What is your favorite excuse why a character is not in the adventure?

[Wednesday Boy]

We usually try to find a reason for the PC to not be around if we're in a location and situation where that makes sense. For example, the PC takes care of a minor task while the rest of the party focuses on the main task for the session or the PC gets pulled away by some obligation (called back by their superiors, asked for help by a friend, etc.).

If we're in a situation where the PC can't go about their own business, they fade into the background until the player returns. It's assumed they were there all along but they do nothing in the scenes unless something very specifically calls them out. In which case the GM speaks for them as they would an NPC.

 

[Lanefan]

Unless a player says it's OK for Bob or Sally or any particular player, even the DM to run their character, I never let my other players run the character of the missing player. I would hate to come back to a game to find that something happened while I was away and my character is irrevocably changed or damaged or played in a manner horribly against what I would have done.

Them's the breaks. We try to play any given character somewhat to its established character, but if bad stuff happens then so be it; the assumption being that the same bad stuff would have happened to the same character had its real player been attached at the time.

That...and I usually take my sheet home every night. Kinda hard to run a character whose stats you can't see.

It's largely for just this reason that our standing rule is that character sheets stay with the DM (or at the game site if not the DM's abode) during the week. And yes, I as DM could make backup sheets for each character, but why bother when the originals can just stay here in the first place?

Lanefan

 

[Grazzt]

No excuse required. The character continues to operate as it always has, run by those players who are present. This is made clear to all up front: miss a session if you like; if you pass along any instructions they'll be followed when and if they make in-game sense, but your character is otherwise at the mercy of those who show up. And the DM isn't going to change a thing.

Lanefan

Yep. That's how we do it as well. Unless the PCs happen to be in town and there's an easy way to exit the character temporarily, someone else gets to play the PC or the PC becomes an NPC for the session.

 

[EricNoah]

We stick him in the back of the marching order and nothing bad happens to him, nor can he do anything helpful. He's kind of like a ghost.

 

[gamerprinter]

If a player consistently misses game sessions, they aren't players in our game, rather 'former players'. But since it does happen, I usually have a one-shot already prepared that the players can participate in that has nothing to do with the existing campaign, using pre-gen characters. When a player misses a session, we don't run the campaign until they are present, so no excuse necessary.

 

[Lanefan]

I usually have a one-shot already prepared that the players can participate in that has nothing to do with the existing campaign, using pre-gen characters. When a player misses a session, we don't run the campaign until they are present, so no excuse necessary.

If I went by that standard I'd sail the regular game about 1 week in 6; with 5 players plus me there's always someone doing something. Quorum is half the players, in this case 3 of 5.

Lanefan

 

[Lord Zack]

Ideally, a "normal" adventure like a expedition into the dungeon, or short wilderness trek is over by the end of the session IM. That way a new group can form each session from whomever is able to show up that session, just like the Blackmoor and Greyhawk campaigns. However, I only have two players right now, only one of which is active. Furthermore, the last two sessions have ended with the party still in the dungeon. Hopefully the next session though will end with the party back in town, whether that is the town they started in, well that depends... (Check out this blog post for more information: http://lordzackdomain.blogspot.com/2012/12/monster-hill-session-report-exceedingly.html)

 

[Sunseeker]

If I went by that standard I'd sail the regular game about 1 week in 6; with 5 players plus me there's always someone doing something. Quorum is half the players, in this case 3 of 5.

Lanefan

While I don't agree with your personal rulings(but it's not like I'm ever going to play at your table so hey, PLAY YOUR WAY BRO!), there's always someone missing from my table as well. Sometimes more than one, sometimes half the party! But I run a big game so it's not quite as much of an issue, but there's no way I can expect every player to always be able to make every game. Schedules are funky, life happens, c'est la vie. Plus, everyone I play with I like, and I WANT them to play. A guy missed my game for like, 6 session straight! Almost 3 months! When his schedule freed up I let him right back in. I'd never kick someone from the game just for not being there if I really enjoyed playing with them.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, we've got 6 players plus 1 Dm, so, since we're all adults, someone is pretty much always going to miss a session. One guy has to close up his store, another guy has his dissertation to write, that sort of thing. Life happens. So, we generally don't get too fussed about it. The PC becomes a silent partner for the session, someone runs him in combat, with the "don't be a dick" rule in force and generally it works out.

Actually, to be honest, since our tactically minded players tend to take over absentee PC's, the party sometimes gets a whole lot MORE effective when a player isn't there.

 

[Evilhalfling]

for our frequently absent pixie player?
She hangs a sign on the hollow log she lives in that says "Gone Frolicking"

For others they just get turned over to the one of the non-casual players, who runs 2 characters for the night. If 2 regular players cant make it, we play board games, or cancel.