When PCs Die When the Player's Not There

[DonTadow]

I would have done option 4):

4) PCs whose player is not present "fade into the background," and nothing bad happens to them in anything short of a TPK.

This seems to be a good argument to never let other players play someone elses character.
"Bob's not here, I think we have our cannon fodder". Even if the other player's play the character "right" they still wouldn't play it like the player would. Plus the other player's character needs ...even subconciously... supercede the character their temping.

I always have some type of mechanic to explain why a character isn't there. In one campaign we'd have an astral monorail that came and went. In this campaign the character's either get sick and fade into the background or do some other RPG type stuff away from the main party. I figure all my players are mature, working adults and every other week someone isnt going to be there.

When the character fades into the background, adjust the current CR of the encounter for the current party level. Most of the time it's taking off acouple of HD worth of dice and lowering the AC. If a character is important enough where he has to be in the combat, make him an NPC and play him soley as support.

 

[DonTadow]

Just fudge him to -9, man. What's more important, playing it "honest" about a couple of points of damage, or allowing your player to keep enjoying a character he created?

It sounded to me like the original player would have been more attentive, and would have backed off his PC for healing after the first hit with that axe.

You've got the possibility of him being upset with you, upset with his friend, and his friend continuing to feel guilty. I can't see any world in which that is a reasonable cost to pay for "fairness" on one die roll.

As for how we handle things like this, the "off-panel" description given above is how we do it. I have seen a PC killed while his player was absent once, but I think it was the third session in a row he missed, he hadn't called, and we all knew he probably wasn't coming back. Even so, my cleric brought enough pieces of him along to ressurect eventually.

By the way, I wouldn't kill the character. YOu're going to have to fix that, else you're going to have a pretty upset player. Fudge it, knock him out, make it non-lethel or Dallas dream it away, but it has to be rectified.

 

[jmucchiello]

Dead PC. Perhaps they can raise dead later.

 

[DonTadow]

Hello everyone,

I guess every campaign has a different rate of player-character death, from "practically never" to "new characters all the time." But the ultimate slap in the face to a player has to be when their character dies when they're not at the gaming session. :/

This just happened last night in the game I'm DMing, and I dread the player's response when he finds out.

In brief: his best friend was playing his character while he was away. It was a big melee, and the absent guy's PC was under attack by a troglodyte wielding a greataxe. The PC took a 5-foot step away and fired an arrow. The troglodyte advanced and hit for 12 points. The PC took another 5-foot step away and fired another arrow. I then picked up a die and announced to the players "Okay, odd the troglodyte attacks the PC, even he goes after the NPC a little farther away." I rolled a die in front of everyone. It came up odd. The troglodyte advanced, rolled a 20, confirmed the crit, and did 27 hit points of damage, bringing the PC to -17, killing them instantly.

All of which would be fair and good (as 'fair' as possible considering I had armed troglodytes with greataxes, of course), except that... THE GUY WASN'T THERE!!!

I don't think he's gonna take it very well, since THE VERY SAME DAY he e-mailed me asking me asking how long it would be before he levelled up, and asking to take care of his PC while he was away, and I e-mailed back saying "I'll do my best!" or something like that. :/ *sob*

What would you have done in this situation?

(1) Would you have done pretty much as I did?
(2) Would you have assured that the troglodytes *always* preferentially attacked *anyone but* that character, instead of leaving it even partly up to chance, like I did?
(3) Would you have rolled the dice secretly and fudged it? (Instead of rolling out in the open in front of everyone for extra drama, like I did?) (This would be my last choice, since I hate fudging the dice.)

The guy's friend feels a little bad for controlling his friend's PC while he died (he could've run screaming on the previous round, or at least taken more than a 5-foot step), but since I'm the DM I am obviously ultimately to blame. Should I feel guilty? I dunno. I wouldn't feel guilty at all if the PC had been there, but now I feel extremely bad. I guess it depends on my campaign and on my knowledge that I am about to have one extremely pissed-off, and possibly soon-to-be-former, player.

Jason

Reading over the description again, it sounds like the player in control made abonehead mistake he would not have made if it were his own character. I'd fudge it to unconscious, and call it a day. Never let your players play someone elses character again.

 

[ElvishBard]

I wouldn't feel bad, but I have done worse. The player was gone, but his character was with the party fighting an ooze made of acid. He possesed a magic sword which controlled him, and the sword wasn't about to be beaten by some ooze so he charged it. The ooze grappled him, and killed him and because it was acid and was quite a few rounds the character died and all his equipment was dissolved except for the sword (he liked the sword so I let him keep that). The party got him reincarnated, and he came back as the worst possible thing: a kobold. He still plays, if anyone was curious.

Anyways, my point is do what you all think would be the most enjoyable. If you and the players all think it would be better for the character to be knocked out and alive, then do so. As DM you are a god, make use of it. The most important thing is to have fun, so do whatever will cause your players to have the most fun.

 

[ptolemy18]

By the way, I wouldn't kill the character. YOu're going to have to fix that, else you're going to have a pretty upset player. Fudge it, knock him out, make it non-lethel or Dallas dream it away, but it has to be rectified.

Follow-up....

Actually, he took it better than I thought. (Or at least, he'd calmed down by the time he e-mailed.)

I gave him these options... I wouldn't normally be quite so flexible with options two and three, except that I felt he deserves a minor break at least, since he died so unkindly:

(1) Make a new character
(2) There's no high-level clerics around, but he could play a "temporary character" until the option arises for his old character to be raised -- he can then retire the temporary character & transfer the XP from his temporary character to his old raised character (of course, the raised character will still lose XP for dying). As far as an explanation... who knows, maybe the dead character had some mystical near-death experience which made them more powerful... it works for Super Saiyans!
(3) Since there's an NPC around who could Reincarnate them, I gave him the option of rolling on the Reincarnation table to find out what he WOULD be reincarnated as, and then, if it sucks, he can choose options (1) or (2) and pretend it never happened.

So he took it pretty well. I'm happy. I'm happy I didn't fudge the die roll, because THAT WAY LIES THE PATH OF DESTRUCTION!!! IMHO, it looks bad when the DM starts OBVIOUSLY cheating, even to save the PCs from a horrible death. After you roll the critical hit with 27 damage in front of everybody's eyes, there's no turning back. (Although I did pause for a little while, trying to figure out a way to save him...)

Although I guess I'll be rolling the dice behind the screen in the future, when people who aren't present get attacked by monsters....

Jason

 

[rato]

it's simple if the player isn't there, don't use it, or use your DMs power to take care of him.. let him die only if all the party would die.

 

[ptolemy18]

You've got the possibility of him being upset with you, upset with his friend, and his friend continuing to feel guilty.

It's only the latter two that I'm worried about at this point. :/

Jason

 

[ptolemy18]

I have to admit, I'm surprised by how many people have told me I should have fudged it, or (even stranger, IMHO) retroactively changed my decision. Isn't one of the appeals of D&D that the ULTIMATE IMPARTIAL CRUELTY OF THE DICE should be superior above all else?!???!!

I know when I'm a player, I obviously don't like it when my PCs die, but at the same time, it kind of "weakens" the campaign when the DM breaks the rules to save people. Nothing is lamer than a DM who hits the players with too-tough opponents, and then has to backtrack ("Uh... the orcs don't attack this round because they're too busy laughing and gloating!") in order to save the PCs from dying or being captured. Then, as a PC, you feel like the DM is just gonna shelter you from harm....

Of course, it's still bad because the player wasn't there... sob....

And of course, this could lead to a much bigger discussion....

Jason

 

[The_Gneech]

I generally treat PCs of absent players as scenery -- they stand around, listening and watching more or less without comment, and unless the present players actually have them do something, they pretty much just "hang out." In combat, the absent player's PC and any monsters they may be fighting basically do a lot of swinging but nothing much actually happens (I don't even roll dice for them, just say, "Silent Bob and the orc attack and parry for another round.") The absent player's PC can still be a passive participant, providing flanking bonuses to other PCs and the like, as appropriate.

Think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- anytime John Cleese was playing an encounter character (particularly "Tim the Enchanter"), Lancelot stood in the background with his helmet on and didn't say anything. That's basically what I do.

-The Gneech