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Strategies for Missing Players?
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<blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5500977" data-attributes="member: 75065"><p>To be honest, in this case, sounds like the player is not interested in playing. </p><p></p><p>I doubt throwing any kind of tantrum involving the deliberate anhialation of your PCs to alleviate the sense of frustration at player absence is going to be very inspiring for him either.</p><p></p><p>"What? Hacked to death by rabid goats that could shoot flames out their arse? Fantastic! Hey, where are we meeting next week? We've gotta do that again!"</p><p></p><p>Really all you do is punish the players that do faithfully turn up and are the only ones close enough at hand to vent on.</p><p></p><p>So, I'd say it's fairly safe to say, best try not let that happen again. The DM can kill his PCs whenever the whim takes them. Its easy.</p><p></p><p>"While you are taking a short rest, but before you can benefit from it, a deep voice from the distance is heard saying ' Kill the intruders, show no mercy and make sure you don't listen to anything they say'. This door, this door, oh, and this door open and in walks a giant, a dragon and a beholder. You also realise the corridor you came through is now blocked by a massive Gelatinous Cube. Oh, and the roof rolls back and hundreds of gleaming arrow heads point down at you from above. The floor, by the way begins to rumble as it slowly opens in two revealing a pit of several hissing hydras below. And unfortunately they get a surprise round."</p><p></p><p>But your players have to be able to trust in the fact that you won't do that. It's not fun for anyone. So invest your time and energies in the players that do show. Forget about this one guy that doesn't. </p><p></p><p>As S'mon mentioned, introduce a NPC Companion character. I have different companions come and go into the story to introduce new adventure arcs, drop story hooks and to give the impression they are meeting a variety of people, making friends, establishing roots in the world they play in. It can also reflect more acutely the consequences of some of their decisions. My players last companion left them when he became aware that they had dealings with followers of Zehir. They have received a lot of benefits from this association, but making deals with evil gods of poison needs to have some downsides.</p><p></p><p>If you have 4 other players you'll be fine. The Companion will make things a lot smoother, especially the night you only have 3 players, and you can rotate who operates the companion in combat.</p><p></p><p>Whatever conclusion you come to and decide to run with with regard to absence just make sure you are </p><p>a) consistent</p><p>b) fair</p><p>c) explicit (make sure you let your players know what your decision is, why you are making it, and how it is going to work)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jbear, post: 5500977, member: 75065"] To be honest, in this case, sounds like the player is not interested in playing. I doubt throwing any kind of tantrum involving the deliberate anhialation of your PCs to alleviate the sense of frustration at player absence is going to be very inspiring for him either. "What? Hacked to death by rabid goats that could shoot flames out their arse? Fantastic! Hey, where are we meeting next week? We've gotta do that again!" Really all you do is punish the players that do faithfully turn up and are the only ones close enough at hand to vent on. So, I'd say it's fairly safe to say, best try not let that happen again. The DM can kill his PCs whenever the whim takes them. Its easy. "While you are taking a short rest, but before you can benefit from it, a deep voice from the distance is heard saying ' Kill the intruders, show no mercy and make sure you don't listen to anything they say'. This door, this door, oh, and this door open and in walks a giant, a dragon and a beholder. You also realise the corridor you came through is now blocked by a massive Gelatinous Cube. Oh, and the roof rolls back and hundreds of gleaming arrow heads point down at you from above. The floor, by the way begins to rumble as it slowly opens in two revealing a pit of several hissing hydras below. And unfortunately they get a surprise round." But your players have to be able to trust in the fact that you won't do that. It's not fun for anyone. So invest your time and energies in the players that do show. Forget about this one guy that doesn't. As S'mon mentioned, introduce a NPC Companion character. I have different companions come and go into the story to introduce new adventure arcs, drop story hooks and to give the impression they are meeting a variety of people, making friends, establishing roots in the world they play in. It can also reflect more acutely the consequences of some of their decisions. My players last companion left them when he became aware that they had dealings with followers of Zehir. They have received a lot of benefits from this association, but making deals with evil gods of poison needs to have some downsides. If you have 4 other players you'll be fine. The Companion will make things a lot smoother, especially the night you only have 3 players, and you can rotate who operates the companion in combat. Whatever conclusion you come to and decide to run with with regard to absence just make sure you are a) consistent b) fair c) explicit (make sure you let your players know what your decision is, why you are making it, and how it is going to work) [/QUOTE]
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