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Silma
2012-05-02, 02:28 AM
Hi there playgrounders!! I've been DMing a 4e DnD campaign lately and I need some advice on how to handle a situation that's been bugging me.

The post is kinda long, so please bare with me. :smallfrown:

Well...
My campaign started with 5 players. I'll call them with their Race/class. So we originally had HS (Human Sorcerer), DW (Dragonborn Warlord), HB (Human Barbarian), DF (Dwarf Fighter) and DE (Drow Executioner).
We started the first session, everything went great. The session ended in the middle of a dungeon.
Between the first and the second session, HB decided he weren't in a mood to play, so he left. I had to take control of his character for the second session and had him leave immediately after the dungeon. Now I didn't really mind him leaving but my players did.
Anyway, we found another player (who is a close friend of ours). He is EW (Elven Wizard). The only problem is that while we all go to college together, he is the only one who comes from another city. And while I explained to him from the beginning that he would have to be present when we play (same day every week), he has been late some times and he couldn't come last two weeks. We are supposed to play on Thursday but he just told me he wouldn't be here again. The last time we cancelled the game so he could be here, but now my players are getting a little pissed. Normally I would just leave him out for the session, but in this campaign all characters are closely tied to the basic storyline, so I can't do that. So what do you think I should do?

1. cancel the game again? (My players told me they really wanted to play this Thursday)
2. take control of his character and go on with the session? (I really hate doing that, someone's character is his and his alone to play)
3. Find an excuse for his character to leave the party, and have him come back next week? (Bad for the consistency of the campaign, which is really important to me and to the rest of the players)
4. Tell him he can't play anymore due to obvious problems. (I don't want to leave him out of this, plus, his character is tied to the story as are the rest of them)

What should I do? I asked my players about this, and all I got is vague answers like, "WE really want to play on Thursday". Only DW actually told me to go with the 4th option.
Now I want to make clear, that there are no likes/dislikes between us, and that he would probably understand if I told him that he can't play anymore.

TheOOB
2012-05-02, 02:41 AM
A couple pieces of advice. First on your post, the two letter abbreviations needlessly confuse things, and at the very least you should summarize the situation so people can understand without reading the wall of text.

As for what to do, it depends. First and foremost, I, as a GM, will pretty much never run a players character for them. I have enough stuff to do as a GM, and the missing player can find another player willing to run them is necessary(though most the times it's best if the character just isn't there for that adventure, or fades into the background, though thats not always feasible). Further, as the GM, it is near impossible not to act with metagame knowledge.

What you need to do is talk to the player, alone if possible. Explain that tardiness and absence hurts the whole group, and explain that if it goes on too much you'll have to remove them from the group. If you know he's going to be a little spotty, but still comes often enough to keep them around, make sure that plot points don't focus on them and they don't fill a critical party role. Also try to forewarn them when there will be multi-session stories(It's often better for them to miss both parts then be there for one and not the other).

If they end up not staying with the group, let them know that if their schedule ever clears up, they are welcome back. Let the rest of the players decide what to do with the campaign.

W3bDragon
2012-05-02, 05:02 AM
This issue is something all of us have to deal with at one point or another. Many groups deal with it in different ways.

This is how I deal with it.

* First time someone misses a session: I usually call the session off. The reason is twofold. First, if this was just a one-off incident, then I like to give the player a chance to stay on top of the story. Nothing ruins character and story attachment more than "So, this is what you did last session." The second reason is to demonstrate to the absent player and all the others that missing a session can cause a disruption that affects everyone. That tends to instill more commitment in the players because they know that they're ruining everyone's fun when they don't show up.

* If absenteeism from one player continues to be a problem, then into the background he goes. I let him choose a fellow player to run his character during combat. I make it clear to him that his character will not be immune to death. I also make sure there are no big plot hooks that depend on him. He suddenly becomes the strong but silent type.

* If absenteeism occurs from different players and it happens frequently enough to need a solution, then I implement the "Backpack System". The backpack system is something we came up with for just these kinds of situations. When a player misses a session, we randomly place him in "someone's backpack". The character is not there as far as anyone is concerned. His items are not available for use, nor are his abilities. For all intents and purposes, he's disappeared and all the characters conveniently forget that he's there. The reason we specify that he's in "someone's backpack" is that, if that someone dies, the absent PC dies with him.

Its not pretty, and it can sure jolt the believability of the story. But having the DM run PCs is just as bad, increasing the load on the DM and decreasing the quality of the story anyway.

kugelblitz
2012-05-02, 07:14 AM
I will play the game anyway with absent PC not getting any exps. Stuff happens. If too many (2 out 5) players cannot make it (we are all grownups with families) then the group does something else (like see a movie together and have dinner out) because we slated our free time for that evening.

BUT. Rule number one for our game group is You Have to Show Up. So after too many absences, the GM will drop you from the game, period. It is painful but I WILL find a replacement and you are done. Since my last campaign ran for over 20 years, I had turnover and since it was a pretty damn good run (*cough*) it sucked to be on the outside waiting for another slot to come up. Oh well.

Chemistry is everything, and absences will wreck it just as bad as being "that player" who screws everything up.

bokodasu
2012-05-02, 01:59 PM
Whatever you eventually decide, the most important thing is that you have a plan to deal with absent players, and that plan is not "cancel the game whenever one person can't make it", which is a real campaign-killer.

How much game-time do you usually cover in a session? Is it honestly going to break everything if one character is "off scouting" for a few hours? (Or, if you are mature like we are, "looking for a place to poop", "sleeping it off", or "picking up chicks".) Probably the answer is "no, come to think of it", but if you are really absolutely 100% certain that it is "yes" you're going to have to go with "let someone else run the character". Under no circumstances should you do it yourself, you already have enough to worry about as the DM.

If the issue really is a problem player, and not just "stuff happens" - because it does, and it will eventually happen to everyone - then you're going to have to go with Option 4. But if that's your default option whenever anyone misses a session, you're going to have no players pretty quickly. Which is worse - a good game where most people have fun most of the time, or an amazingly perfect game that nobody gets to play?

Heck, our group has run sessions when the DM couldn't make it. Some of it gets retconned afterwards, but it more or less works out.

Forrestfire
2012-05-02, 05:12 PM
All five of my players are pretty good about showing up, but when one of us has something come up (pop assignment, working overtime, family conscripts you for an unscheduled grandparent visit...), I just play as if they weren't there.

The way I run it is like in video games like Final Fantasy where you have a certain amount of party members, and only control a few of them in a fight, yet they show up in cutscenes. I'll dial down an encounter's danger level, and in RP sections of a session I play them as an NPC based on character notes and the player's actions so far.

DrBurr
2012-05-02, 11:07 PM
Ohh the number of times I've had to deal with this.

But I'll skip the personal tale and give you my method

My group has a session every week except if I can't make it(because I'm the DM) or if not enough people can come, my group sets this number at 4.

When someone misses a session their character just isn't present or fades into the background like they were never there. No one plays their character and they never get killed off for not showing up. When the person comes to the next session usually my players will tell them the highlights and if that not enough I always start my sessions with a recap.

Something I also do and some might disagree with this is give the player XP equal to the rest of the group even though they didn't contribute, this is just so I don't have to keep track of 5-7 characters levels, and my Players are cool with it so there's no problem.