How do you handle players who arrive late and players who leave early?

[AngryMojo]

If your DM says you arrive at -x- time and you're 30 minutes late when the group is in DEEP, I assure you, certain DMs would go to such an extreme... and if you're going to leave an 30 minutes to an hour before it's time to leave and your class is critical to the campaign, why would you even bother coming in the first place? It's a waste of the time to the DM to even include an arc for your character to be there.

Yes, my example was a bit extreme, but the times could be stretched and worked around and so could the modifiers of XP / Loot loss.

It's an understandable punishment for when you have an established weekly game.

Especially if you say you're going to be there on time, or for the whole time that the game is supposed to be on.

You owe it to your fellow players AND DM to be committed.

Umm, I've always lived under the philosophy that real life takes priority over gaming. Occasionally, things happen and players are absent, sometimes even the DM is absent. Part of being an adult involves responsibilities that are far greater than any given game session.

Also, as the DM, I'm the storyteller, not the player's boss. I don't give writeups, I don't decide promotions, and I don't discipline for anything. Because everyone at my table is a mature, responsible adult, if tardiness or absence becomes a problem, I'll speak with them and see if there's a solution rather than penalize them in game. We're playing a game to have fun, the moment it becomes work is the moment I stop running games. If it turns into work, I damn better be getting paid.

 

[Minifig]

The idea that you need to punish players for infractions is at best counter to the idea of a game. You know what the punishment for being late to a game is? It's getting to play 30 minutes less than everyone else. Why do you need an additional penalty?

Wow. I'd never play in a group like that. One player's job takes him all over the world so he misses some game days and I have to leave early on occasion. I work from six to six, game until midnight, drive home then up again at 4:30 am to work from six to six again. If I got treated that way I'd drop the group in a heartbeat.

I'm assuming the reason the OP is asking this is because they've got a repeat infraction offender.

If they're not that bad, and they're alerting the DM of their absences, then they're excused... and that's fine, but, repeat unexcused absences call for some pretty strict rules to be set up so that they understand that if you jerk the group around without telling them what's up, you'll be subject to punishments.

Sure I understand if you've got other commitments, but if you're playing with these people regularly (like I play with my group every single Monday unless the DM has issues), I assume you've got at least someone's phone number, email or other way of contact so the other player or at least the DM can be notified of an absence..

Does that make sense?

 

[Ahrimon]

Minifig, I really hope your game isn't that serious. If it is, I just have to ask, if someone had an upset stomach and spent 20 minutes in the bathroom, what would the punishment be?

I don't mean to sound rude. I'm just in disbeleif that anyone plays that way. It almost sounds like you treat the game as a job. Or as a collection of social contracts to be fulfilled by a group of business partners. Where's the comraderie?

If you guys enjoy your game, then cool, more power to you. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that style though.

 

[malraux]

Does that make sense?

Even if its an issue with a repeat offender, punishing the character (that is punishing the person in game) is not the way to deal with the player (ie an out of game issue). If its a repeat offender, its better to talk with the person like an adult.

 

[Minifig]

Minifig, I really hope your game isn't that serious. If it is, I just have to ask, if someone had an upset stomach and spent 20 minutes in the bathroom, what would the punishment be?

Nothing, as it's something you can't control.

You have to use common sense with the 'punishment' that you hand out.

Remember, I said repeat infractions, it's entirely up to the DM to decide what is a severe infraction or not... and how much of of a punishment should be handed out, if any. I'm just saying that if you setup ground work and say "This is how it will be.." then you'll have people understand things. If you don't set groundwork for a rule basis, you'll have people coming and going like the wind in the trees and one week you'll have a great group.. the next week you'll have maybe two people show up..

It won't work.

Even if its an issue with a repeat offender, punishing the character (that is punishing the person in game) is not the way to deal with the player (ie an out of game issue). If its a repeat offender, its better to talk with the person like an adult.

Correct, and that's why you discuss it with them in private. If they don't show up, ... Why are we supposed to run their character? Why are we supposed to have the responsibility of holding their gear.. maintaining their powers? They're responsible for everything.. we're not. Heck, we may not even have a back up of their character sheets.

 

[malraux]

On the main issue, in my groups, generally we just hand wave it. If someone has their character up to date on iplay4e, then another player with handle the character. If not, then we just don't worry about it that much, unless the character is key. IE the healer can still cast healing word, even if we don't have anything else about the character.

 

[Ahrimon]

I think I understand a little more of where your coming from. Don't agree with it, but understand it more. My group are all responsible adults. We have each others email & phone numbers. If something comes up we can call/email. A problem individual would probably eventually phased out if they didn't have legitimate reasons. But like I said earlier, we trust each other with our characters so it's not as much as an issue with us. Even though I've only been playing with them for about four months I've already seen one person dropped. Mostly because he disapeared off the face of the earth, but still we discussed it as a group and dropped him officially.

You mentioned you play every monday barring the DM "has issues" (I think it's safe to assume scheduling/RL). So it makes me currious, do the players get compensated XP/gold/items for the time they missed playing because the DM couldn't make it?

 

[malraux]

You arrive X minutes late..

You miss out on ANYTHING the group gets, from the xp to the gear to the perks.. that means drops, armor or gold or weapons given by NPCs.


You leave X minutes early..

You forfeit half your xp, and all of the loot.

Correct, and that's why you discuss it with them in private.

These two things are not really reconcilable.

 

[Minifig]

You mentioned you play every monday barring the DM "has issues" (I think it's safe to assume scheduling/RL). So it makes me currious, do the players get compensated XP/gold/items for the time they missed playing because the DM couldn't make it?

In our game?

No, game just pauses and we pick up next Monday if the DM is around.

I think I understand a little more of where your coming from. Don't agree with it, but understand it more. My group are all responsible adults. We have each others email & phone numbers.

If something comes up we can call/email. A problem individual would probably eventually phased out if they didn't have legitimate reasons.

As we will too, probably, because having problem players is just asking for trouble.

We currently have an issue that one of our players has changed his class / race four different times in four different weeks and refuses to listen to anyone regarding the synergy within the group as to what we need.. and they're too stuck in their own ways and won't listen to anyone except for themselves despite the fact that the last week we played, they had a class that was doing extremely well for them and they claim that they "didn't see it" even though everyone else did..

Our DM is nice enough to let them change, but now we've got the problem that we have to have another player change his class because of the lack of synergy between what we're now lacking ... and the other player who's been changing frequently still doesn't know what he wants to play.. and it's destroying the group from within..

These two things are not really reconcilable.

Malraux, you seem to be ignoring the part where I say everything is modifiable and up to the DM's discretion. I kindly wish you wouldn't do that.

----

As much as I hate to say it, if you're playing with a group of adults like I am, they should buckle down and play like, well, responsible adults. Get in touch with each other and tell each other where you're going to be if you're not going to be around, or if you've got other commitments if you've got to leave early unless they just suddenly spring up. If your DM is nice, they'll probably be understanding.. if they're not.. well.. tough. Short synopsis of what I meant on the first page: You have to tell your group that things are set in your world, and if you're not around, .. things will happen. You can't expect your character to get all the benefits of being there when they're not exactly there... and whose job is it to play the player's character that they created? The player. Not someone else. That's why they are their character. Be responsible. We're not going to be to blame if your character fails a death save.

 

[Shin Okada]

This is not for arrive late/leave early players. But we are now using this "Companion to Champions" rule for players who is absent in a certain day's game.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/289711-give-me-some-idea-my-pcs-companion-champions.html