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

[Blue]

One of my first long term games (AD&D 1st, I'm an old fart) the world had something called Zombie Rot. You followed around mindlessly initiating nothing, but were also very hard to kill. So if a player wasn't there, their PCs got Zombie Rot. And half XP for the session.

Nowadays both the games I play and the games I run we just give full XP. Something I learned from running a long 3.x campaign was that it wasn't fun to permanently be lower level then other people. Dying was bad, but doing it because you missed some sessions for work or because you crafted items for other characters was even worse.

Now, one thing I love is I run for some truly talented players. They make characters so alive that other players will toss in what that character would say or do when the player is absent. I regularly have characters with absent players and inspiration* because they created such strong personalities the other can nail it.

(* well, what I grant like inspiration, but that's a house rule that's not important for the story.)

 

[werecorpse]

If a player doesn't show on rare occasions I allow them to be played as a NPC but this is least preferred option. Usually I come up with a reason why the character isnt there at that time.

As for XP I have a standing rule that it's up to the players. The default position is that you only get XP when you are there. You can however decide that you are falling too far behind and it's affecting your enjoyment in which case you can increase your XP up to the XP of the next lowest XP PC.

In 3e I gave everyone the same because level difference mattered a lot. In 5e I think it's less of a big deal.

 

[S'mon]

And, again, I've seen one of these methods result in players quitting
a campaign entirely

In 5e? In practice 5e plays very differently from 3e & 4e, it doesn't need PCs being the
same level or benefit from that - though if you don't use XP you pretty well have to do that.
Likewise 5e doesn't need or benefit from strict encounter building, it works more like
pre-3e.

That said, I think any group where XP is seen as an entitlement (so not getting XP is 'punishment') or "pacing mechanism" for linear AP-type play will want to keep everyone on the same XPV. If you're in the habit of
handing out XP every session and players don't see it as a specific reward for specific
achievements, then yes give everyone the same. If they can go several sessions with minimal XP then get a big score - and especially if they get to choose their challenges rather than play through what the GM sets them - individual XP works best.

 

[S'mon]

The point is you're punishing people for
things outside their control.

I find this 'punishment' concept increasingly annoying when it comes to a game. Your PC dying seems like a much bigger 'punishment' to me. If absent PCs can't die and still get XP then the PCs are
'rewarded' for the player not showing up. But really neither concept is appropriate IMO.

"Your PC will always be 1 level behind everyone else" may feel like a punishment and I
can understand that. That should not be an issue if you give individual XP awards, a
player who is behind one session may be ahead two sessions later. An 8th level PC in my 5e game
died recently and new PC came in at half XP, new PC was 6th when another PC was still 8th.
After a very few sessions both PCs were 8th level.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

In my game those PC's become "APC's"..."Absent Player Characters" (which also corresponds to "Armored Personnel Carrier" ). The PC is "run" by the group as a whole, but the character becomes, effectively "there but not there". The PC can only 'die' if everyone in the group does, and it doesn't make any sense for the character to have survived either. If there is something we (it's collective at that point) can figure out that would have that APC survive, he/she does. This almost always results in loss of equipment, treasure, etc...and can involve the ever-popular "You woke up in the care of some people you have never seen and can't remember your past, not even your name. They took care of you, and it's been several [days/weeks/months/years], with you helping around the farm. Suddenly, after an intense dream, you remember your past and some of what lead to your situation. Oh, here's the new PC's you will be with."

When a PC is an "APC" they can basically carry stuff, perform minor actions (like take a watch at night, or carry a chest of treasure, or use there skill as an armorer to repair that ancient suit armor they found, etc). The character can fight, but sometimes we just "ignore them"...they don't do damage, get attacked, etc...they sort of just 'fade into the background' as one of those "filler cast" to make the fight look bigger, like you see in movies...all those 'faceless and un-named soldiers' kinda thing.

Full XP, full treasure, etc. Basically, we just don't care enough to worry about "realism" anymore. We all have too many grey-hairs on our heads/beards to care. We're here to roll dice, imagine, socialize and just have some fun playing make believe. In my youth, maybe I'd do more "realistic" stuff (no XP, full character running with full consequences, etc). But, as I said...just to old to care about that. I/we just want to have fun.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Lanefan]

I find this 'punishment' concept increasingly annoying when it comes to a game. Your PC dying seems like a much bigger 'punishment' to me. If absent PCs can't die and still get XP then the PCs are 'rewarded' for the player not showing up.

Good point.

An 8th level PC in my 5e game died recently and new PC came in at half XP, new PC was 6th when another PC was still 8th. After a very few sessions both PCs were 8th level.

Regardless of the circumstances, you're levelling up awful fast if someone can go from 6th to 8th in "a very few sessions".

But yes, today's weaksauce might be next year's heart-of-the-party...you just never know.

Lan-"I think it took me three years to go from 6th to 8th, I don't remember - I was too busy getting beat up in the front line to notice"-efan

 

[S'mon]

Aside from XP, re absent players - if possible I have PCs be absent, otherwise they 'guard the rear' or might be semi-incapacitated in some way, they don't contribute and don't count when calculating XP. This has the odd effect that if I'm doing "party XP" the party will advance faster with fewer players, OTOH the chance of the PCs being defeated is greatly increased (I rarely 'balance' closely for party size). I find this works well for me. I may also have an NPC on hand to contribute for the session.

 

[Lanefan]

In my game those PC's become "APC's"..."Absent Player Characters"

We call them "QPC's", or Quasi-Player Characters, particularly if the player is expected to be absent for a while e.g. on a long vacation but the party's in mid-adventure and there's no good way to pull the character(s) out. Also an NPC on its way to acquiring a player (which happens sometimes) passes through a QPC stage in the process.

Lanefan

 

[S'mon]

Regardless of the circumstances, you're levelling up awful fast if someone can go from 6th to 8th in "a very few sessions".

5e levelling is quite fast* anyway - the highest level PC IMC (online, ca 3 hours/session), the Barbarian just made 10th after 46 sessions. And like pre-3e lower level PCs in a higher level group level up quickly in most of the XP range, because the numbers needed to advance and the awards increase rapidly. The Cleric PC who started at 6th was already quite close to 7th as I recall, and he was levelling up every 2-3 sessions where the higher level PCs needed 5-6. Currently after the biggest XP award yet on Thursday (11,000 for one session, #46, where they killed a CR 17 dragon turtle and seized its hoard) the Cleric is just below 9th. The two original PCs from the start of the game are the Rogue who just made 9th, and the Barbarian who just made 10th.

*Maybe not as fast as running 3e/PF in Adventure Path play - my Pathfinder group were
levelling every 2 sessions for the first half of the campaign ca 2nd-8th level, using Medium
Track XP. But certainly faster than my Classic D&D campaign, ca 6-8 tabletop sessions to level.

 

[Imaculata]

Hiya!
When a PC is an "APC" they can basically carry stuff, perform minor actions (like take a watch at night, or carry a chest of treasure, or use there skill as an armorer to repair that ancient suit armor they found, etc). The character can fight, but sometimes we just "ignore them"...they don't do damage, get attacked, etc...they sort of just 'fade into the background' as one of those "filler cast" to make the fight look bigger, like you see in movies...all those 'faceless and un-named soldiers' kinda thing.

Full XP, full treasure, etc.

This is exactly what I do as well, except for the treasure part. But we have a party wide treasury, so usually the players will keep some items in reserve for when the "APC" is back. But he receives what ever exp he missed out on. The advantage of this method, is that the missing player's character is still part of the story, and will know all the things the rest of the party does. So this makes it easy to jump back in.

It is not punishment to withhold loot and XP from absent players. Those are the rewards for showing up.

It IS definitely punishment. The reward should be the fun of playing a cool story with your friends. But by using your mentality, I would not only be missing out on part of the story, but also on treasure and experience points. I'm not just at a narrative disadvantage after one session, but also behind on the rest of the party statistically, for reasons beyond my control. How completely unreasonable. This is the sort of stuff that can make players quit the game entirely.