Fun ways to handle Player Absences

[Yerok LliGcam]

I play in / DM a couple different games with some work friends more or less each day during a 1 hour lunch break.

it's a lot of fun.

but work being work not everyone can make the game each day.

due to that we've accomodated by running one-shots, starting different campaigns, etc.

and that's fun and all, but some consistency would be nice too so we don't sit around when everyone's there for 3 mintues and say "well... which game do we play today?"

and please if you're answer to this thread is "just play on weekends when everyone can come" we already do that sometimes. i'm starting this thread for the situation of work games for 1 hour when some people can make it and others cant.

so i've had some minor experience with trying out different approaches to handling player absence from a game session and am just curious for some other methods that you all have found
to be a fun and inventive way of handling it.

here's methods i've employed / had employed when i'm playing:

1. absent players stay and "watch camp/the ship/etc." this method works well but is pretty situational.
2. in-game one-shots, meaning that something happens that only effects players that are currently at the game that night. another friend who's running a game did an awesome job while i was away and had a time-lordy type person come and summon who was at the game that day to come help him on a quest. - this is pretty awesome and creative, but could get a little old after too many usages.
3. one-shots - yup. they work. but take a lot of prep work depending on the system you employ.
4. in-game artifacts/effects that put absent players in the ethereal/arcane/etc plane and they watch and follow that way.

anyways. i'm just curious if anyone has any other fun methods they've either done themselves or have taken part in that were really fun, didn't inhibit the story much, and kept the game rolling when not everyone was able to come to game-night.

anyways. hope to get some fun inventive and hopefully repeatable methods from you awesome people out there!

thanks!

[16bearswutIdo]

-If the PC worships a deity, a higher ranking member of that deity's clergy comes and requests his/her assistance in *insert deity specific quest hook here*.

-A sinkhole opens up and swallows the PC whole. When the player gets back, the party comes across the character dazed and disoriented in the middle of the road. All the other party members can get out of them is something about "the rat king."

-PC is there but very much so in the background. If asked for their input, DM says "I dunno, I'm not really feeling like myself today." <- this one always kills

[Psyren]

-PC is there but very much so in the background. If asked for their input, DM says "I dunno, I'm not really feeling like myself today." <- this one always kills

We usually do that one, along with specifying some very basic AI / combat behaviors for when a fight pops up. For example, cleric can't make it, they are a healbot/buffbot for that day's fight (including spontaneously converting cure spells as needed) piloted by the DM.

[Reversefigure4]

We've used the metagame term "the NPC virus", where the character is feeling a little ill and not up to their usual standard. They follow along with the party decisions, don't volunteer opinions, are only up to fighting a generic mook in the background of combat (who, coincidentally, they finish at the same time the party finishes the main fight, and with the same result), and can make skill checks for the party's benefit if they only involve a dice roll (so yes Disable the Trap, no to Persuade the Guard).

[kieza]

--Summoned by extraplanar adventurers using Summon Ally or similar.
--Summoned...to testify in court.
--Summoned...to be best man at two NPCs' wedding!

[Mordaedil]

We ended up having a player or two drop out two weeks in a row, and they simply picked up an everburning torch from the ether, stood in the back, did nothing during combat and just stood there with a dull look on their face. It was a bit awkward when one of them showed up mid-session and the everburning torch vanished and we tried to bring them up to speed they were clearly there for, but it lead to some unfortunate circumstances where my character assumed the other male players just wanted to save an elf slave because they were thinking with their little heads, tried to communicate this to my suddenly present sister and she then confronted said players with this assumption and caused a bunch of drama.

[Calthropstu]

So, have a set number of pregen characters. Each player attending may pick an available character. This allows you to run one shots with continuity intact. All the same characters are there. They just happen to be run by different people.

[Spore]

Most of our characters have a downtime activity, so they default to that. After all, not every waking hour can be expected to be adventures - even if it is in practice.

[Telonius]

We have a mini of Ned Flanders. If you're absent, the character is played by one of the people who are there, but the mini is swapped out for Ned.

[LordEntrails]

Don't worry about the in-game disconnects. Whoever happens to be there happens to be there. So what if in the last encounter the warlock was the hero and now in the next encounter (that only takes place 1 minute later in game time) the warlock is not there? Just play and have fun, ignore reality :)

(and as an aside, keep all characters at the same level.)

[Lord Torath]

I typically use a mild case of "The Vaporizing Flu (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0387.html)", which the PC recovers from as soon as their controlling player is present. That said, I really like Kieza's suggestions.

[Psyren]

We have a mini of Ned Flanders. If you're absent, the character is played by one of the people who are there, but the mini is swapped out for Ned.

Roll-diddly-oll initiative, parterinos!

[Rajaat99]

When players are absent, I let my 7 year old son play their character. They basically go temporarily insane and act like a seven year old. It really encourages players to not miss game.

[Calthropstu]

When players are absent, I let my 7 year old son play their character. They basically go temporarily insane and act like a seven year old. It really encourages players to not miss game.

That sounds hilarious, but if I can't come because I have to attend a funeral or something like that and I come back and I find my character has done something damaging to the party, I doubt I'd be happy about that. Many legitimate reasons to miss games, and seems petty to punish people's characters because life happens.

[Minty]

When players are absent, I let my 7 year old son play their character. They basically go temporarily insane and act like a seven year old. It really encourages players to not miss game.

I think having to play with a 7 year old would encourage me to miss the game permanently.

[Calthropstu]

I think having to play with a 7 year old would encourage me to miss the game permanently.

I don't mnd playing at a able with 7 year olds. Usually they actually do fairly well. But having MY character played by one?

[Telok]

In one game we had a 'Summon NPC' spell that could grab you a random NPC (there were some sample NPCs in one of the books and whipping up a quick random chart wasn't hard). It was about as useful as the regular summoning spells in that you got a creature that wasn't as intrinsically strong but was more intelligent and flexible.

Then we decided that the characters of people who were not at game were NPCs (in the 'no-player character' sense rather than the 'non-player character' sense).

So whenever someone missed a session they'd just been summoned off. When they reappeared they were at the same general level of expended resources and experience points as the rest of the party and could narrate their experience as they saw fit. The only thing they missed out on was loot.

[Rajaat99]

That sounds hilarious, but if I can't come because I have to attend a funeral or something like that and I come back and I find my character has done something damaging to the party, I doubt I'd be happy about that. Many legitimate reasons to miss games, and seems petty to punish people's characters because life happens.

Well now, I'm not a monster. I wouldn't let my son play someone's chatacter to out of the oridinary if they had to work or attend a funeral. I'd probably still let my son play their character, I would just get the right of refusal for anything crazy. I'd still let him roll dice for them and choose whom to attack.
Also, I run a Woodland Warriors game for him and his sister, so he understands party dynamic.


I think having to play with a 7 year old would encourage me to miss the game permanently.

Getting players for games isn't difficult. I run three games a month, excluding Woodland Warriors, with different player groups for each one. I don't like more than five people in my groups, so I have something of a waiting list. If someone really threw a tantrum and quit, I have people willing to take their spot.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Maybe...


PC was temporarily polymorphed into a mule (so they can continue to carry loot :smallwink:)
PC was kidnapped by slavers
That last potion was past its sell-by date and the PC is...incapacitated
Mysterious fog appears and the missing PC is separated from the others
PC gets lured off by a nymph or other creature prone to charming passerby
PC has a sudden case of heatstroke
A Roc or other large, flying creature appears and carries the PC off to it's nest
PC is sent back to the quest giver to give a status update on the party's progress

I like the 'whisked away by a Summon Adventurer X spell to fight for someone else's party' idea, so I'm going to second that one. :smallsmile: