Do you kill PCs of players who do not attend a session?

[Marimmar]

I bet this has been done before but nevertheless the answers interest me.

IMC when a player couldn't attend a session he gave us his character sheet and we played him as an NPC for that session. Since the other players couldn't play a character of another to its fullest, those 'NPCs' often got killed. Nowadays we seriously consider playing without the unattending player's character but still award XP and magic item shares for them to keep up with the rest. Both options have their own flaws. The first one (our old ruling) was problematic since the unattending player's characters died far too often, the second option awards rewards without merit (probably the lesser evil.) How do you handle the situation of a player not making it to the session?

BTW the DMs cannot always be held responsible for the actions other players undertake with those NPCs, e.g.

The player of the party wizard is renown for his <i>improved invisibility, fly, fireball</i> combo. The player couldn't make it to the session and the party assaults a barbarian camp in that session. Player who plays the NPC wizard says, 'The wizard <i>flies</i> over the barbarian camp being <i>improved invisible</i> and starts bombarding the barbarians with <i>fireballs</i>. *BOOM* Next round a druid with a potion of <i>see invisible</i> steps out of a tent and casts a <i>dispel magic</i> at the wizard, successfully dispelling the <i>improved invisibility</i>. Every remaining barbarian warrior starts shooting arrows at the wizard until there's only a bloody corpse flowing in the sky... The rest of the party is still 100 yards away and can only watch as the wizard buys the farm.

~Marimmar

 

[HellHound]

I run without the missing character, and reward only half the XP and treasure to the missing character when he returns. This punishes the missing player, but not to the extreme - it rarely makes much of a difference in the long run of a campaign unless said player misses a LOT.

 

[Tsyr]

It depends... I don't have a hard and fast answer. If there is a reason they aren't there (Car broke down, got called into work, family problem, etc), I DM-NPC their character... The character then gets full experience, though no treasure, and is basicly "immortal". I don't feel the need to "punish" people for things that happen outside of the game. That's just unfair. Life comes before the game, IMO.

If there is no reason for them missing, but they don't make a habbit of it (Hey, I can understand someone taking a "personal day" or something), I DM their character, but they only get half experience, and they "can" die... It's not likely, but they could.

If they have no reason for missing, and it's becomming a habbit (IE, more than once or twice), let the dice fall where they may.

I never, ever, let one player NPC another player's character, unless they both agreed to it before hand. I wouldn't want my character in the hands of another player, and I respect my player's rights to the same if they wish.

As to why no treasure... in my games, that's not something the DM has any say on. That's entierly between the players. Normaly the group will give some of it to the missing player when they return, though.

Yes, I can be a nice guy.

 

[Pielorinho]

It depends, for us. The following are our options:

1) Reschedule the game. Our group is (or has been in the past -- we're growing) small enough that one person's absence really hurts the group. It's also small enough that we can almost always find one night a week that we're all free.
2) Write the PC out of the session. The Druidic Council is convening deep in the forest. The rake's wealthy father wants to talk with him about marriage prospects. The monk hears a rumor about a sighting of his missing sister in a distant city. In all cases, the PC goes away, the player and the DM discuss briefly what the PC is up to, and all is good.
3) Turn the PC into a wallflower. THe PC is present for the session, but is uncommonly introspective and lethargic. She follows the party's lead, does what she's told, and takes very little initiative. She must be having a bad day .
4) Give the PC to another player. As above, except that the PC just doesn't talk much: she's still plenty active when it comes time for buttkicking.

When we choose option 3 or 4, we're careful to have the PC act cautiously. If I'm playing David's PC, I'm not going to have him run heedlessly into battle, even if that's how David would play him: I'll have him act defensively, advancing with other people and pulling back when there's trouble. I'll do this because it would suck for his PC to die under my aegis, and I know that some day he may have to play my PC. I don't want my PC to die under his care, either.

Daniel

 

[Airwolf]

The short answer is no.

If a player can't make it to a session, his/her character simply does not take part in that session. The character is not awarded any xp for the session.

There have been situations where the party has lost members because someone missed, usually the missing character gets a 'code red' from the other characters when he/she returns.

 

[Murrdox]

I have another player run the PC.

The PC goes into "Wallflower" mode - assumed to be standing around picking his nose, except when combat starts up and the character is needed. I reward full experience to the character, since the character took part in the battle, and treasure is a matter between the PC's. If the other characters decide to NOT give the character ANYTHING from a given stash (hopefully this rarely happens) then the player will have to role-play that with the other characters the next time he returns.

And I never kill a character when the player isn't there. If the charcter gets gibbed, he goes to -1 HP and stabilizes automatically.

Is this the FAIR thing to do? Eh, probably not. But it's the NICE thing to do, and the game's all about having fun when all is said and done.

If a character knows he's going to be absent for a couple of sessions in a row, I'll temporarily write him out... but I really hate doing that on a regular basis.

"Uhhh... Melkar the wizard gets up from preparing his spells... and suddenly announces he has a wizard council or something to go to... and he walks off."

DUMB!!

 

[Fenes 2]

Since I only kill off PCs if the players decide so (or decide to let the dice fall where they may after a clear warning) I don't kill off PCs of players who are absent.
Awarding treasure and XP is also no problem, since we don't use xp, we just level up from time to time, and the party has always the same level. That means the player who spent 5 months in the army and then comes back for 2 weeks before going off for the rest of his time (another 4 months) left with his PC at level 12, played for 2 weeks with his PC at level 14, and will have a PC of level 15 or even 16 when he returns, with appropriate gear either being already supplied (his sword gets stronger with each level of his Prestige Class) or provided soon.
When I DM PCs of players who could not attend, I tend to let them fade into the background.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Our group is too small to play without someone- the rest of us will go catch a movie or play some boardgames.

SD

 

[mmu1]

I (generally) give people the option of either having their character fade into the woodwork, and getting no xp, or getting run by another player, and getting the same xp as everyone else along with the usual risks.

However, if it looks like that character is about to get killed because of someone's incompetence, I'll cut them some slack...

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Since I only kill off PCs if the players decide so (or decide to let the dice fall where they may after a clear warning) I don't kill off PCs of players who are absent.
Awarding treasure and XP is also no problem, since we don't use xp, we just level up from time to time, and the party has always the same level.

this is very similar to the way I run games. If my players wanted a deadly campaign I'd give them one, or if they all agreed to compete for more xp and more powerful characters than each other, ok... but I play RPGs because they are cooperative rather than competitive, and intergroup jockying for power has never made a game better for me. (in at least one game it contributed to me leaving.)

Kahuna Burger