DMing: Attendance

[Chalkarts]

How do you handle attendance with players who work varied schedules?

How do you weave characters in and out?
Is there any loss to players other than just missing out on the xp?

[strangebloke]

I don't do xp.

If they don't show, I don't care. I play through. Sometimes if a player lets me know well in advance and they're in a key character arc, I will cancel/delay the game for them. If that happens a lot, they're out.

This is one thing that I'm seriously hardcore about. Show up or show yourself out. Nobody gets to get in the way of everyone else's good time.

[Waterdeep Merch]

One of my regulars usually handles it. His job is basically corralling people and managing schedules, and he's pretty hardcore about wanting as much TTRPG as he can strangle out of me. Sometimes all of my players are on board with a date before I'm aware of it.

Still, we occasionally get drops. Enough drops and we drop them. I usually award XP to the group, not the players, so they don't fall behind there. I don't give them gold and treasure cuts, though. Together that's enough incentive to keep players showing up on time.

I'm blessed with a rather large stable of players that want in on my games, especially since I'm fairly well known in my circles for being good at introducing newbies to the hobby. I don't even blink when I tell a player that they've missed too many games and kick them.

[MaxWilson]

How do you handle attendance with players who work varied schedules?

How do you weave characters in and out?
Is there any loss to players other than just missing out on the xp?

Best thing I know of is to switch to an episodic style where each adventure wraps up in a single evening, either because you're running a megadungeon (and each evening is a single expedition into the megadungeon) or because you're running a short mystery or hostage rescue or a semi-PvP based on Betrayal At House On the Hill or something. Running an adventure for N number of players is much easier than running an adventure where the number of players changes in the middle.

It stinks though, not having reliable player attendance. I burned out on 5E for over a year (just recently resumed DMing) and erratic player schedules were one of the major drivers behind it--it's kind of stressful when people flake out, especially if you're the host as well as the DM. (E.g. you don't know how much pizza to order.) That goes double for introverts like myself who don't love being around people in the first place and are sort of DMing mostly as a favor to the other players. (I'd rather play than DM.)

I hope it works out okay for you.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you know you're going to have a whole group full of people with wonky schedules, you can plan for it and work it into the structure of the campaign. For example, say the villains are screwing with the timestream, and characters keep popping in and out of existence as they go. Or a bunch of loose one-offs with whatever characters are there that day and a slow-burning background plot, like TV shows tend to do.

If you've got just one or two people you know are going to be flaky, you can plan to have their characters be sort of secondary protagonists, helping out when their paths cross and then riding off into the sunset.

If one of your supposedly-steady players starts to miss a lot of sessions, talk to them, see what's up, and figure out where to go from there. They probably feel worse about it than you do. Don't worry too much about narrative continuity; it's better all around to have the character just offscreen for a session than to try and twist the plot into a knot to explain why they weren't there.

The one thing you shouldn't do is significantly dock their progression or have horrible things happen to their character when they're not around. They've already missed out on the only truly important reward-- they didn't get to sit down and game. Making their experience more miserable when they get back will just make them lose out on even more fun. You know how you should never address out-of-problems with in-game solutions? It's exactly that thing.

[MilkmanDanimal]

I couldn't get a standard game running because we're all old and have inconvenient things like "jobs" and "families", so a bunch of us (20 or so) started up a group where somebody decides to DM and they post to the message board (we've got a groups.io group going), and they run a one-shot for the night. While you don't have the long-run arcs you have with a normal campaign, we've been doing it for a while, and it's worked very well. If scheduling is that tough with a small group, make it bigger and just see who can show.

[DivisibleByZero]

We don't hand out XP. We keep track of how many sessions that character has played. Your current level equals the number of sessions needed to be played in order to level up.
One session at level 1. Two more (3 total) at level 2. Three more (6 total) at level 3. So on and so forth.
As far as the story, it doesn't matter who is there and who isn't. The story doesn't care.

[Bahamut7]

I DM every other Saturday and my one player DMs a different campaign on the other Saturdays. We had to drop 2 players (couple) because they kept failing to have a babysitter for their 2 year old. He would get frustrated and start acting up and even resort to screeching to get his parents' attention. It can be tough, but if you are running a long arc campaign, the players and DM have to dedicate. If either party can't, then you stop the campaign or drop the players.

In this case, the players in question were on the fence about continuing to play anyways. The best thing you can do is to talk with your players. I personally kept players at the same XP even when someone wasn't there personally to play and I controlled their character, but I am considering awarding players XP based on interaction and provide bonus XP to those who go above and beyond or award boons. Not sure yet.

You should not reward players who are in out with any treasure though, there has to be some punishment. Now if the player is able to provide ample heads up, you can always run a solo session on what they did while gone to make up their XP and potential treasure gain.

[Gryndle]

All of our group are adults, the youngest of which is in his 30's. that means everyone has high demands on their time with family and work, and any other social activities. I see no reason to penalize people for real life. We try to keep to a regular schedule, but if two or more have a conflict then we reschedule.

We don't use xp, instead whoever is DMing determines when we level, with an occasional reminder from the players if its been a while. on average its about every 2-3 sessions at lower levels and 3-4 at higher levels.

If we are in the middle of a storyline when someone cant make it, then their character is likely guarding our backtrails, running messages or errands for the rest of us, or any other somewhat plausible reason. Even so we keep everyone the same level. the only thing an absent player/character misses out on is that sessions' fun and share of loot.

[ad_hoc]

Our ideal table count is DM + 5 so when 1 person cancels we have the actual ideal of 4. If enough people cancel that we only have DM + 2 players then we cancel the session.

We just hand wave it with some convenient excuse related to their character. They were scouting, guarding, studying, etc.

[Mr_Fixler]

Normally if we are -1 we will play anyway and that person is handled by the DM and doesn't engage in combats or other rolls. They are just kind of there. The do not miss out on XP but will miss out on treasure.

People have lives and responsibilities, we all get it. Notice helps the DM adjust combat if they are able.

The only time we've called off sessions due to absence were if a player would be absent during a resolution of a major story arc, as they deserve to see the story payoff of their hard work at the table.

[Sigreid]

We're friends that have been playing together for a long time. Now we live in different states and play online. Usually one of us checks once a week and if we can play we can play. If we can't we can't.

[Chalkarts]

I couldn't get a standard game running because we're all old and have inconvenient things like "jobs" and "families", so a bunch of us (20 or so) started up a group where somebody decides to DM and they post to the message board (we've got a groups.io group going), and they run a one-shot for the night. While you don't have the long-run arcs you have with a normal campaign, we've been doing it for a while, and it's worked very well. If scheduling is that tough with a small group, make it bigger and just see who can show.

I like this idea.

My plan is to use kidnapping and prisoners as a lame but humorous repetitive method.
Totally played as a running Meta joke.
When a player can’t make it, the party wakes up to find that character missing but with their ooc knowledge they decide it’s not important enough to go after them.
When a new player joins or someone returns, the group finds them bound in the next room with their gear nearby. “Greetings, can I join, yes, huzzah!”

[Chalkarts]

Il Now if the player is able to provide ample heads up, you can always run a solo session on what they did while gone to make up their XP and potential treasure gain.

I really like this idea,
Have a players absence be “they were guarding the tunnel/road/bridge to the rear” and play them through a scenario where they do that.

[DaveOfTheDead]

it's kind of stressful when people flake out, especially if you're the host as well as the DM. (E.g. you don't know how much pizza to order.)
Oh man, if the host ever ordered food for the rest of the group for us... That's one rule we have for my group: the host never provides food. They're providing their home to play in. I, myself, bring the game as DM. Most times, I also bring pizza to thank the host. One guy has been stepping up now and again, so that's good. Now if the last guy would...

[Orc_Lord]

There are two ways of handling this. I am actually doing both for the different groups.

Play less frequently. I would love a campaign that meet once a week, but people can't make it. So every other week is what people could commit to. Also having 5 players works better, since missing one you still have enough to play

The second way is taking into account when creating your campaign. Essentially you need a base, a place that all adventures start from. The players always have to make it back to base at the end of the day.

To get some ideas look up the game style called West Marches. I have some this two ways. Exploration in a new land and a military band of mercenaries.

For the second style I have an email list. I send an email to everyone and the first people that respond get to play.

[Master O'Laughs]

In one game I played in, We were using experience and the DM would just continue on. He chose to not allot the missing person experience if the missed a whole arc. This sadly led to 2 hours of the missing person going out on his own to try and "catch up" during downtime. While it was funny he almost died doing it due to poor decision making, it was not that much fun for everyone else.

DM could have handled it differently but it was not my place to say. I think group XP or milestones is the way to go.

[ad_hoc]

In one game I played in, We were using experience and the DM would just continue on. He chose to not allot the missing person experience if the missed a whole arc. This sadly led to 2 hours of the missing person going out on his own to try and "catch up" during downtime. While it was funny he almost died doing it due to poor decision making, it was not that much fun for everyone else.

DM could have handled it differently but it was not my place to say. I think group XP or milestones is the way to go.

That is definitely your place to say. You didn't sign up to watch 2 people play D&D.

I would have said something straight away and then leave and never return if the behaviour continued.

[ErHo]

DM+5 players here, all players over 35 and one 61 year old who NEVER misses a session.

We have a half orc barbarian with both Int and Wis under 8, the player is a Jujitsu competitor and coach, so when he cant often make it, his Barbarian screams and runs off into the underbrush only to reappear serendipitously next time he can make it.

Its hard to get everyone on board sometimes, if it ever gets below 3 players, we switch DM and games to Robotech, StarWars d20, BESM, or Warhammer 40k or 10mm historicals if its just 2-3 people.

My suggestion; game at all costs, pick up a smaller game or campaign for low turn out sessions.

Hell, Pokemon is better than just calling it off entirely!

[Demonslayer666]

I hate it when characters poof out of existence because the player misses a session. Just have someone else run their character, and then you don't have to jump through hoops and make silly excuses why they suddenly reappear in the middle of a dungeon.

Punishing players who can't make it for legitimate reasons is unreasonable.

In my game, I have someone run the absent player's character, and they are played in a passive mode (they don't volunteer for things, but help out in combat.) They don't miss out on experience or treasure.

Edit: We cancel play if two or more player's can't make it.