Strategies for Missing Players?

So in the game I'm running as GM there are a couple of players that are notorious for missing games. One in particular that hasn't turned up for the past 3 sessions and is set to miss the 4th. Even though it's been planned for nearly 3 weeks now. In order to combat this I actually initially chucked a small tantrum and killed off the game and their characters.

But then I realized I'd invested myself too much in terms of planning and spending money to prepare. Plus I kind of enjoy playing.

So what I came up with is the following:

We continue playing with or without you. You turn up, you play, you learn more of the story and help your team mates. You will be part of the action. You don't turn up, you don't play. Also, you don't get XP. And can't level up.

I just wanted to see what other DMs/ GMs out there are doing to combat player apathy. What can I do as the one running the game to make the players want to turn up to games?

In all honesty, the player has pretty much been written out of the campaign now. It's like he hasn't been there at all. Which is funny as he didn't do much while he was there anyway. But it's also kind of sad as he had seemes to be one of the more interested players.

I guess if he was interested he would actually turn up.

It could be that he doesn't place mych stock in the game preferring the MMORPG counterparts. That I pick on him, which I don't. I try to keep my attacks on the PCs unbiased. Or that the other players would tease him, jokingly, by calling him the 'robot' and frequently ask (in a robotic voice) "What. Is. This. Feeling. Called. Love?"

Should also mention he's a Warforged Wizard.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Talk it over with your group and make a rule on what happens when a player is not there.

Our group is three people total, so if one does not come, we cancel. If we get a fourth, as long as I, the DM, and one player, where we play, are available, the game will go on and hte missing character will be there, but not really active.

We will not penalize p or anything like that.

Our group has 4 players + DM. We don't play if someone misses a game. However, we also have a strong group that has played consistently together for years. We plan our games for the same day/time almost every week and are prepared ahead of time when we play an alternative day/time or miss a game.

All of that said, is this player a friend outside of the game? My biggest "problem players" (of all varieties) over the years have been people that weren't really friends. We only play with our friends, so it's usually pretty easy to talk things out and figure out if there's a problem with showing up/interest/etc.

As to your specific question: What can you do to make the players turn up? Well, not much, in my experience. People play games for all kinds of reasons. If you and your players have different goals with your leisure time, this could be a problem. Again, it gets back to playing with friends. You know these guys and gals and actually want to hang out with them. The game happens to be the medium through which you choose to interact with these friends once a week.

A really fun game (as agreed to by the players and DM) can do a bit to help people show up, but it shouldn't be necessary. What's "fun" for you and your group probably isn't the same as what's fun for any other group, so that's up to your team to figure out for yourselves. Not much help, I know.

From what you've posted, it sounds like you're already moving on without the no show, so I wouldn't worry about it. Find a replacement (if you want to) and make sure you know your players as friends AND as gamers.

If you have an experienced player in your core group you can ask the less reliable players if they would be willing to play an essentials striker or a two-weapon Ranger. Keep the powers simple and no gimics that rely on fancy tactics. It should be easy for someone to run the character.

Consider adding some organization to the campaign that wants to help the party. Whenever an unreliable player shows up he or she's character is representing that group. You will not have to include the character in the story since they are just representing this organization. You may even encourage them to take some ownership in what role this organization is playing the the campaign.

The party may actually consist of 6 or 7 (or more) members, but some are busy or at home guarding the castle or conducting adventures off camera that you include in the narrative but determine the outcome of. This will also allow the other players to dabble in a new class once in a while without disrupting the story. Occasionally you could even pull out a "meanwhile, back at the castle" encounter that forces the players to use the B Team. Call this the Final Fantasy strategy.

I would not have the party level at different speeds. It just isn't much fun for anyone, including the DM who has to plan encounters. If you really feel the need to be punative you should reassess the player's participation. This is a hobby and should be fun so avoid anything that seems (rightly or wrongly) passive-agressive or punishing.

I'm in a variety of games and situations, so let me give you a few picks.

In the game I run, it meets every other week on a weeknight. We set up early that we'll play down one, but try to find a make-up date instead. However, we never do a make-up down any, so it doesn't turn into a popularity content "Al can't make Monday, but Bob can't make Tuesday" sort of thing. After playing for about a year, we added in that cancellations same day don't push off a game, since it's not fair to everyone else. PC of missing player is there and run by the group, but doesn't get the RP XP that others do.

PRO: Usually get to play with everyone.
CON: Have one player who gets stuck in work late occasionally and she can't make it, and another player who had RL happening (in a good way) and couldn't play for two months. Lots of emails back and forth for work out make-up dates.

One game I'm in plays one weekend day a month. It's only four people. We only play with everyone, and we've skipped months.

PRO: Players understand the attendance expectations, and try not to miss. Usually play with everyone.
CON: Even a single player with poor availability can fubar a whole month.

Another game I'm in plays every other week on a weeknight with five players. We still play if we're down one with the group running the PC.

PRO: Reliable and steady.
CON: Have to run other characters. No real disincentive not to miss.

Finally, a once a month weeknight game. No formal rules on cancellation, but seems to be play down one, not down two. Will try to work out dates, but only by pushing the whole schedule back two weeks to the same night of the week (various player schedule restrictions). If the player isn't there, the PC isn't there.

PRO: Plays regularly (before this DM started we had scheduling issues with the last two DMs for this group of players).
CON: Group dynamics can go wonky. We lost our leader due to player illness and was only saved by an NPC leader type suddenly getting a lot more involved than before.

We have 5 players, and have been a stable gaming group (or at least core 4 people) for about 7-8 years now (yikes, hadn't realized it was that long).

If one person misses, we game on. If two people miss, it's a gut call, but usually we'll either do a one shot, board game, or cards.

If three or more can't make it, we usually cancel, but occasionally the other three will get together to watch a movie and hang out.

We have one player whose schedule only lets him attend every other week. Since this is unavoidable and known in advance, it's not a big issue ( we have 7 players so the party is not crippled by his absence). We occasionally get other no-shows, but after weeding out a few, I finally have a group where people will notify me ahead of time rather than just not appear.

Our assumption is that the character is there, but perhaps feeling a bit ill or melancholy and so is quiet and follows along. In combat, we assume they are in some corner of the battlefield dealing with their own monsters, and they share the party's fate. When thelast monster drops, the character with the absent player finishes off his foes at that moment as well. That way they are still with the party next week, even if the group has wandered onto a boat or through a portal, or been defeated and taken captive.

This doesn't address your original question of how to motivate people to want to show up. If someone isn't interested enough to keep coming back, but the game is still fun for the other players, then it's not you, it's him. Nothing to do but find a replacement.

On Puget Sound said:

We have one player whose schedule only lets him attend every other week. Since this is unavoidable and known in advance, it's not a big issue ( we have 7 players so the party is not crippled by his absence). We occasionally get other no-shows, but after weeding out a few, I finally have a group where people will notify me ahead of time rather than just not appear.

Our assumption is that the character is there, but perhaps feeling a bit ill or melancholy and so is quiet and follows along. In combat, we assume they are in some corner of the battlefield dealing with their own monsters, and they share the party's fate. When thelast monster drops, the character with the absent player finishes off his foes at that moment as well. That way they are still with the party next week, even if the group has wandered onto a boat or through a portal, or been defeated and taken captive.

This doesn't address your original question of how to motivate people to want to show up. If someone isn't interested enough to keep coming back, but the game is still fun for the other players, then it's not you, it's him. Nothing to do but find a replacement.

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In all my years of playing, assuming a quorum of people (say 4 of 6) showed up we would just pass off the missing player's character to whomever wanted to control it. The character was fully involved, though often suboptimally played (though some tactically-minded players would use this as an opportunity to demonstrate that the character was not nearly as useless as it appeared). But we just played it as to the best of our ability. If the DM knew something about the character he would step in with recommendations and he could veto role playing decisions if he knew it did not fit the player's goals. The gentleman's agreement was not to put the character in a defining role-playing scenerio (Do we kill the prisoner, for example.) and not to risk the character life in acts of bravado. Though it is often interesting because a player's concept of his character sometimes does not match other player's conception. Sometimes the substitute player would do a better job. By that I mean, often character grows during a campaign but the player is still wrapped up in the backstory and what they imagined the characted was (meaning, what they thought the character would be rather than who the character actually is in the perception of his peers.)

Anyway, I assumed running absent character was standard operating procedure but maybe I am wrong.

IMCs absent player = absent PC; this avoids a lot of problems with the PC knowing stuff the absent player doesn't. They run no risk of death and don't earn XP, but minimum PC level is determined by the highest level PC, I now think 1 level below the highest level PC works well for 4e, so PCs remain viable even if the players are routinely absent. This is the level I bring new PCs in at too.

To deal with a smaller group, you can rejig encounters to lower the XP budget, or add a temporary companion NPC, or for more open campaigns use some different, lower-XP encounters, or run everything as-is and maybe the PCs will survive: 5 PCs can often survive stuff 'budgeted' for 6 PCs, 4 PCs can fairly often survive stuff budgeted for 5 PCs; 3 PCs may well not survive stuff budgeted for 5 PCs though. Ideally the campaign is open enough that the PCs can seek out challenges geared to the strength of their group on the day; megadungeons work great where the PCs can decide how deep to delve; 'West Marches' type wilderness with variable EL terrains can work; but scripted linear adventures put the onus on the DM.

S'mon said:

IMCs absent player = absent PC; this avoids a lot of problems with the PC knowing stuff the absent player doesn't. They run no risk of death and don't earn XP, but minimum PC level is determined by the highest level PC, I now think 1 level below the highest level PC works well for 4e, so PCs remain viable even if the players are routinely absent. This is the level I bring new PCs in at too.

To deal with a smaller group, you can rejig encounters to lower the XP budget, or add a temporary companion NPC, or for more open campaigns use some different, lower-XP encounters, or run everything as-is and maybe the PCs will survive: 5 PCs can often survive stuff 'budgeted' for 6 PCs, 4 PCs can fairly often survive stuff budgeted for 5 PCs; 3 PCs may well not survive stuff budgeted for 5 PCs though. Ideally the campaign is open enough that the PCs can seek out challenges geared to the strength of their group on the day; megadungeons work great where the PCs can decide how deep to delve; 'West Marches' type wilderness with variable EL terrains can work; but scripted linear adventures put the onus on the DM.

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Why in the world would you punish someone for not coming unless you did not like them? And in that case just don't invite them in the first place.

In 1/2e we had a rule where a new character was introduced as 1 level lower than the lowest level character. We then modified it to the same level as the lowest level character but just enough XP to reach that level. The result was that we hovered around 12th level for literally years (yes, years).

Unless you are paying the players by the hour why not just accomodate them until they are a distraction and then tell them "Once you can square away your schedule I hope you can rejoin the game. No hard feelings?"

All that nonsense about withholding XP is just driving people on the fence away. Middle of the road, crushed just like grape. Do or do not, there is no try. If they are playing then be cool and accomodate. When accomodating hurts everyone elses fun just man-up and tell them they can't play anymore.