Missing players and other players running their PCs

[aco175]

I was going to post in another thread about groups size, but think this is its own thread. If a player cannot show up to play the game, do other players use their character? How do you do this? Does the DM keep the character sheets or a copy and the players get them back if/when they show up?

I never kept any sheets for my weekly game and if a player is not there and we decide to play, he just misses the game and the others have a more difficult time if missing a cleric or caster. There is a weird problem if the week started in the middle of a dungeon and the character was there last week and now- poof, gone. We make up things like he went to feed the horses or is staying in the back of the group, but no danger or able to assist anything.

 

[Belen]

I was going to post in another thread about groups size, but think this is its own thread. If a player cannot show up to play the game, do other players use their character? How do you do this? Does the DM keep the character sheets or a copy and the players get them back if/when they show up?

I never kept any sheets for my weekly game and if a player is not there and we decide to play, he just misses the game and the others have a more difficult time if missing a cleric or caster. There is a weird problem if the week started in the middle of a dungeon and the character was there last week and now- poof, gone. We make up things like he went to feed the horses or is staying in the back of the group, but no danger or able to assist anything.

These days, we just cancel the game.

I have run someone’s character in the past or, more common, make up an excuse for why they are missing.

The last time, the character went missing and the group session was to find her but it made the player angry and she quit the group because her character got kidnapped even though it was resolved before she got back.

 

[Committed Hero]

The last time, the character went missing and the group session was to find her but it made the player angry and she quit the group because her character got kidnapped even though it was resolved before she got back.

We handwave it.

When I was much younger, my group had just convinced my wife to start playing with us. One night we started a fight just as it was her turn to put the toddler to bed. Welp, the guy we thought we were fighting turned out to be a mind flayer, and let's just say my wife learned one of the rare exceptions to the survivability of PCs that night. It took her a long time to resume play.

 

[cranberry]

We run the game as long as we have at least 3 of 5 players. Some people are OK with others running their PC, some aren't. If a player doesn't want others to run their character, we just assume that the PC is there but not there.

Adjusting the encounters usually isn't an issue.

 

[DEFCON 1]

We never bother running other players' characters. My tables are made up of a lot of community theater people and thus there are always blocks of the year when one or two players might be gone on certain weeks due to rehearsals and such. So for those sessions the idea is that the character is there with the group in the background but they just don't do anything. It's just easier.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

We would never get to play if we always waited for the whole group. If on person is missing, we play.

The character is assumed to be there but just doesn’t play a huge role. They’re just in the background. If their character would be important for something, the dm might use an ability or whatever.

It’s a bit annoying sometimes. In combat, we sometimes roll each round to see who gets to get the character do something or we assume they’re out gathering food. Depends on the situation.

They’re like Mark from The Gamers

 

[TiQuinn]

Our rule is if we are down one player, we continue the game. More than one, we cancel.

A missing player’s character just blends into the background. They have no impact on the story, they offer no help with their skills or abilities even if the rest of the players know the mechanics well, and they’re just assumed to be fighting offscreen or following along.

 

[Umbran]

Right now, the group is small enough that I just cancel game.

More usually, the player can opt to have another player run their character, or to have me run them on the back burner. This latter is lower risk for the character, but the party only gets the most essential of their abilities.

 

[payn]

So, for a decade or longer of F2F games I had 5 players. The rule was if one is missing the game goes on. Usually, that character would be off screen for that session and not played. However, occasionally there would be a need for the full party and the player would give permission to the group to play their PC for the session. If it was an issue, we'd just wait until all players could be present. If the player was chronically late/missing, we'd downgrade the importance of the person being there and if they show up its a bonus or they stop coming.

 

[Li Shenron]

I was going to post in another thread about groups size, but think this is its own thread. If a player cannot show up to play the game, do other players use their character?

Never.

I always enforce the "fade to background" method: if a player is absent, their PC is out of the game. No one is going to control that PC, but also no one is going to harm it. It is simply dragged along with the rest of the party, which might include an unpleasant outcome such as being all captured or lost somewhere. I don't usually feel the need to provide a narrative explanation of the absence. In a special situation such as another PC dying and needed to be resurrected by the absence character, I might make an exception and control it myself for that purpose, but it never happened.