[Any] Missing a session, how do you handle it?

[Asbestos]

Say a player can't make it to a session, in your (all of you) experience, how do the other players/DM handle this? This is like, a couple of days of advanced warning, not last minute phone call 'something's come up' crap. Do you act as if the character isn't there? Does the DM/another player play the character? Just wondering, since I've found it to be a semi-common problem with any PnP game.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

When I DM, I like have players pass in the character sheets at the end of a session, or at least have my own up to date copy, so if they can't make it the next time I at least have the character's stats. This lets me throw them at an enemy in combat or roll an appropriate skill check. It can be a little weird, tactically, since I have a hard and fast rule about not killing characters when players can't make it (unless it's TPK time, in which case the absent player's character goes the way of the rest of the party.) If it makes sense I'll say that character was away doing something else and come up with a plausible story with the player.

My current DM has all characters belonging to absent players become more or less catatonic. They drool a lot and are utterly useless, but they're still there. Sometimes the cause of the uselessness is different. For example, one of my characters was off writing up the history of the mercenary company he belonged to during a couple of sessions, and another character (female elf druid) spent one or two sessions menstruating.

Generally, what I've seen other DMs do tends to fall along these same lines. The character is there and is run by the DM or a designated player, the character isn't there, or the character is there but doesn't contribute. For the sake of keeping things consistent, I'd pick one method and stick to it. It's never nice to have a player say something along the lines of "but why didn't my character do X like all the other times when I was gone?" Sometimes, certan techniques won't work (say you're in a dungeon, so the character in question can't just go off to see his mom for a cup of tea like the last time his player missed a session) so you either have run him, have someone else run him, or pretend he's not there.

Blue

[GolemsVoice]

When my character missed a D&D session, he was send on a underground mission by the rest of the players, since he was a rogue. While this of course is never as fun as playing the real game with the real group, I could make up my own adventure, and gain the same XP as my group for whatever I did while I was away.
I think that is the best way to handle such a thing, regardless of the system that is used. Sometimes, your character wants to do something that takes more time per day than the adventure currently allows, for example, if one of the character wants to investigate in a big library, or research something, or write a longer piece, but the main campaign is fast paced, and the players seldom know when they will have to move on.
Dropping out of the group for a few days gives your character time to do something without being completely worthless, as I find the "there but not there" approach somehow crude.

[Tempest Fennac]

I'd go with Blue Sorceress' approach. Blue, why would you kill the entire party off unless it was the end of the campaign? Making people roll up new characters just sonds inconveniant and annoying. (Unless you're refering to the entire party getting killed through bad luck with rolls or poor decisions. If you meant that, I'm sorry for getting confused.)

[Zaq]

Generally speaking, I just have them disappear with nothing more than a nudge and a wink. It strains suspension of disbelief, sure, but I've had some bad experiences with trying to shoehorn in in-character reasons for a PC to disappear in the middle of an adventure. For the rest of the players, I do one of two things... either tone down the monsters a hair (you were facing eight trolls? Now you're facing six.) or poof in an NPC to pick up the slack. The first option is preferable to the second, but there are times when the missing player provided a really necessary role (for example, healer in a defend-the-hostages scenario) and you just need something.

When they come back, if I'm using XP in the game (sometimes I don't. I'm not using it right now, and I have to say I like the feel), they can write me a little story about what their character was doing during that time, and earn half the combat XP that everyone else got. That prevents people from being unduly penalized for having legitimate problems interrupt playing, but doesn't give them something for nothing, so to speak. Of course, major XP awards such as finishing a quest are slightly different, but as a rule of thumb generosity is better than stinginess.

[Fronko]

Just keep it simple.

If a player can't make a session, for that session only his character will be on a sidequest or is "recovering" from wounds or is in any other way incapacitated.

Having someone else play that character (be it DM or another player) will always be more of a burden than anything else. And unless the whole party bites it that session, just let the guy return next week.

After all, every session will usually stop at some sort of breakpoint. You just dont quit in the middle of a fight, saying "Oi, guys, it's to late, I need to get some sleep. Remember you position and initiative sequence, we will continue this epic battle next thursday!" So, there will always be a simple way to justify a character go off-scene.

[Kurald Galain]

What I do is that

(1) the character is absent on an errant if that makes sense in the campaign (e.g. in a city setting) or simply assumed present but quiet if that does not (e.g. in the middle of a dungeon, the character does not just vanish)
(2) in the latter case, I sometimes use him to drop DM hints ("Gronk recognizes the symbol as a Flame Rune") or for skills that the rest of the party lacks, but he does not in general participate. In combat, I'll just say that Gronk is killing that orc over there while the rest of the party plays out their combat.
(3) if you're not there, your character doesn't get XP for the session.
(4) if a player misses too many sessions, I would like to discuss with them whether they're really interested in the campaign

[Mystral]

Usually, we just treat the character as there, but not usefull. He just kind of vanishes and appears again at the next session. The only exception is when there is something that only that character can do, and even then, its used sparringly.

Another DM I played with used the characters as NPC and played them to the best of his ability, trying to do what the player would do. Nonetheless, he made it clear that he wouldn't kill that pc, except in a TPK, because that would be "unsporting".

[Kantolin]

I usually just specify that the character is still there, and is indeed helping, but actually have him be shoved off-screen somewhere.

At least, this is for impromptu events of real life interfering. If someone is aware that they'll be gone for some time (One of my friends took a trip across the ocean for a few weeks, for example), then I try to come up with an in-game thing they are doing.

Usually, missing a game results in no experience for that game. If this ends up with someone over a level behind, I usually try to do something to rectify this - whether a side run, an in-game event (Using a book of exalted deeds is something I've never done as a DM, but is something I wouldn't mind doing), or just handwave it.

[Neithan]

We simply don't mention it. Maybe the characrter is there, maybe he's doing something else. We simply keep silent on that.
It's a continuity error, but as it's just us, it's not a problem.

As some players are in the area only about half of the year, but not at the same time, I handle it, that I note the average XP of the session and the absent character gets half of it.

[Totally Guy]

I've been running a game in which the Wizard has not made it to about half the sessions.

What I do is have him find an excuse to wander off. If there's water about he'll say "My spell books! I'll wait for you here."

One time there were ghosts. "I'm scared of the ghosts I'll wait outside."

Then in the cities he gets distracted by Libraries.

I use block experience for the whole party and he keeps up with that. This is the players first experience with D&D so it's all good.

The only annoying thing is that he always makes a special request to be involved in the combat as well as basic tactics for the session he's missing. It's a nuisance as it would eat into the encounter time and the narrative focus. So I just don't do it.

[Leon]

In a Game i Run, your Character is there if in the middle of something but shadow played with minimal action but if the group are in a place where the PC can be left they will not head back out with the group unless the Player asks for it too where upon its shadowed played again and suffers what ever fate the group might have happen to it etc

In the DnD games in in your PC is shadow played in roughly the same way i run mine or left at home (or in some cases has a interesting or horrible thing happen for plot advancement happen to it)

In WHFRP, the Character typically has stepped off to pee or some silly reason and got lost for a time, however i've had to miss the past few months and apparently my Character is MIA, i guess that they will attempt to seek him out once i can attend again (i hope i still have my Sword, or at least someone in the party has it and will give it back. 1st magic weapon we've found and i Disarmed a revenant and used its own weapon to kill it)

[Satyr]

Depending on the gaming style, I think there are two viable solutions. In a strongly character-focused campaign where most of the action derives from the intrinsic motivation of the characters, I refuse to play at all when a player is absent. This just doesn't work well, as a complete passive character would be against the point of the campaign.

In a plot-oriented campaign, it is always better if there is no definite bound between one character and one player and it is largely preferable to treat all characters as collectively owned; in such a campaign it is not uncommon that the players pick one of the characters specifically for the occasion and every character will be both a PC and a NPC from time to time. In such a campaign, it is no problem to play with one player missing, as this means nothing but there is one NPC more than usual.

[Jimbob]

At first if a player did not turn up the character was "sleeping" off there war wounds. But we found this to be a problem if they were away for a longer time such as being on holiday, so the character had fewer XP and less treasure if any was given out.
But now we just dish out the extra character to another person. Ok they might not know about any special abilities they might have, but as we mostly play bog standard dnd we all know how a fighter or wizard works, and if there is any treasure that might be of use to them we give it to them and when the player returns if they dont want it then they can hand it back.

But a MUST rule is that none of there personal wealth can be spent.

[Lappy9000]

Say a player can't make it to a session, in your (all of you) experience, how do the other players/DM handle this? This is like, a couple of days of advanced warning, not last minute phone call 'something's come up' crap. Do you act as if the character isn't there? Does the DM/another player play the character? Just wondering, since I've found it to be a semi-common problem with any PnP game.

Make up a ludicrious reason to justify their disappearance. Examples I've used (and may use):

• Fallen down an elevator shaft.
• Left a souflee in the oven.
• Sprouts wings and flies off (in a dungeon)
• Flicked off the party and vanished into the forest.
• Frozen in carbonite.

Believe it or not, a flimsy justification can work 'cause if it's meant to be light-hearted, your group won't really care and just get right back to playing after a quick chuckle.

If I don't use something silly, I try really really hard to give the characters practical motivations for leaving for several days or so, but this method can get stick if you use it too often.

[Artanis]

The way all (merely three) of my DMs have done it is that the character is still there, just not very "visible" while there, with the DM controlling him if necessary. Later sessions just sort of ignore assume the character had been there, and treated as though the player simply hadn't been very talkative. The missing player's character is left out of combat, but that's just kind of ignored later on (I guess sort of like if the character had spent the entire combat stunned or something).

[Tequila Sunrise]

I ask the player if they want their PC to poof for the session, or who they want to run it.

TS

[d13]

The missing player is abduced by an extraplanar ape, and returns the next session with no knowledge of what happened to him, but with a terrible difficulty to sit down.

[Myou]

I ask the player if they want their PC to poof for the session, or who they want to run it.

TS

This. :3

Tequila Sunrise knows what he's doing. ;D

[Telonius]

I have a miniature bobble-head of Ned Flanders for occasions like this. The character is played by one of the other players. No combat XP is lost, but no RP XP is rewarded. More importantly, the player will have to live with the shame of knowing that his proud hero was represented by Flanders. And that's em-biddly-arrassing!