GM nervorus and forced him to quickly adjust things, so what he does won't be as good as what he had planned and he could have quickly make a mistake and accidentially adjust one of the challenges wrong and kill entire party. or worse, GM can just cancel the session, so nobody have fun they wanted because of you.
Third, it shows other guys you are unreliable and makes them question why should they even play with somebody who cannot spare what he had sait to be his free time, to do what he had promised.
I know that sometimes things are rough and somethings comes up, but you always should give the GM a call as fast as you can, people will understand. By not showing up without a word you show them where they can kiss you.

And think that's hardcore? I had read a book written by guy who admits that once you don't show on his game, you're out, no discussion about it.

[Titanium Fox]

Playing is also a responsibility. You promise other guys to have good time with them, to be a part of their team, to help them in their character's epic adventure. When you don't show up, then:
First, you show other guys at the table you don't give a damn about them. Second you have GM quickly adjusting everything he created, to made up for lack of your character, therefore ruining the game for everybody else, because you made GM nervorus and forced him to quickly adjust things, so what he does won't be as good as what he had planned and he could have quickly make a mistake and accidentially adjust one of the challenges wrong and kill entire party.
Third, it shows other guys you are unreliable and makes them question why should they even play with somebody who cannot spare what he had sait to be his free time, to do what he had promised.
I know that sometimes things are rough and somethings comes up, but you always should give the GM a call as fast as you can, people will understand. By not showing up without a word you show them where they can kiss you.

And think that's hardcore? I had read a book written by guy who admits that once you don't show on his game, you're out, no discussion about it.

Again. Narcoleptic. It's not always an option for me to call, because sometimes I'm asleep from 5:30 - 8.

The one issues in question I'm primarily referring to is when Life essentially happened all over me. I had missed two weeks, and then my Grandfather was committed to a nursing home, and my family wanted me there to be a part of the send off, so to speak. My DM told me "You've missed two weeks. Despite why, if you do this, you're out."

I walked. Hardcore.

And I don't understand the mentality of DMs that feel like a player not showing up is a personal affront. I have run games outside of my primary group with players that disappear without call for over a month. And you know what, I don't bat an eyelash. They have things going on, and I understand that D&D is a game, and is, and should be one of the lower things on players priority lists. I trust my friends and players to give me a shout if they need to drop the campaign permanently, but if that's not the case, I assume something is wrong and they just couldn't make it. No harm, no foul.

In my opinion, my players have absolutely no responsibility to me. I have a responsibility to them to make the game as fun as possible and make them want to come. But that's their choice, if they decide they want to come or not.

[Man on Fire]

Again. Narcoleptic. It's not always an option for me to call, because sometimes I'm asleep from 5:30 - 8.

The one issues in question I'm primarily referring to is when Life essentially happened all over me. I had missed two weeks, and then my Grandfather was committed to a nursing home, and my family wanted me there to be a part of the send off, so to speak. My DM told me "You've missed two weeks. Despite why, if you do this, you're out."

I walked. Hardcore.

And I don't understand the mentality of DMs that feel like a player not showing up is a personal affront. I have run games outside of my primary group with players that disappear without call for over a month. And you know what, I don't bat an eyelash. They have things going on, and I understand that D&D is a game, and is, and should be one of the lower things on players priority lists. I trust my friends and players to give me a shout if they need to drop the campaign permanently, but if that's not the case, I assume something is wrong and they just couldn't make it. No harm, no foul.

Where I'm from, when a player cannot show up to the game, the game is cancelled. I would walk out of a game where GM don't understand I have more important things to deal with I'm telling him in advance, but I would kick player out after missing two games in a row without a word because he ruined fun for me AND other players, making us waste our time only to go home dissapointed.

You with your narcolepsia require special treatment, something your GM and other players should understand. I don't know how to help with that problem, but it should be possible - don't you have anybody who could call your friends for you in such case? Couldn't GM call you before the game and if you won't answer or call back, assume you're asleep and won't come? There sure can be a way to deal with it.

[jaybird]

Whatever, just send him an email or something asking if he's okay. Not a big deal.

[Titanium Fox]

Where I'm from, when a player cannot show up to the game, the game is cancelled. I would walk out of a game where GM don't understand I have more important things to deal with I'm telling him in advance, but I would kick player out after missing two games in a row without a word because he ruined fun for me AND other players, making us waste our time only to go home dissapointed.

You with your narcolepsia require special treatment, something your GM and other players should understand. I don't know how to help with that problem, but it should be possible - don't you have anybody who could call your friends for you in such case? Couldn't GM call you before the game and if you won't answer or call back, assume you're asleep and won't come? There sure can be a way to deal with it.

Where I'm from, most of us have been playing for more than long enough to write a character out of the narrative for however long is needed, and do it dynamically. With the exception of this guy apparently.

Also as a note, only one of those was a no-show. The other was warned in advance, although I don't remember why, it's been about 3 years since then.

And suddenly I've forgotten where I was going with this. OH YEAH, back to the OP. In summary, there are ways to write out characters without it breaking flow and ruining everyone else's good time.

The only time I'll cancel a campaign due to attendance is if 50% of the party (rounded up) or more is missing. (So I won't run with 3/5 or 3/6, but I will run with 4/6 or 3/4.)

[Averis Vol]

im actually DM'ing for two groups right now, same campaign, same story, 5 people a group. theres group A: the dedicated, they show up without fail every time or give me at least 3 days of warning. then theres group B: the flakes, 3/5 miss every session, over three months i think we've played twice whereas A has played 6 sessions. my solution? the one reliable player in B (i rolled a d10 to determine the groups, purely bad luck for B) joined group A and now B plays whenever they can get together.

i seem to be lucky in that i've got a full group of flakes so i can mediate how we play that way. so what i do when someone flakes too much is make them friends of the party, ill make them a member of some organization that occasionally has the person work joint missions with the group of adventurers. like others have said, it IS a game so if someone misses it a bit you shouldn't ruin the fun for anyone, even the flake. so if he cant make a session just have him go off and do something else, when he next can make it tell him he was off doing (insert shenanigans here) and he now has (insert plot crucial information here) so he's still participating and the group can keep playing with the understanding that their missing character is serving the cause and isn't just dead weight. hope this helps, flakes are bad but you can easily fix the problem.

[eggs]

My longrunning games involve 8 or so major players, GM included. Normal attendance is 3-5 players and GM.

When not everyone shows up (most of the time), we just focus the session on the characters whose players do show. It would take a very rigid plot for a session to collapse because not all of the characters are present in every scene. If the characters whose players are present don't jibe well in the fiction, we let play an NPC/temporary character until we can tie the appropriate characters together (usually only an hour or so).

The narrative structure changes from a pulp novel, but that's not a huge surprise - it's a different medium, after all.

If we decide a meetup is missing too many/the wrong players to make the campaign session work well, we play Fiasco or Spirit of the Century or something.

There are hundreds of things more important than playing backup characters in other people's makebelieve. Barring friends from hanging out because their real lives take precedence over recreational activities is just vindictive.

[Bahamut Omega]

Do you think you might be trying to pull too much, Titanium? If you're doing 60 hour weeks, maybe more commitments aren't what you need.

Regardless, I agree with the sentiment that it's very rude to not show up without proper notice. Other players take time out of their schedule to show up, the GM takes a lot of time to prepare things, failing to show up wastes several hours of other peoples time.

I had a physics professor back in college who promised he would always be on time and that there were to be no cell phones on during class. I'm paraphrasing, but he mostly said that this was a lecture with 150 students, every minute he is late he has waste 150 minutes of people's time. Every minute we spend waiting for the person to turn off their cell phone is 150 minutes wasted. That's 2 1/2 man hours gone with no way to get them back.

People's time is important to them. It's very rude to not show when you're expected since it sends the message that you think their time is irrelevant.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I run a game with 10 players (down from 12). I may end up with more soon. Most of my players (as well as myself) are in college. Some of my players have children, or multiple jobs, or other long-standing obligations (some to each other) that simply cannot be ignored. Regardless, a large majority of the group is committed to the game, and so even though I don't expect full attendance on any given day, I often get it, and if they aren't going to show, I usually hear about it at least a day or two in advance (though sometimes as long as two months in advance for special events and the like), and am able to adjust.

I myself am on an odd schedule for the rest of the year, being that I'm in a rigorous program for my educator's degree that requires I leave the island once per month, through the only day of the week that is available for a majority of the players to play (Saturday). The players know in advance and I let them know the previous game (a week in advance) that I won't be there, and then I prepare something for any of my three other players who are experienced DMs (or any combination therein) to run in my absence. As a result, my players are understanding about my absences, and I am understanding about theirs.

If, for any reason, I have a no-show that didn't tell me in advance and doesn't tell me after, they don't get experience points for anything that happens during that session, and no say in the loot (if any). Nothing more, nothing less. In an E6 game, this can sting quite a bit, but ultimately I think of it as a fair trade for those who were willing to give their time and effort to me and my game over those who weren't. I see no reason to punish anybody further.

[Sajach]

I have three in my group and because of that we have a lot of trouble playing with a missing player. So I might get ticked of if a player consistently misses sessions. But since we don't have sessions very often (once or twice a month) people don't flake often.

[Sunfall]

His reason: he's not feeling well, which I'm thinking is more than likely due to allergies.

Just as a side note: Allergies aren't fun. A severe allergy can bum you out, and when mine's acting up, it's no fun being around me. There are those days where the pills don't help. Don't scoff - despite everyone claiming to have some sort of allergy, 'cause it's modern or something :smalltongue:, there are people who really suffer from them. Believe me, I've been there. There are days where you can't even leave the house.

That said, I'm largely with Titanium Fox about this: If one of your players has problems with the regular schedule, plan around this. There have been some excellent suggestions around here, from NPCing concerned characters to making them "guest stars". I, for instance, also have family issues that can have me running home on short notice to help out for a few days (again, this is about sickness, not drama). That's why I build characters that can come and go without disrupting storylines.

Just don't let it spoil your fun or anyone else's. People with illnesses like to play, too, whenever they're not feeling ill. :smallsmile: