Running a Stand-in PC

[Swarmkeeper]

I never run another player's character for them when I DM, and I never let someone else run their character. Too much of that character's story could be controlled by someone else and could end in something that the player doesn't like.

I generally have something happen that requires the missing player's character to be temporarily unavailable, and just proceed with the available players as is. For example, they may get summoned away by someone important to them for help with something. I've also had a character get reduced in size by a shrink potion, and have the other characters carry them around in a backpack or something, mostly just ignoring them. Then, when the player is back, I let them quickly find a way to return the character to normal size and move on.

Yep, this is pretty much what I do if the PCs are in the middle of some quest from one session to the next. In the most recent example, the gnome wizard (whose player missed the prior session) popped out of another PC's saddle bag. He had been napping in there for the past few days!

In our West Marches style campaign (similar to [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] mentions above), this just isn't an issue as each session is a discrete adventure. Whoever can show up is the party for that session. The other PCs who are not on the adventure are just spending time in town doing non-adventurey things - perhaps even earning some downtime perks depending on how much game-world time has passed. PCs on the adventure are rewarded with XP for participating. No one is punished for not being there. (can opened... worms visible...)

 

[Oofta]

We just come up with something to explain their absence. About the only time I might care is if they're the only healer, but then I'll just have a mcguffin for healing or an NPC.

We don't use XP so there's no penalty to missing a game, they level up with everyone else as appropriate.

 

[shadowoflameth]

It's pretty easy to justify one person not being there. Druid went into the woods to look for a rare flower and never came back. Warlock or cleric was called to the church/sanctum for a religious rite that must be done on that particular day. Fighter or paladin's duties in the army called him to another kingdom. Bard Rogue went into hiding temporarily because they're wanted by the law. Wizard/sorcerer had a mishap in the wizard tower. They were able to send word to go on without them but they can't leave. If more than one regular player is going to miss, we usually reschedule. I usually say that after the next adventure, the player gets their xp back to par with the others

 

[Rya.Reisender]

We just ignore that the PC is there most of the time and it works quite well. As long as you don't speak it out, it can be anything.

 

[ad_hoc]

The PC just isn't there for the session. Easy. Having an extra PC is just a nuisance that takes time away from everyone else.

 

[Shiroiken]

From my Game Premise handout:

If a character is present during an adventure, but the player is not, the character will only minimally participate. They will minimally succeed or fail as need to cause the minimum impact on the game. They will not participate in combat (they will face enemies off screen instead) but will spend no resources and take no damage. Even if a TPK occurs, they will miraculously survive. Outside of combat resources may be used at the group’s request, but this will cost the group a half share of experience for the session (which will not be provided to the character).

 

[BookBarbarian]

I handwave it. I come up with a convenient reason why the character is absent, or present but unable to contribute. I don't see any increase in fun for the missing player or the rest of us at the table by rolling dice for a character meant to be the avatar of a person who is not there.

 

[Laurefindel]

I usually operate the missing character on "automatic". When their particular skills are needed, they'll use them. But most of the time they fade into the background - they don't provide huge amounts of help, but neither are they at great risk. In a fight they'll take on their fair share of opponents - but that's often just cinematic, an excuse for reducing the bad guys by a fair proportion of the bad guys. The fight happens, you turn around, and the missing player's character has a few corpses on the floor around them, too.

Same for me,

If the character can easily be excused "off-camera", I'll do that. Otherwise the character is on auto-pilot and does not contribute other than naratively/cinematically; the camera is just not on the missing player's character in this episode even if the character does its things.

If the game was supposed to be that character's turn to "shine in the spotlight", I'll either cancel the session (boardgame night!) or have the character shine by its absence. "...and you Joe, you go around and ready a featherfall spell until... Joe? Guys, where the hell is Joe!?!"

 

[GlassJaw]

To add: I generally hand-wave why the character is missing. He could just be along for the ride and not contributing or doing something else. Doesn't really matter. It's like in Lost when you don't see a character for an entire episode.

It does get tricky in combat though. We generally play in small groups (3-4 players + DM) so losing one character can really swing the balance. I will adjust difficulty on the fly as much as possible but sometimes you just need that additional body there. We will usually decide as a group - and inform/get approval from the missing player - to roll dice for that character in combat.

However, if the session is important enough, we will usually cancel so everyone can participate (like a major battle or important campaign milestone).

 

[BookBarbarian]

So this happened in our session last night.

One player was unavailable due to work, so the DM just said his character had diarrhea and that was that (apart from a few jokes).