How do you decide quorum?

[d4]

Incidentally, while on the subject, doesn't the Lord of the Rings look like Gandalf's player dropped out after the Mines of Moria and had his guy taken over by a new player near the start of Two Towers?

he was absent for like half of The Hobbit campaign too, but it doesn't look like he lost too many XPs for that.

we play if we have at least 2 players + DM, no matter how large the group actually is (though right now we only have 4 players, so that's 50%).

we basically use Nifft's NPC Shield (tm) as well. the current DM gives i believe 1/2 to 1/4 XP to characters whose players didn't show.

when i GM, i tend to give full XP, because i really hate mismatched levels within a party. the group earns the XP, not individuals, so the members of the group always have the same XP total. (i usually explain it away as the characters going off accomplishing other missions/objectives/adventures while we focused on the PCs who showed.)

 

[fusangite]

I find quorum formulae that make the most sense, in my experience, are either 3 or a majority which, in your case, is also 3.

 

[Doppleganger]

My long-time group has similar problems in getting everyone together these days, we go for long stretches where sessions are cancelled or delayed. We're all good friends (been playing together for half a billion years) and having everyone together at the table is when gaming is at it's best. It's just not the same feeling if some of us play while others are missing out on the storyline. Plus there's the whole can of worms about what to do about a PC while the player is gone, and there's no flawless method to solve that. So we too have an unspoken rule not to play the campaign unless everyone can make it.

 

[Azul]

Quorum in our group is any number of players over 50% (pretty much the 1/2 plus 1 rule - for our 7 player group, that means 4 players to reach quorum) and at least one DM (we have a 2 person DMing team).

As for missing players, they get challenge XP (i.e. XP from combat and such - this is awarded because their PCs are at risk and we don't pull punches because the players are away) but no roleplaying XP. If the player is absent for "involuntary" reasons (e.g. family engagement they couldn't avoid, illness, etc.) they get full challenge XP. If the player is absent for "voluntary" reasons (e.g. chose to book some other activity on our regular gaming night, such as going out with someone else) they get 1/2 challenge XP instead.

This system seems to work ok, discourage frequent absences but allowing for the reality that one's social life or health problems will sometimes intrude on gaming.

 

[Brekke]

We have six players on our group and though we don't really like it we will play minus one player. The DM runs the character and we have a rule that you don't kill the character. And unless your wife is having a baby you usually don't get XP. Now that changed a little with our current DM he was giving XP but after some protest from mainly me he will not be doing that anymore.

If we don't have the majority of the group we will often play board games and we just made up characters from Monte's Arcana that we will run through one shots.

 

[pogre]

I set a time that is standard and figure those who can make it will play. Level difference can be somewhat of a problem if someone misses most of the sessions. I have played with as few as three players many times.

 

[Voadam]

Quorom for our group is 1 DM and 1 player, we do solos sometimes, but usually at least 2 PCs out of the group of 5.

The issue is that those who game more get more loot and xp and can be a level ahead of those who only occasionally make it.

Also there is the issue of if Bob is not there how do you get his character out of the scene. Usually this is easy if the players have their own plots and affiliations, they can be "called to the chantry" pretty easily or off doing their own thing. Also if only a few players show up it is easy to have them go off on their own and do their own minor or major thing.

 

[Rel]

In our weekly game, we play at a set, regular time. We do our best to schedule stuff around our game sessions but I'd say that about one out of three sessions, one of the guys can't make it. We only have three players plus DM but we still play so long as 2 players can make it to the session.

The character of the absent player gets half the average XP of the other two players and one of the other players generally runs the character. Your character can be killed even if you aren't there but it hasn't happened yet.

I run another game about once a month that is a RttToEE "pickup" game. There are 9 players total but I've never had more than 7 or less than 5 in attendance at a given time. It's a very casual game and no attempt is made to explain why certain characters appear and disappear from one session to the next.

 

[S'mon]

I generally say my table's quorate with 3 players. Occasionally 2 if there's something particular I want to do.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

We created a second set of characters to use whenever a player is absent.

We only play our main group if everyone can play. We've got two "married with kids" players (I'm one of those), a single mom, two singles, and a single with a sometimes-odd schedule (he runs a group home which he lives in).

Now, with all that work (an entire second campaign ready to go at the drop of a hat), we have not played the "secondary group" in three months. We meet to play the main group or just re-schedule. Our group has devolved to "every other Friday" but sometimes it is three weeks between sessions.