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

[Rya.Reisender]

If a player is missing a session but tells me ahead of time, his PC will receive XP according to what he does.
If a player is missing a session and didn't tell me about it ahead of time, then his PC won't receive any XP for that session.

The other players can tell me how I should act him. A PC of a player that isn't present doesn't die. As DM I have enough completely official tools available to ensure that.

I usually decide whether to take the PC along or not depending on current story context. The group is currently in a town and just moving from NPC to NPC? Then I just let the PC stay at the Pub. The group is in the middle of a dungeon? PC won't magically disappear. Group is starting to do a small quest I'm sure they will complete in the current session? PC stays in town and does something else in the meantime.

 

[Warbringer]

How do you handle it if that player dies?

Wait until it's dark, leave the body somewhere it can be found, and lie about having seen them that night.

 

[Uchawi]

I would watch the trend over time, just like I would look at non-interest or bad behavior at the table overall and then discuss with the player why they want to play or why they are late all the time (versus a one-off). But I tend to keep experience the same regardless if a session is missed. The reward of playing, is playing. If you do not play, then you miss out.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The player has two options:

1) Designate another player to run his/her character for the session. The character participates, and is at risk like any other PC and receives normal XP shares.

2) Does nothing. The character wanders off, stays with the camp, etc. The character receives no XP, is not at risk, and receives no XP.

So not showing up and not making arrangements with another player defaults to option#2. The character remains safe but gains none of he benefits of participation. Treasure is a different matter. The players may divide their gains within the party as they see fit.

 

[NimrodvanHall]

If a Player is absent, which happens more and more often with kids significant others and job obligations messing up our DND schedule, our DM descided to do the following.
He makes all the combat encounters for 4 PC's if we are all there we have 5 PC's ethe encounters are more easily managable, but we chat more during the game, if we are with 4 chatter and game balances and there is only 3 of us the enounters get harder but with even less ppl there there is less chatter eand the end result is that we manage to get a similair amount of encounters doen during an evening. With les ppl there the XP per character is higher for that evening.
Since we long since descided that having ppl lagging behind in level is no fun for any of us. Our DM calculates the XP per character for that session and adds that amount to the XP pool. if there is ENough in the pool for the next lvl all characters level. a weird side effect is that we level FASTER if there are less ppl that can make it to a session. There is also a bigger chance for a TPK with less players attending. A TPK normally means we start over at around lvl 3 on a different place in the unfolding metaplot.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

The Green Cloud

If and when a regular player (key term) cannot be present, I put it to a group vote. 1 of 2 things happen - either I NPC the character in question, or the Green Cloud appears from it's undetectable quasi-dimension and sucks said character in. If they go with the Green Cloud option then that character was NEVER here. When the player returns, the Green Cloud appears and spews their character out, and it is "as if they were always here." For the non-regular player, or for that player that is becoming (or has become) completely unreliable, this is not an issue. I ask them to leave the group and their character(s) go with them. The Green Cloud takes them... and never give them back.

Once, several years ago our group needed a rogue, badly. Unfortunately the party's rogue (a hired NPC who refused to stay hired) had betrayed them, and they killed the poor sap. The wizard hatched a hare brained plot, and through his arts managed to summon....

The Green Cloud!

Once there they tried to negotiate with the alien entity, in exchange for it spitting out a Rogue. It's response was to take the party Paladin. The remainder attacked it. It was a strange battle, ultimately won by the Druid when he managed to use control weather on the beast. He coerced it to relinquish the Paladin (people were only forgotten once the cloud vanished) and a rogue. The cloud was a smart ass though, and it spewed out all of the rogues it has inside of it, which totaled seventeen, of various levels, races and skills (and versions of the game) - and then it vanished. That... turned out to be an interesting game. Of course now that they were here, they were "always here" - and the adventure turned on it's side as the highest level of them - Brand, a 17th level Thief, was a Guildmaster. He quickly organized the rest to be a part of his new guild and the remainder of the party became hired help, working for the Rogues. The Paladin had trouble with this (working for Thieves) and immediately challenged Brand to personal combat. Brand, bluffing and role playing hard, reminded him of the Oath that the Paladin had given him (there was no such thing, but one of my players was running the guy, so I went with it) - this confused the Paladin enough that he went with it... Brand and his band of "not-so-merry-men-and-several-women-too" are still active in one of the cities in the Northern Empire on Aeonia. The Red Blade as I recall...

 

[Maxperson]

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?

Character sheets are left behind. If the character dies, which is rare, then it is what it is. Nobody in my group is going to play the PC recklessly and I'm not going to target someone because they aren't there, and everyone knows that, so it's handled the same way as if they were there.

 

[Orlax]

If a player misses a session, I run their character as an npc, and unless they split from the party I control all their actions (if the character leaves the party we can retcon what they actually did while away that they didn't tell the party about. I will attempt to contact the player mid session for any major decisions.

For instance, at last night's game we had a no show. He'd spent the day helping his buddy move and was staying in another town for the night. He'd let me know well enough ahead of time that out didn't hold up game or anything and even have me some heading as to what his character's goals for the session were. I ran his character as an NPC acting with the party for the evening. At one point he ran off to do a scouting mission, we will tarintino that little mission when we start the next session. He'll have a certain time limit and things he comes away from the mission with everything that he already did (info), but we will see if he comes back with anything extra. I rarely have characters disappear other than if it would be appropriate for them to do so.

 

[ccs]

In games I run;
●If a player can't make a session thier character does nothing & earns no XP that evening.
●Your character cannot die if your not present to play it.
●Nobody runs your character in your absence. The most that'll happen is that I, as DM, will provide a bit of narration that removes your character from the action/explains thier absence.
●Each player is responsible for keeping thier own character sheet. We don't collect them.

 

[brdarnell]

I can't believe so many people handle it this way (player character is still there and gets XP).
It seems so obvious that the character would more or less be "AFK". Not present, not in danger, getting no XP.
Having that PC controlled by another player or DM and getting killed seems very unfair.
Additionally, if they are not there to participate why should they get XP?