How does your group handle an absent player?

[CleverNickName]

 

[Corinnguard]

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"Well, it was either float you around in a barrel or have you do a barrel roll."

 

[payn]

My GM had to drop tomorrow night so we are pivoting to board games.

 

[djotaku]

If I'm the GM/DM, I have a VTT on a big sceen at/beside the table for players that have to be home, but still able to play remotely. For 2 of the tables I GM, half the players have young families, so the VTT has been a terrific aid for accomodating them. Most of those player's spouses play too, so it isn't uncommon for them to hot-seat a few times over the course of the evening.

Otherwise, for players that can't make a session for another reason, we usually have another player run their PC if the owner is willing. All of my players' sheets are replicated in the VTT and updated weekly. So, with the ability to display any PC sheet on the big screen, it's minimal effort for another player to play them.

It's worked, because it's typically a minimal number of players (1 or 2) that can't make a session in-person. I've had the odd player that's consistently tardy, or wants to play from home more often than in-person. For them, I just suggest they move to one of my online VTT campaigns, which they have. I can't stress how much using a VTT like this has helped my IRL tables remain active/viable. Not to mention I get to use the VTT (FG or Foundry) running on my laptop as a GM screen.

how well (overall) does the partially in person/partially in "zoom" work? I might have to do that for one game, but I wasn't sure

 

[TheSword]

how well (overall) does the partially in person/partially in "zoom" work? I might have to do that for one game, but I wasn't sure

I’ve don’t it a few times as the person on zoom while everyone else is in a living room. It’s ok. Not great, because you can’t see everyone’s face or the battle map necessarily. But it did the job!

 

[plecostomus]

My group has 3 players and we play if we have 2.

We are playing Quests From the Infinite Staircase and the book says Nafas (the genie questgiver) can have a servant such as a mephit made of stardust. I combined this with the concept of "Carlton the Doorman" which Jasper used in his run of this adventure to handle any slightly meta stuff.

When a player is absent, the mephit appears and teleports their character to someone making a wish. When the player returns, the mephit flies their character back through the Infinite Staircase. As they approach their destination, the character receives important memories and wishes from the party so that the character isn't confused about what's going on.

If the party gets a Long Rest, the absent character does too. I haven't decided what the mephit will do if the party has the indecency to die while one member is absent.

The player decides if their character remembers what the wish was and can describe what it was (it has to be level-appropriate). The only character who's had to use the mephit so far comes back with stories of granting his own kids' wishes to see him. A wish is a wish I guess!

 

[Thomas Shey]

how well (overall) does the partially in person/partially in "zoom" work? I might have to do that for one game, but I wasn't sure

I do this pretty regularly with a combination of Discord and a VTT, and haven't observed major problems; the one thing I do wish people would do more consistently than they do is if they're going to have a side conversation with people physically present is to mute themselves over Discord.

(The vision thing @TheSword mentions doesn't matter to us because we don't use the cameras anyway).

 

[Campbell]

Tar and feathering. Oh? You were asking how we handle the character? Oops.

 

[gnarlygninja]

Tar and feathering. Oh? You were asking how we handle the character? Oops.

I recognize you were just making one of the classic dnd jokes but I'm now realizing I could have been clearer.

 

[Velderan]

Currently GMing for 6 players, so typically if we have at least 4 we run the game and just have the missing players sit out with no penalty to experience or treasure. They’re usually good about seeing who would best use magic items so that has never been a problem.

Sometimes if we’re missing people during a key part of the campaign, I just pivot for a session or two and run a completely different game until everyone is back.