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

[gamerprinter]

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

It depends on your group, mine are more consistent - most of the players are 'unemployed' and almost never miss a session, one player misses 1 in 8 sessions, so it's never been a big problem for us.

 

[Sunseeker]

It depends on your group, mine are more consistent - most of the players are 'unemployed' and almost never miss a session, one player misses 1 in 8 sessions, so it's never been a big problem for us.

I remember those days...that was nice.

 

[fjw70]

Come to think of it, I once came up with a reason for this that was to be the foundation of an entire campaign.

The entire world, every man, woman, beast and child is under a "curse", wherein they periodically vanish from reality for a random amount of time. It allowed me to conveniently explain away player disappearances and added an interesting element to world affairs. High King's could vanish at any moment for a minute, or for years, randomly returning centuries later and wondering WTF happened to their kingdom, lowly peasants may vanish in the middle of a drink. Mostly it was invented to explain away player disappearances, but thinking about it over time, it seemed like a creative campaign idea. Never acted on it though.

I like it and may use it.

Typically I say the PC is away on personal business. The player can elaborate if he/she wants.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like it and may use it.

You are more than welcome to do so. I'd be very interested to know how it turns out for you.

 

[Drake Cross]

In our group we say that a missing character is busy doing something else, which we follow up when that missing player is back. Helps build up the story around the character and deepen the plot. Working very well in King Maker in Pathfinder since everyone has different goals.

 

[GordyK]

In my campaign, if a player cannot make a gaming session, I enforce a rule of thumb where I make that player come up with their own explanation (role-playing excuse) that is. Like maybe they went on a solo-adventure etc.