Player that can only play once a month

Henry said:

My personal recommendation? Autolycus from Hercules the Legendary Journeys.

He's a character that occasionally teams up with Hercules or Xena, but who has his own agenda, who shakes things up, but is always on the side of the heroes. He has his own adventures off-camera, and shows up once in a while in the season as a guest-star.

The once-a-month guy can do the same. He shows up to help the party, you can give him his own weird agenda to take care of on a hidden note, and he can have fun showing up, doing something fun, and leaving at the end, riding into the sunset or just disappearing to do his own thing.

Make your once-a-month guy the "Guest-starring NPC."

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That sounds an excellent idea if you're running 1-session "this week's episode" adventures, where things can be wrapped up at the end of the night. If he tells you in advance the nights he'll be there, and you can work him into the campaign (much easier in a city campaign than a multi-month journey through howling wilderness), it should be good.

VGer said:

Unfortunatly, Friday night is the only time when we can all get together, and deals with wifes have already been made. You can't change a deal with a wife .

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Have you tried? You might be surprised.

Ah, yes, the old 8-hour rotating shift. One weekend off a month, and a typical pattern is 7 days on, 1 off, 7 evenings on, 2 off, 7 night shifts, 4 days off over a weekend.

How about a curse that periodically turns him insubstantial, almost like a ghost? He can occasionally materialize for periods of time, but tends to slip back at inconvenient points. Wait, no - he would tend to scout ahead. Scratch that idea.

I like the planeshifting in and out concept, though.

have you given him the option of playing some bad guys as well as good guys? he could be the helpful dwarf this time and the backstabbing elf next week, with an occasional run at a small rc horde or aboleth. you can be the bbeg and set the scene and he can be the bbeg's 5 gnoll lackeys.

he could show up at the table every week and noone would know if he was with them or against them


rat-bastard AND convenient

alsih2o said:

have you given him the option of playing some bad guys as well as good guys? he could be the helpful dwarf this time and the backstabbing elf next week, with an occasional run at a small rc horde or aboleth. you can be the bbeg and set the scene and he can be the bbeg's 5 gnoll lackeys.

he could show up at the table every week and noone would know if he was with them or against them


rat-bastard AND convenient

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Not to mention it would give him a lot of fun expereince playing different types of characters he wouldn't normally get to play

Piratecat said:

Ah, yes, the old 8-hour rotating shift. One weekend off a month, and a typical pattern is 7 days on, 1 off, 7 evenings on, 2 off, 7 night shifts, 4 days off over a weekend.

How about a curse that periodically turns him insubstantial, almost like a ghost? He can occasionally materialize for periods of time, but tends to slip back at inconvenient points. Wait, no - he would tend to scout ahead. Scratch that idea.

I like the planeshifting in and out concept, though.

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Yup... I know how that goes. I work a 5-week rotating shift, which means I'm working two out of every five weekends. Of all the solutions we tried two worked out very well...

1. When I was playing as a character, I made a character who was a guild mage. Now and again, the guild required my character to perform certain 'duties' for the guild, whatever they may be. When the guild called, my character's special guild signet ring would teleport him to the Mage Guild's Hall for assignment. When the assignment was over, one of the senior mages would scry out his friends and teleport him back. Since he was a sort of secret field agent for the guild, he never bothered to explain just where he always dissappeared to on such short notice... He would, however, always bring back some minor magical presents (potions and scrolls) for the group to smooth over any inconveniences his absence might have caused.

2. Now that I'm DMing the game, we play two different games. One game, I DM during the three weeks I can be there, and second different game everyone else plays when I can't. This has worked out extraordinarily well. During the two 'off' weeks, it gives me plenty of time to plan for the next bit of adventure, and meanwhile, the others can try playing some 'different' sorts of games and games sytems... D20 Modern, Spycraft, Star Wars, different styles of D&D, board games, or sometimes just hang out and watch movies. Gives everyone a little break from D&D once a month, and we don't get so worn out on it.

Can you get two campaigns going? One for the "once-a-month"
-ers and one for the "once-a-week"-ers.