D&D General How do you explain PC absences when a player has to miss a session?

[Fauchard1520]

I've seen a lot of ways to handle this mess. The in-universe justification (a sudden stomach bug). The handwave (he's just over there, not participating). The cancelled session.

How does your group handle it? Do you employ a mix of strategies, or do you tend to favor some particular option?

Comic for illustrative purposes.

 

[LordEntrails]

Handwave. Why worry about it?

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I do the handwave for the game I'm currently running. Those that are present continue on and next week the character just pops back into existence. Encounters are generally still "balanced" due to the adventure is suitable for 4-6 players. Though anyone that's run a 5e prewritten campaign knows that those encounters can often vary wildly which is why balanced is in quotations.

 

[robus]

I just say that their PC is present but battling their own enemy off camera, then if we end a session in mid-battle (as happened last time) and the player returns to join the fight in the next, then there's no need for them to sit things out as their PC is already in the fray. I'll probably have their character take some damage to bring things into some alignment with the other PCs.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, we just don’t even mention it.

 

[jasper]

Washing their dirty socks.

 

[Umbran]

We don't need to explain it, as most often, we have the PC still present. They gain a goodly measure of plot immunity, and won't take significant personal initiative, and will react to requests for their skills and use basic combat tactics. They are, effectively, present but on auto-pilot.

 

[Vendral]

We don't explain it since the PC is there and "fully" participating.
We handle it by having one of the other players playing the missing players PC in addition to his own.
As the DM I reserve the right to veto any decions the absent players PC make, but so far I have never had to use it.
We are a fairly stable group of friends and the majority of us have been playing together for roughly 30 years which I think helps.
There have been some really close calls for the absent players PC (and 1-2 deaths) but that depended on the situation and would most likely have happened even the PCs player was present.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Either DM or another player takes over for the PC most of the time, unless the story allows the PC to easily be written out for the session. Every player understands that if they can't make the session, someone will likely play their character if possible. We agree on that during session 0.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

The PC stepped on a Symbol of Teleportation. It wears off when the player comes back (as to how it wears off so the PC shows up next to the other PC's, well, strange are the ways of the DM....I mean, gods). If the player throws in a good (or even ridiculous) story about what the PC was doing, the PC can have XP and treasure.