when a player does not make it....

[eXodus]

hey there boarders.

firstly a vent on monday night's game. we had already cancelled the previous monday night as one player had family in town. so i was anxious to get back into the action this week.

we had left off with the precarious human rogue and halfling cleric/rogue attempting to rob a small gem shop. i had planned on finishing that off and continuing on. many details of the storyline were to be discovered. character sidequests were to be hinted at.

but of course, one player did not show. the player of the elf wizard failed to show up or to even call.

i needed him. his character was to play a major part in the night's game.

so undaunted, or something like that i shifted a lot of the info to another character. but it simply was not the same.

i do not hold any ill will towards the guy. but if you are not going to make it, for dog's sake call me, email me, something!

how do you other dms out there generally deal with something like this?

 

[Trellian]

Well, I haven't experienced something like you described in many years, when I was maybe 14 or 15.

My players always take care to let me know in advance, or as soon as it is possible. Stuff may come in the way at the last moment.

Also, I take care not to let one players absence matter that much.
Recently, all of my players have had a divine quest (to pay back for a greater resurrection), and of course, that player has to be there.

Sometimes, when I'm not 100% sure a player I really NEED to be there is going to meet, I prepare a replacement adventure.. maybe just a short one. If he comes, I'll play as usual (and save the replacement for an other occasion) if he doesn't, I play the replacement.

Of course, if you're in a middle of an ongoing story that did not conclude last session, you may not have another choice but to cancel. When the PCs are in a situation where it is IMPOSSIBLE for them not to adventure (in another plane of existence, ended last sessions imprisoned etc) you also have a problem. I always have copies of my PCs, so when I find myself in this dilemma, I usually plays the missing PCs, trying hard not to get them killed.
That is OK with my players, but may not be so with yours.

Boa

 

[Rubeus Hagrid]

Easy. We get out another game.

Seriously, if my Always-ends-on-a-cliffhanger D&D Game can't go off, we pull out the DC heroes Game, or the Star Wars Game, or the Torg Game... All of which have sort of evolved into being loose enough to tolerate missing players.

Of course, I DM entirely on the fly with just a couple lines of notes to guide the thought.

 

[Maldur]

We have the rule: Nor the danger, Nor the benefit.

Sometimes characters miss payday this way, but they would not get shot, stabbed etc.

Luckily they let me know before hand if they can come or not, when they dont its usually an emergency.

I try not to end in mayor cliffhangers though if I knnow someone is not showing next time.

 

[Kichwas]

Is it the same player failing out both times?

Or different players?


If you have player;s who are not reliable you really have no way of running any deep plots.

Consider telling them all this. Then start the next three or four sessions running nothing but one shots with pre gen PCs.

Tell them they won't get anything else until they figure out if they really want to come to your game or not.

This could backfire; but at least you'll learn who cares enough to show. Or who's even polite enough to tell you before they cancel.


Flaky players are the bane of any DM. If you have them and you can't get them to shape up sometimes you're better off just folding up and moving on. It's just too frustrating not being able to run a developing game.


A lot of gamers have a policy that an absent character won't get hurt unless there's no other recourse.

If absenteeing is an issue reverse that policy. Missing players get their PC put in the frontlines. The first to be attacked. Hand the PC to a player with poor tactics and then gun for it in an obvious way.

What I'm suggesting here is a sort of calling of their bluff.

If they care; they'll shape up. If they don't care, you're better off without them.

It does risk antagonizing people.

The first action should always be talking with everyone. THe above is the last recourse you pull just before getting to that point were you just give it up and call the game quits.

 

[Scarab]

If a player can't make it, it's time to pull out the board and card games! A game of Risk 2210AD or Illuminati with two or three rounds of Mage Knight to warm up is a nice way to spend your evening if one of the players can't make it.

 

[Dieter]

You sacrifice his/her character to Orcus...wait, stupid inner monologue talking outloud again.

I have 4 regular players and as long as 3 show up, we're gaming. I try not to hinge too much of the plotline on one character, always having someone else set as a possible backup if the other player is a no-show.

Everyone in my group is at the point in their lives where work, family, children can intervene in plans. I usually don't make a big deal about a last-minute cancellation...unless it becomes habitual, then I pretty much write the player out of the game. The character/player then becomes the "celebrity guest star" when then do actually happen to make it to the game.

 

[Judex]

Well one of my players have learned the HARD way what happens when you dont attend without warning me at least 1 jhour before the session.
So the next time he showed up he had to make a new char.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well as hard as it is to get 3-5 hours of free time with jobs and kids etc. I never hold it against a player. I have never had an absolute no call/no show and usually get advanced warning.

As long as I have 3 players show up the rest just fade into the background until they show up again.

If I know only two or less players are coming I usually just cancel.

Darrin

 

[el Voz]

Let me come at it from another direction.

The DM keeps all of the character sheets. When a player does not show a person who is will play the PC. Every week someone can not make it for one reason or another.

We feel this is the best way. The DM is not SOL if a key person does not play.

As a side note it helps us learn about each others PCs. We all know who has what gear, and what spells the mages have. We look at this as a good thing. No player can cheat about items that way, and because we know each other so well, it is easy to look at a player and say "why don't you do x because you have y."

As a result there are no secrets amoung us. If you think about it, a party of adventurers that live in such close proximity to each other for months on end, will not have many secrets among each other. A group traveling together will have very little privacy.