How does your group handle an absent player?

[cranberry]

We've set a minimum quorum of 3 players (out of 5) in order to hold a session.

The missing players have the option of being there but not there, or having one of the other players run the missing players PC.

 

[cbwjm]

In one group I still ran if a single person was absent, maybe it was even if two were absent. If we got to 3 we would look at rescheduling. I think it was about 6 players in that group.

With other groups, we've never had a set day/time to play so normally we'd try sorting out the next session at the end of the current one, but were flexible if someone couldn't make it due to work where we'd postpone to the next time slot where everyone was available.

I'm currently running Dolmenwood and I have 2 players who are easily able to play and others who can just drop in if the day/time suits. We play with night walkers (bar staff) so it's rare that we can get them all together at once.

 

[Sacrosanct]

 

[Deset Gled]

I ran for a long time with 6 of us. 1GM and 5 of players. If one player had to miss, we played. If two cancel and reschedule.

Anywhere from 3-6 players, this is the same system my groups have run on for many years.

Most of the time the DM runs the missing player as a bot, when appropriate they disappear from the story, and occasionally they are run by another player.

On "cancelled" nights, the remaining players often still get together and find something else to play.

 

[aco175]

I currently have 2 players and my son in college that can play during breaks, like the last 3 weeks. At times when he is home for one week, we might play a 1-shot with a lower level group associated with the main group. When we play the main group- the PC just shows up like he was there all along.

I think we used to create a way to bring the PC into the game, but that might part of the night, so now we just "poof" him into the game. There is no worry about magic or realism or HP damage compared to the others.

There is enough NPCs and henchmen that we could make the player play with one of them but why bother?

 

[cbwjm]

I currently have 2 players and my son in college that can play during breaks, like the last 3 weeks. At times when he is home for one week, we might play a 1-shot with a lower level group associated with the main group. When we play the main group- the PC just shows up like he was there all along.

I think we used to create a way to bring the PC into the game, but that might part of the night, so now we just "poof" him into the game. There is no worry about magic or realism or HP damage compared to the others.

There is enough NPCs and henchmen that we could make the player play with one of them but why bother?

I'm incredibly bad at organically integrating new PCs into a group so I tend to pretty much make them appear as well, sometimes just replacing NPCs with their new character or otherwise just going "This is Dave, he's part of the adventuring party now".

 

[zarionofarabel]

View attachment 426641

This

 

[DrunkonDuty]

They get murdered in their sleep.

 

[Deset Gled]

They get murdered in their sleep.

What if I call the DM a couple days ahead of time to let them know I have a business trip?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Death!