DM Series pt 7: Missing Persons

[Human Paragon 3]

This is part 7 of a regular series of DM theory threads.

Juris's DMing Series Master TOC Thread

In light of the missing threads over the past week or two, I'd like to make this week's topic missing players.

How do you handle missing players at the table? Do you find a way to have their character go off on a side quest? Have them kidnapped? Have them "stay home and watch the cart"? Or do you play them as an NPC? Or have another player run them?

On a larger scale, how do you deal with a player who shows up spottily at best? Or players who drop out all together?


The above are all questions of game philosophy, simulationist vs gamist. As a gamist, you may want to hand wave the character away for convenience sake. As a simulationist, you might want to fully run the character as an NPC for realism's sake. Either way you risk minimizing the character.

Below, we shall discuss these questions in depth. Advice, anecdotes and theoretical conversation are all strongly encouraged and apreciated.

[Choco]

If in the middle of a dungeon crawl, battle, or any other situation where a character cannot just leave or disappear I play that character as an NPC.

If the party were in town then something came up and that character went on a side quest of some sort and is written out for that session.

We have one player that shows up maybe 1/5 of the time, and his character is now basically a DMPC but is kept around for when he does show up. When someone drops altogether the character gets played as an NPC until written out in some way.

Either way, the character gets full XP for the session just to keep things balanced and fun.

[Octopus Jack]

In the current campaign I'm in:
if they know they're going to be away then they'll generally pass control of their character to someone until they return with the trust that they'll stay in character and not die. They'll still recieve xp and a share of the treasure.

For when I plan to be away I actually have flowcharts for my character so that when I hand control over to someone else they will have an easy way of knowing what actions to take in certain situations, what spells to cast ect (they're actually not really complicated). So people know what best to do with him.

[Akal Saris]

I typically run campaigns as a series of 1-shot adventures with recurring PC characters, so missing PCs are rarely an issue in that sort of game.

When it occurs in my other games, I usually find an excuse to take that character out of the action, such as returning to the town to research something the PCs discovered or something. One PC character in a current game I'm DMing was kidnapped by the NPC villain off-screen until the player returns to the game table :P

I dislike playing as the PC until they return, since that just adds extra time for the DM's side of the screen.

[valadil]

Depends. The factors it depends on include the player, the character, the situation, how I was notified, my mood, and the current phase of the moon.

For instance, in my current game 2 players got confused about dates and no showed. They didn't tell me but another player heard they weren't showing up. I was feeling a little spiteful. This was also the part of the game where plot happened and it wouldn't be right to handwave them away and say they didn't say anything when important events were going down.

So I killed them. Both of them died by DM fiat. I also gave them free resurrections and didn't penalize them in any way. Death was simply the mechanism for explaining why they weren't there. Had I said their characters simply followed along and said nothing, both of them would have wanted to retcon that at the next session. On top of that, it was still early in the game and those players had relevant secrets, so I couldn't just pawn them off to other players.

Other characters have simply tagged along. We have a druid who was a habitual skipper. He ended up dropping the game entirely, but before that he showed up half the time. Even when he did show up he barely played. I let the PCs play him in tough combats and he sits out in the boring ones. He was always good about letting me know his flakiness schedule though, so I tried to work around it and come up with an explanation for him. What we eventually settled on was that he shapeshifted into a dog and really, really liked being a dog. It was way more fun than being a dwarf. So he follows the party like that.

I guess I put effort into writing out interesting characters. Half assed absentee characters don't get written out interestingly. I think the litmus test for me writing out a character is whether or not the other PCs would wonder why absent PC wasn't involved. If they'd have to ask that I'll write something up. How cruel that something is depends on my mood and how far in advance they told me what was up. Most of my games take place in cities, so it's pretty reasonable for a distraction to come up that pulls away a PC. I haven't GMed in dungeons often enough to know what I'd do with a PC who ditched then.

[Kaiyanwang]

Generally missing PC are handeld by other players.

If they miss for a long time, the character is retired in some smart way allowing him to repop when needed.

[Totally Guy]

I've got a player who's always missing sessions.

We describe his absence and let him fill in the blanks later on. Because the game we play awards advancement through use of skills we have to allow him to use the Practice cycle rules for missing sessions.

It takes 1 month to gain advancement points for multiple martial and social skills, 2 months for most stats, up to 1 year for sorcery and academic skills. But ultimately the "Where were you?" question has to be answered using the skills. "I was at the thieves guild that I'm a member of acting as an enforcer, beating people up and intimidating them".

Usually a session will take at most 1 month. But that could well be different if someone was hurt. If the session is less than the practice cycle the player can mark partial advancement time down, like "Sorcery 4 months out of 12" or "2 weeks out of 1 month". If a lot of time ever passes in the game the players are all entitled to use these rules.

It works pretty well for us.

[Human Paragon 3]

Have you ever had a player go AWOL on a day when his or her character was supposed to resolve a major character subplot, or an important aspect of the main plot?

Corollary: How many players do you need to be missing for you to call off the session?

[Eorran]

One idea I've toyed with (but haven't tried) for a 4e campaign with players who regularly come and go is to use the DMG2 rules for companion characters to create an NPC version of the PC. Basically, if the player's there, he uses his character as-is. If not, the companion version (stripped down to a few powers, level-appropriate HP and defenses) gets handed to another player as a secondary character.
Since we often have small (2-3 player) groups, it seems like it should help keep the key party roles intact, without swamping players with too many options.

[valadil]

Have you ever had a player go AWOL on a day when his or her character was supposed to resolve a major character subplot, or an important aspect of the main plot?

Corollary: How many players do you need to be missing for you to call off the session?

No. I'm picky in who I invite. I try not to bring in people that I expect to miss the game that often. When I bring people together for a game, I do it based on scheduling. Other people tend to get the group together and then work out a schedule. I think this just leads to a game schedule that's ideal for nobody. If you offer a friday evening game, everyone who signs up will be a friday evening player.

That said I know it's possible for stuff to come up. As long as the players tell me in advance I won't treat them too badly. If someone were to habitually ditch I'd stop writing cool plot for them and focus on the dedicated players instead.

I have 5 players. I'll play with 1 absent. I'll usually call it off with 2 absent. Sometimes we play anyway though depending on who skipped. I'd rather reschedule than miss a session. Obviously a bigger party would have more leeway for playing while PCs are absent.

[Totally Guy]

Have you ever had a player go AWOL on a day when his or her character was supposed to resolve a major character subplot, or an important aspect of the main plot?

That never seems to be the case. The players resolve their inner turmoil by acting on it. If someone doesn't show up then testing that person's character concept isn't the focus of the session.

[Choco]

Have you ever had a player go AWOL on a day when his or her character was supposed to resolve a major character subplot, or an important aspect of the main plot?

Corollary: How many players do you need to be missing for you to call off the session?

If a player does not show up for an important session, my first question is why they didn't tell me in advance they werent coming. If possible I cover what the other characters are doing at the same time, if not we do something else for the night.

Usually as long as 50%+ of the group shows up then I keep the game on. I have 5 players so I can handle up to 2 missing, provided that neither of them were to play a major part in this session.

[Kiroth6]

One of the players our group has an unpredictable work schedule lately, since the character is basically a send up of Hunter S. Thompson we've explained his missing sessions as situations where he has blitzed himself out of his mind.

[Jergmo]

I have this happening as a DM right now, actually. One of my players' laptop went kaputt, so he's gone for 1-3 weeks (we play over Windows Live, as most of us live in different states), but he wants us to forge on. It varies what we do - I offered to play his character as an NPC so as to keep his character in the loop In Character, but he'd rather she just be out of the picture.

So his character got hit in the head by a falling beam and is in a temporary coma. (With no amnesia, this isn't a soap opera.) The problem is, he's playing the cleric, but the plan is that the local NPC cleric will help when she can and they're borrowing a Wand of CLW for the paladin - they're in the middle of a warzone at the moment, so dispensing of resources for the people with multiple class levels isn't too far-fetched.

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

When my players miss a session, they tend to tag along silently, and their actions in combat are either played like NPCs or as a sort of silent communal character, with all the players deciding what they do.

[mucat]

To steal (from myself) something that I already posted in another thread on the topic...

If Jim missed a session with no warning, or otherwise deserves a little added torment before rejoining the game, go with this:

All right, so picking up where we left off. Jim, your character Rahcsmij is still sitting at the head of the conference table. The assembled archmages, godlings, and demon lords glare at him, but given the ultimatum he has just made, they can do nothing...for now.

Finally, the goddess Bast stands and glares at you through slitted eyes. "All right, Rachsmij," she hisses. "You've left us no choice; you may carry out your plan. But for all our sakes, I hope you know what the hell you are doing."

She turns on her heel and leaves, followed by Asmodeus, Mordekainen, and the others. The walnut-paneled conference room fades, and you are back with the rest of the party in Harold's Crypt.

Then, no matter how Jim tries, you never refer to these events again.

(Actually, come to think of it, I think I subconsciously stole this from something Dave Barry once wrote about messing with people who fall asleep at meetings...)

[Marillion]

The way my DM handles it is...They're over there. Doing something. If we're at a social function, they're over there charming ladies, or over there hobnobbing with the elite, or over there being painfully shy and awkward, whatever's in character. In a fight, they're...Over there. Fighting someone else. If we win, oh look, the missing player is finishing up his opponents at the same time. If we lose, well, would you look at who else got knocked out and captured with us? What ARE the odds?

[oxybe]

my group has one big rule on missing time:

Real life comes first, foremost and much before the game. stuff happens. heck, it sometimes happens an hour before the game. or when driving to the game.

**** happens and you can't blame a guy for having his priorities in order before calling the GM and letting him know he's not coming because of X.

heck, I've bailed on a game i was running a few hours before the session because i just crashed due to fatigue (when i last ran an ongoing campaign i was pulling 9-11 hour workdays after travel is considered. after 6 days of this, i was mentally fried). or to mourn the loss of family, only notifying the GM (and my roommates) a day or two later.

if players are sick, we normally inform the GM in advance.

how we handle this will vary from GM to GM. i ditched XP in favor of "you level every 3 sessions/at the end of the adventure"... depending if i was running a dungeon/monster of the week or a more plot-focused sessions during that time. i kept everyone at the same level for consistency.

the guys i'm playing under right now, however, only assign XP if the player is there. i've thankfully yet to miss a session.

we can usually find a reason to write the character out or put him in the background. it's sometimes stretching, but whatever. if we TPK, however, the PC is dead.

if a player is being VERY sketchy when showing up sporadically, we ask him to either commit or leave. if the player has a good reason to show us sporadically, we tell him to get his stuff in order and we'll keep his seat warm in the meantime.

[TroubleBrewing]

If a player needs to drop out in the middle of one of my gaming sessions, I invoke what has come to be known in our gaming group as the "Magical Peeing Bush."

Their character announces that they have to urinate, steps behind a bush, and both PC and bush disappear into the multiverse.

When they need to re-appear, a bush pops into existence and they step out from behind it, zipping up their fly.