101 Reasons Your Character Missed Last Session

[Electric Wizard]

I think an absent player can be a good hook if you spin it right.

1) Character attended a wedding. Subtract 3d10 gold for a wedding gift. Make a charisma check to see if you rekindled an important relationship.

2) Character was observing a holy day. Did it entail fasting, feasting, meditation or a special mass?

3) Character was kidnapped by fey. Can't remember what happened, but every now and then the character will have a weird flashback or dream about the experience that may be insightful.

 

[Razjah]

4) Character was summoned by a powerful caster and aided another party before being returned to the original group.

5) Character got involved in a rigged game and couldn't pay crime lords the debt. Now they want to remove the character because unpaid debts are bad for business and their reputation. Returning the money won't help, they don't care. Clearing the Ogre Pass isn't exactly inconspicuous.

 

[amerigoV]

6) Overslept.

 

[Dioltach]

7) Ate a dodgy prawn sandwich

8) Ennui

9) Promised the wife he'd clear out the shed and mow the front lawn

 

[Blackbrrd]

10) Your character really wanted to go kill undead in that dungeon. It turns out the dungeon was pretty long and it ended up right about where the rest of the PC's are. He found some good loot there too.

 

[Stormonu]

11) Got drunk and passed out under the bar.

12) Came down with a 24-hour cold

13) Kidnapped by jermalaines and returned with all hair cut off and covered in blue paint that won't wash off for a week.

14) Had to attend a relative's funeral

15) Spent the night in the drunk tank

16) Spent the afternoon convincing the mayor it was a look-alike that spirited his daughter away for a "night to remember"

 

[Stormonu]

17) Found a one-way secret passage and had a devil of a time finding a way back.

 

[greyhaze]

18) Stepped on a one use teleport trap.

19) Temporarily possessed by a somewhat benign spirit or wizard.

20) Stepped on a shallow pit trap, with a solid closing trap door (assuming they can't get out from the inside).

21) "Got lucky".

22) Geas'd or Charmed.

 

[BriarMonkey]

23) The local brothel had a two-for-one night.

24) A prospective "business" acquantance had a proposition that was too good to pass up.

25) The barkeep of their favorite inn/tavern took ill and begged the character to take care of the place until he (the barkeep) could get well enough to come back to work.

 

[Dioltach]

This thread has taken a somewhat silly turn.

26) The party stepped into an alternate reality in which the character didn't exist.

27) The other party members chose to ignore the character as a prank.

28) The character tasted some mushrooms growing in the dungeon and spent the whole time admiring the pretty colours and trying to convince a spider to go into accounting.