New continuity rule

[Awakened]

A recent thread got me thinking about the problems of player absence and continuity issues. So, (*takes a big breath), I've created a new idea to power my upcoming campaign, one that has been in the works for a long while and is destined to be, hands down, the greatest roleplaying campaign of all time.
And to the point. Ther characters belong to some sort of mercenary/pioneer/exploration squad in the Silver Marches, one that supports both humans AND monstrous characters, as long as they're not sociopaths, that is. Each session is one adventure, since a seperate story each game seems to work better. If a player cannot show up, though, their character is simply put on a different mission. That absent player can make up for lost xp by writing about what their character did while the others were off adventuring.
The players that do go along get to choose an NPC from the basecamp of the exploration team to serve as a travelling companion. They get to control this NPC and roleplay with them, unless they want to leave it up to me, the DM. Here's where the kicker comes in- everybody has a character idea sometime along the line that they don't use. The character may be too odd or complicated to the player for long term play, but that player gets to use his kewl one-shotter for that adventure if he wants.
This system allows for a realistic explanation for in-game PC absentees, keeps PCs from worrying about killing absent players' characters, and gives the PCs an original opportunity to develop background characters as well as their main one, if they so choose. On top of it all though, I get a huge pool of recurring NPCs to roleplay through back at the basecamp. I'm not sure if I'm going to use this idea, but I'd like to know what you EnWorlders think about it- any perceived problems? Any additional ideas?

Thanks,
Awakened

 

[drunkmoogle]

Sign of a good DM: Highly detailed NPCs and personalities.

Sign of a great DM: Getting your players to do it .

I deal with coninuity this way: three straight absences and you're out. You should be in a game twice as often as you're not.

 

[Krellic]

The one mission a session idea is great if your session is long enough. Often the most exciting series episodes are the ones which end 'To be Continued"...

 

[thundershot]

See, this is why we don't have a steady day and time to game. Sometimes it's hard to iron out work schdules and other conflicts, so we just try to figure out how to get together and play it by ear. That way we're not missing anyone. The one time we WERE missing someone every so often (due to him playing football), I gave him a cursed ring, that would cause him to switch bodies with this Sahuagin chick. The one who wasn't there, was trapped in a tiny demi-plane. So when he wasn't gaming, the party had to deal with this Sahuagin chick who wanted them dead, and the party didn't want to kill her because they were afraid their companion would be dead as well... It was fun.


Chris

 

[kamosa]

I did this in one campaign where we had way more players than spots at the tables. We all had hectic schedules so we couldn't show up to every game anyway. So, we built an organization that all the PC's could belong to, and whoever showed up gamed that week. It worked great for that campaign.