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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bhaal" data-source="post: 458805" data-attributes="member: 8702">I'm a fairly new DM but have been gaming for quite a few years.  In my campaign there are 4 PCs so everyone is pretty much carrying their share of duties.  One of the players is out of town this weekend, but the rest want to game.   It would be much tougher for them to play without that character (they're doing a classic dungeon crawl and the character in question is a rogue), It got me to thinking about what ways you can go about dealing with an absent PC.  With other DMs I've noticed two major options:1.  The PC is "on perimeter watch" meaning they will be in the same place/predicament as the party (or will soon be inserted) when they return, but they simply aren't there to act or be acted upon for the session that they miss. 2.  Somebody "drives" that PC.  It can be the DM, so they are effectively used as an NPC, and will most likely only come into play when the party has no other options.  The other variation is allowing another PC to control that character in addition to their own.  The DM will obviously stop any abuse to the PC, and the PC "driving" will get a bonus to experience to their character for the session (typically the absent character gets half the experience they would normally receive, and the other half goes to the controlling character).Does anyone employ these methods, other methods?  I'm looking for options to deal with this since it may come up once and a while (everyone's fairly busy).  Personally, I'm leaning towards the variation of the 2nd option, where another PC gets (monitored) control over that character with an experience bonus as incentive.  It works well in another gaming group I'm in, though it requires a good amount of trust and confidence in the other players for it to work.  The first option I can see as applicable in some cases as well, but I suppose it all depends on the situation the party is in, and I'd like to stick to one method as a DM to stay consistant.  Any thoughts?</blockquote>

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