D&D 5E DM's: what do you do with players who miss time?

[krunchyfrogg]

Let's say a player misses a session. Does his character miss out on the XP of said session?

How do you explain it in-game?

 

[Maxperson]

The PC doesn't miss a single game. He is useful in and out of combat as an NPC or controlled by another player. Since the PC is at risk of death and other loss, I give it full exp. I used to give half exp, but that hurts all the players in the group since the PC falls behind in power as the rest of the group levels faster.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

The character is assumed to be present but left in the background and is subject to whatever fate the rest of the party experiences (i.e. the character was in the "background" doing all the stuff the party was doing but not slowing down game-play by having someone act for the character, and the character can only die, be captured, or other nasty stuff if the entire party has had the same happen).

And the character gets a full share of XP, treasure, and whatever else too, because it's a disadvantage for the entire party if not.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

The PC doesn't miss a single game. He is useful in and out of combat as an NPC or controlled by another player. Since the PC is at risk of death and other loss, I give it full exp. I used to give half exp, but that hurts all the players in the group since the PC falls behind in power as the rest of the group levels faster.

If another player is controlling the character of somebody who didn't show up, how do you handle combat without the character sheet? How do you handle it if that player dies?

 

[Vicaring]

I don't give the character XP, no. But I don't let him be controlled as an NPC, either. Certainly not in combat. Because my fights tend to be on the harder side of things, and I absolutely will not kill or put a character in a position to be killed when that character is not being played by its creator.

I hand-wave the absence. The wizard went and studied butterflies for a moment or something. Now he's back. Such is the nature of wizards, subtle and mysterious.

 

[Lanefan]

The PC doesn't miss a single game. He is useful in and out of combat as an NPC or controlled by another player. Since the PC is at risk of death and other loss, I give it full exp

This, exactly.

I used to give half exp, but that hurts all the players in the group since the PC falls behind in power as the rest of the group levels faster.

Level variance happens naturally unless you force it not to; here's just another possible reason why - though one I don't agree with. The character gets full xp for whatever it gets involved in.

If another player is controlling the character of somebody who didn't show up, how do you handle combat without the character sheet?

I probably yell and scream at someone, as the character sheet should never have left the site where the game is played.

How do you handle it if that player dies?

If the player dies? I call the coroner, or the police, whichever seems appropriate.

If, as I suspect you mean, the character dies? As long as the death would quite possibly have happened even if the usual player had been there (which IME is almost always the case), so be it - it's dead. In our crew it's a known thing that if you miss a session your character(s) is(are) at the mercy of whoever ends up running it(them).

Lan-"sometimes it's a pleasant surprise to come back from GenCon and find I still have characters to play"-efan

 

[Celtavian]

Another player usually runs their character.

 

[Li Shenron]

My usual way of handling it would be:

- if the circumstances allows, the PC is actually absent, away on errands of her own
- otherwise character fades to background, and follows the party controlled by the DM
- doesn't participate in groups decision, but provides basic contribution to combat or exploration*
- mostly avoids using limited resources, but not strictly
- cannot die or suffer permanent penalties while the player is absent (unless the whole group is affected)

*For example, does only basic attacks and cantrips in combat. It is generally up to the rest of the party to solicit something more substantial, for example they can ask an absent-player Cleric to heal them, or a Wizard to cast a spell that makes a difference, or a Rogue to search for traps and pick some locks.

If we're using XP in the current campaign, then my default is no XP gained. However, if we're not using XP but just levelling up all together every now and then, I'm not really going to keep track of who has missed some session in the past.

 

[delericho]

Let's say a player misses a session. Does his character miss out on the XP of said session?

Nope. I work on the assumption that missing the game is punishment enough. Besides, split-level groups were a real pain in 3e, so I've adopted a policy of avoiding them. I haven't bothered to get rid of that policy, despite 5e being more forgiving of such things.

So everyone gets the same XP, whether the player (or even the character) was there or not.

How do you explain it in-game?

Assuming it's a one-session absence, the PC drops into the background - he generally won't take any actions or be involved in any activity unless the existing PCs need some specific response from him (a recent example, when playing Firefly, came up when a PC was injured and someone "slipped into the skin of" Simon in order to help). Likewise, they generally won't be attacked by the monsters or otherwise imperilled... unless the situation really mandates that that has to be the case.

If it's a longer-term absence, I'll find an early opportunity to write the PC out of the action, and then bring them back in should the player return. At which point the player will get the chance to level up the PC to catch up, if appropriate - the assumption will be that the PC was off doing some other stuff in the meantime. (Indeed, I've generally taken the opportunity to have the PC return bearing useful campaign information to help advance the story in some way.)

If another player is controlling the character of somebody who didn't show up, how do you handle combat without the character sheet?

I keep the character sheets. (I've never had a player really make an issue of this, but if they did then that would be fine - but I would expect to be left a more or less up-to-date copy.)

How do you handle it if that player dies?

Fortunately, I've never had a player die, though we are all getting on a bit. Some sort of memorial service, perhaps?

 

[Imaculata]

The player isn't punished. He receives what ever exp he missed out on. I'll try and come up with an excuse why the character isn't there. Maybe he's ill? Maybe he's off on some business on his own?

OR I control the character as an npc. I'll inform the player of all the stuff he missed, but his character would still know about, since he was there as an npc. I'll of course refrain from having the character take crucial actions that put his life in jeopardy, or cost him items, nor will I have him actually take part in the combat. For the purpose of the narrative, he's there taking part in all the fights. But mechanically, I don't roll damage or injuries for him. He's just there in the background.