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Glarnog
2021-05-08, 12:51 PM
My weekly Starfinder game ended one session with a two characters being seriously poisoned. I think by black lotus. The next session only one of those two players could make it. They died from the poison. The party and dm feel that letting the one who missed off the hook is unfair to the one who died. However they recognize that hitting a player with it after the fact is problematic too.

I'm just wondering about the forums thoughts, advice, experience.

Thanks

P.s.The poison is strong. I think 4 saves and death. I also think it negatively affects the save you make to resist it. Medicine rolls, anti toxins and I'm not sure what all else were used to try to help. The player just made 4 bad rolls. He's not bitter. Part of play.

Batcathat
2021-05-08, 01:25 PM
How much time passed in-universe during the session? If it wasn't too much (but how much is too much is hard to say...), maybe you could have the missing player's character start feeling the effects of the poison at the start of the new session? Might require some suspension of disbelief but it would give the missing player a fair chance, hopefully without being too bad for the immersion.

Glarnog
2021-05-08, 01:36 PM
In game maybe 2 hrs. We finished the poisoning encounter/fight. Took a short rest. And ended the session in the middle of the next fight.

Kesnit
2021-05-08, 01:40 PM
P.s.The poison is strong. I think 4 saves and death. I also think it negatively affects the save you make to resist it. Medicine rolls, anti toxins and I'm not sure what all else were used to try to help. The player just made 4 bad rolls. He's not bitter. Part of play.

Before play starts next session, let the player that missed make the rolls. (Use any skill checks other PCs made to help.) If the player doesn't roll as badly, the Medicine checks/anti-toxin/whatever worked and they survived. If they fail, they die.

TheSummoner
2021-05-08, 02:06 PM
Let the player who wasn't able to make it make their rolls next time they show up. If they roll poorly, they died. If they roll well, they lived, but were still incapacitated until now, giving an IC explanation for why they weren't around.

Grod_The_Giant
2021-05-08, 03:03 PM
What's the player in question's feeling?

Glarnog
2021-05-08, 06:24 PM
Afaik she has yet to be informed. The Dm is handling that.

Quertus
2021-05-08, 06:25 PM
I guess I'll feel dumb for asking, but… what alternatives are there to "the missing player makes the rolls for his PC at (or even before) the next session (and makes our comes with a new character in the event of death), dies or not according to the die"?

That just seems so obvious, of, "treat the PC exactly as though the player had been there", and trivially accomplished. I'm just not seeing any reasonable alternatives to this course of action.

What am I missing here?

icefractal
2021-05-09, 12:15 AM
The problem with "roll at the beginning of the session" is if the rolls fail then they have to either:
A) Sit there with a dead character, or leave early.
B) Try to make a character at the table, while others are playing. YMMV, but I've tried this and it sucks. I'd rather just skip the session in that case.
C) Make a character in advance, which you may or may not end up using at all. YMMV also, but personally I'd dislike the wasted time, and if I get too interested in the new character I might want to switch regardless.

So I'd suggest having them roll ASAP, if there's any way to do so. Honor system, have the GM roll, or use an online roller. Then if they die, they have time to make a character before the next session.

Slipjig
2021-05-09, 03:22 PM
Have her roll at the start of the next session. If she fails, her character died on the same timeline as the other poisoned one. If they make it, they were temporarily incapacitated, but eventually pulled through.

If the PC is dead, have the player immediately generate a new character while the others are playing (maybe in the next room so she can concentrate), and then find a way to get the character into the session ASAP (e.g. "Hey, we found a stowaway in the cargo hold!"). Or, if there are any hirelings or other friendly NPCs around, let her take over one of them for the session. The important thing is to not kill her character in the first 60 seconds of the game and then have her sit there watching everybody else play for the rest of the night.

Calthropstu
2021-05-09, 04:09 PM
I suggest handling it BEFORE the next session because nothing sucks harder than "Ok, you missed last session make some saves. Oops, you're dead. Bring a character for next session." And spending all session twiddling thumbs.

Duff
2021-05-09, 08:01 PM
The problem with "roll at the beginning of the session" is if the rolls fail then they have to either:
A) Sit there with a dead character, or leave early.
B) Try to make a character at the table, while others are playing. YMMV, but I've tried this and it sucks. I'd rather just skip the session in that case.
C) Make a character in advance, which you may or may not end up using at all. YMMV also, but personally I'd dislike the wasted time, and if I get too interested in the new character I might want to switch regardless.

So I'd suggest having them roll ASAP, if there's any way to do so. Honor system, have the GM roll, or use an online roller. Then if they die, they have time to make a character before the next session.

This, with the note that if the new character in C is more interesting "Looks like my character died of the poison". No harm in that

Stattick
2021-05-14, 07:02 AM
If I'd been running, one of the other Players would have made the Death Saves, and we'd know whether the absent player's character had died or not. Then, after the session, I'd let the absent player know whether or not they needed to bring a new character with them.

Kardwill
2021-05-18, 10:13 AM
What's the player in question's feeling?

I think that's the important part : How do they want to handle it? They're the main interest in that situation.