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<blockquote data-quote="MarkCsigs" data-source="post: 2505744" data-attributes="member: 29220">I'm wondering how the rest of you handle missing players in game. I'm not concerned about the players being more active, my players have been great. But finding a night when everyone can make it is not always practical or even realistic.&nbsp;But as DMs, how do you handle the missing player's PCs in the game? &nbsp;I've always been an advocate of &quot;If you're not there, your character is not there.&quot; For two reasons: One - As DM I have too much to do (including plenty of NPCs) to run the extra characters. And whether I've run the character or another player has, I've often seen hurt feelings when a magic item is used up, or a PC is harmed or killed and the PC wasn't there. &nbsp;The second reason is I don't believe in giving out &quot;free&quot; experience points.&nbsp;I've worked hard at making most of my adventures single capsules ... plus the PCs have very rich 'non-adventuring' lives, and it's been easy to make up reasons why they were not on a particular adventure. &nbsp;But as they get to higher levels and their adventures stretch out further across the land and become more &quot;world wide&quot; in consequence ... it's getting harder to rationalize why a player wouldn't go. And harder to get them together. So I've found myself resorting to the dreaded cliche of PCs suddenly appearing in mid-adventure as if they'd been there all along ... or somehow &quot;just catching up&quot; with the party (somehow miraculously and safely covering ground that it took the PCs hours to fight their way through ...)&nbsp;So what do you do in your campaigns? Do you run the missing PCs? Do you let another player do it? Do the PCs get experience points? Or is it more like that movie &quot;The Gamers&quot; where the missing PCs are sort of just standing around staring into space until called upon ... ?&nbsp;--Mark C'sigs</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MarkCsigs, post: 2505744, member: 29220"] I'm wondering how the rest of you handle missing players in game. I'm not concerned about the players being more active, my players have been great. But finding a night when [i]everyone[/i] can make it is not always practical or even realistic. But as DMs, how do you handle the missing player's PCs in the game? I've always been an advocate of "If you're not there, your character is not there." For two reasons: One - As DM I have too much to do (including plenty of NPCs) to run the extra characters. And whether I've run the character or another player has, I've often seen hurt feelings when a magic item is used up, or a PC is harmed or killed and the PC wasn't there. The second reason is I don't believe in giving out "free" experience points. I've worked hard at making most of my adventures single capsules ... plus the PCs have very rich 'non-adventuring' lives, and it's been easy to make up reasons why they were not on a particular adventure. But as they get to higher levels and their adventures stretch out further across the land and become more "world wide" in consequence ... it's getting harder to rationalize why a player wouldn't go. And harder to get them together. So I've found myself resorting to the dreaded cliche of PCs suddenly appearing in mid-adventure as if they'd been there all along ... or somehow "just catching up" with the party (somehow miraculously and safely covering ground that it took the PCs hours to fight their way through ...) So what do you do in your campaigns? Do you run the missing PCs? Do you let another player do it? Do the PCs get experience points? Or is it more like that movie "The Gamers" where the missing PCs are sort of just standing around staring into space until called upon ... ? --Mark C'sigs [/QUOTE]

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