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How to handle missing players?
- Thread starter DarkJester
- Start date
National Acrobat
First Post
In our group every one has a designated "player" who plays their character when they are not going to make it. We have 11 players counting the DM, so we rarely cancel the group unless 3 or more people are not coming.
Saint Brendan
First Post
The Dm in a campaign I was in several years ago used to run the players for us, often staying quiet or just casting simple spells in the event the player could not play that week. Experience was given to the player if it was significant, but only about half what everyone else got.
This method seemed to work well until one player decided if he wasn't there, his character wasn't there. Long story short.. Total Party Kill by a narrow margin; and no chance of being raised/ressurrected. The real tragedy is that we were only in the region to save that player's character in the first place.
This method seemed to work well until one player decided if he wasn't there, his character wasn't there. Long story short.. Total Party Kill by a narrow margin; and no chance of being raised/ressurrected. The real tragedy is that we were only in the region to save that player's character in the first place.
BlackMoria
First Post
This issue would not have come up if a missing player policy is in place beforehand.
Our group policy is this:
If you don't want anyone to play your character, then your character is on business elsewhere for that session. You get no XPs or any other perks as your character was not present.
If you want someone to play your character, designate another player to play the character. Your character shares fully in the rewards (XPs, treaure, etc).....and shares fully when life and circumstance is not kind to the character or party (Meaning, your character can die).
I have found that most players IMC over the years, don't mind someone else running their character. I had a few players who didn't want anyone to play their character, which is fine. In those cases, if the character was significant, I had a NPC stand-in so the rest of the party didn't suffer due to the absence of that character.
And if the 'no one plays my character' players complained when their character was 1 or 2 levels behind everyone else (due to missed XP), I remind them about the choice they made.
It was worked fine this way IMC for many years.
Our group policy is this:
If you don't want anyone to play your character, then your character is on business elsewhere for that session. You get no XPs or any other perks as your character was not present.
If you want someone to play your character, designate another player to play the character. Your character shares fully in the rewards (XPs, treaure, etc).....and shares fully when life and circumstance is not kind to the character or party (Meaning, your character can die).
I have found that most players IMC over the years, don't mind someone else running their character. I had a few players who didn't want anyone to play their character, which is fine. In those cases, if the character was significant, I had a NPC stand-in so the rest of the party didn't suffer due to the absence of that character.
And if the 'no one plays my character' players complained when their character was 1 or 2 levels behind everyone else (due to missed XP), I remind them about the choice they made.
It was worked fine this way IMC for many years.
robaustin
First Post
We usually do not play without a player there. We have on rare occasion played - and the DM controls the missing player's character on autopilot for the most part.
However - our usual plan if someone is going to be missing but we still want to play is to still get together and play a boardgame, card game or we have a "pickup" D&D game - where there are some pre-made PC's that we just hand out at random. We can be as reckless as we want with them as we like - and can try out things we might not try in the regular game. That pickup game is played in Sunless Citadel. It works well because everyone still gets their fill of D&D, and then we haven't messed up the plot or the missing person's character.
We schedule games according to everyone's schedule. We only play Friday and Saturday nights, so what we do is have everyone submit their schedules to our DM's wife (also a player) - she is the schedule keeper - she then schedules games on two or three free days during the month. We usually get at least one game in, possibly two. Three is a boon! That's what happens when you're all in your 30's married and some with kids.
--*Rob
However - our usual plan if someone is going to be missing but we still want to play is to still get together and play a boardgame, card game or we have a "pickup" D&D game - where there are some pre-made PC's that we just hand out at random. We can be as reckless as we want with them as we like - and can try out things we might not try in the regular game. That pickup game is played in Sunless Citadel. It works well because everyone still gets their fill of D&D, and then we haven't messed up the plot or the missing person's character.
We schedule games according to everyone's schedule. We only play Friday and Saturday nights, so what we do is have everyone submit their schedules to our DM's wife (also a player) - she is the schedule keeper - she then schedules games on two or three free days during the month. We usually get at least one game in, possibly two. Three is a boon! That's what happens when you're all in your 30's married and some with kids.
--*Rob
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