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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 2475868" data-attributes="member: 30035">This is truly an awkward situation. But it certainly can't hurt to ask the players what they think of the idea. I suspect that if they're like most of the players I know, they'd rather have their own PCs. But perhaps you can still keep them involved in affairs via email. Ask them what actions their PCs are most likely to take under certain specified circumstances. Make sure you have up-to-date character info. And I know this is really a lot to ask of you, but make sure the PCs-as-NPCs really do participate in the adventures if you run them that way. They shouldn't get as much of the spotlight as the characters whose players are present, but don't just have them stand in the background and be cardboard standees. Ideally you want to be able to occasionally tell the missing players about the cool things their PCs did. On this last I speak from experience. Just yesterday I participated in a game in which two players were absent. The GM ran their PCs as NPCs and did very little. It irked the rest of the group that he wouldn't let them do what their players would have done. He claimed he didn't want NPCs to steal the glory from the players who were present. But we didn't care; these were not NPCs, they were PCs with absent players, and we wanted them to act the way they would normally have behaved. We would have been happy to help the GM out with suggestions, or even take over running the characters if their character sheets had been available.</blockquote>

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