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View Full Version : Missing Players....



Valamere
2007-06-29, 03:31 PM
Hey everyone now that its summer, and everyone is going on vacation, what do you do when one of your players leave for a few weeks.

Tallis
2007-06-29, 03:36 PM
All of my players left for summer, so I do other things instead.
If a single player were to take a long break I would ruin their character or have another player run it. Original player's choice of which.

Kizara
2007-06-29, 03:37 PM
1) Write them out, possibly with the potential to write them back in.

2) Run another campaign that's not including them.

3) NPC them.

ndragonsbane
2007-06-29, 03:38 PM
This used to happen to my groups a lot and here are the various things I've done:

-Play without them but give them at least some XP (have them just vanish and later reappear...I like the comparison to a video game rpg where the character isn't in the party I saw on here, describes it quite nicely).

-Don't play until they get back.

-Play a one-shot adventure (for us this is usually of a different system, so Star Wars, Mutants and Masterminds, etc...)

LotharBot
2007-06-29, 03:44 PM
1) have their character stick around as an NPC/DMPC/other player's second PC or cohort
2) play a one-shot until they get back
3) have their character get called off to another realm, captured and put in stasis by the BBEG, or just really really drunk. (When someone shows up late to a gaming session, and we've already started, we often say "it looks like _____ is finally waking up from his drunken stupor. Someone pull him out of the bag of holding, and gimme back my items of not-needing-to-breathe.")
4) do something else entirely with your gaming nights (play poker, video games, or just put the whole thing on hiatus and spend time with your family.)

Dizlag
2007-06-29, 03:50 PM
I've got a regular session that I run every other friday night. Even if it's just me (the DM) and one other, then I run. If it's mid-adventure, those that don't make it will have their character standing off into space ala "The Gamers" DVD. :smallbiggrin: Or they have a migraine, unable to participate. :smallwink:

I've got a player who's in his last semester this summer and won't be making it for another 10 weeks. No bigs, I write him out for awhile and will write him back in when he returns. My wife is taking a break as well for the summer, but I'll still be running for the 5 other players. Yes, I've got 7 players I run for and believe it or not we DO accomplish stuff. LOL

I use a program called DM's Familiar (http://www.paladinpgm.com/dmf/index.htm) which helps me create a campaign thread and adventures using the Codex Tree, a battle mat to keep initiative, and I make my attacks in the computer for all my baddies inside the program as well. I roll real dice for saving throws and attacks/damage for BBEGs sometimes. It helps me organize all the stats and rolls quickly, so the most important rolls can be made ... the ones my players make. :smalltongue:

Dizlag

Remus of Rome
2007-06-29, 07:50 PM
I don't run campaigns as a DM but some stuff my 3 DMs do is...

DM1: my favorite of the DMs gives everyone 1 miss day and expects player to call early if they can't make it so they can plan the next gaming day appropriately. if they miss 2-3 times they are killed off in a horrible and dishonorable manner.

DM2: had another player play them (but not by someone who is on bad terms with them (ex: just broke up with them))

DM3: will call them like someone else said to another realm or something like that

Damionte
2007-06-29, 08:10 PM
In our group if you miss a day you just go grey. You're essentially just logged out. Like in an MMPORG. When you get back you "log back in" as if you'd been there the whole time. Unless the story dictates you don't.

For instance if you were split up from the party before you went AWOl from the game table then you're still in the same place we left you. Assuming it's still feasable.

Nothing really hard and fast we do whatevecer seems best at the time.

We have an all adult group aged 30+ and sometimes RL get's in the way of the gaming table. With 8 players we occasionalyl have a lot of RL getting in the way. We'll occasionalyl go like 6-8 weeks without having the entire party at the table at the same time.

if we took missign players too seriously we'd never get any gaming done.

If we're missing too many players though we just do something else. Poker night, warhammer night, de-ja-vu night. De-Ja-Vu night is not so popoular with the wives though. We try to keep that one under wraps. What happens in vegas is supopsed to stay in vegas but noooooooo somebody had to go blabbing to his wife when he got home gettign everyone else in trouble. THANK YOU ROBERT !

psychoticbarber
2007-06-29, 08:48 PM
If a single player were to take a long break I would ruin their character...

I know that's a typo, but I thought it was funny.

As for what I do, I go through a checklist:

1) Is it at a part in the story where I could make the character disappear for a time with ease? If it is, say you're in your hometown, the character could get a nasty flu or something, as long as it doesn't affect the character when the player returns.

If 1 doesn't work
2) Is the player comfortable with me running the character as an NPC? This often works best with healers, or other "one-trick ponies," and it almost never works with the party face.

If 2 doesn't work
3) I do something odd. I once had a character encased in a blue magical ball, unable to speak, that I told the players outright at the beginning of the session, "You can't get him out of there until the player comes back, but you have to protect it and bring him along." It was a new challenge, and everybody got a little extra experience.

On a final note, if a player is leaving for a legitimately planned reason, there is NO REASON WHATSOEVER that Exp shouldn't be handed out equally. I'm sure people will (and have in the past) disagree, but this is a game, and I would personally feel a little hurt if I were punished for going on my family vacation in game.

banjo1985
2007-06-30, 04:02 AM
I simply leave them out for that game session, rather than trying to craft a reason for them leaving, or trying to NPC them the way the player would. It's easy, and while it suspends believability a little, our group has never had a problem with it.

Quietus
2007-06-30, 12:14 PM
I give a reason (sometimes lame, sometimes not) that the character isn't there - I've done everything from "He had to go back to town for more rations" to "He got lost while relieving himself". Yes, it strains credibility, but it starts the game session off in an entertaining way, and my players know to accept it. Typically I try to do it in such a way that it can be considered the biggest break from suspension of disbelief, and set an unmarked line there - anyone passes that, I speak to them privately.

PlatinumJester
2007-06-30, 04:18 PM
We say there character is part of a guild which is why he was away for so long. We then give them XP to keep them at the same level as te party.