When PCs Die When the Player's Not There

[TheAuldGrump]

Weird, I did not hit submit more than once, but when it finished the page was black on white, and there was a double post... I seem to be getting the white screen and ssslllooowww page loads a lot lately too.

The Auld Grump

 

[Hejdun]

All gaming groups should have a clear-cut policy for how they treat missing players' PCs. There must be some sort of paradigm that the players are comfortable with. I personally wouldn't like to play in a game where your PC is always at risk of dying, even when you are justifiably absent from the session. At that point, it's no longer really your PC, it's the party's and the DM's.

From the way you described the situation, it seems like your group doesn't really have any policy for treating missing players' PCs. Unless your policy is, and always has been, "your PC is at risk even when you aren't there," it seems like the missing player got a bit of the shaft. If you clearly spelled out that his choices were 1) having his friend play his PC or 2) Have his friend be "off panel" or something similar, then he got what he deserved. If it was unclear what his options were, and there was no prior discussion of what happens when a player misses a session, then I would feel bad for him. Unless there is a precedent for having PCs going "off panel," I certainly wouldn't think to ask if it were an option if I knew I was going to be missing. The logical assumption, if there is no past experience of the policy, is that your character sticks around with the party somehow.

I don't know, having someone missing from the session and then killing him off with little chance of recovery seems quite harsh if the missing player policy wasn't clear.

Our policy is that, if you are gone, your character is "off panel" and gets no XP or treasure. Since our current party consists of 2 spellcasters and 2 front-line fighters, sometimes we'll play a missing player's PC if it is necessary for the group to go on, but that character can't die/be permanantly maimed. With our group, telling someone "hey, by the way, while you were at the wedding, your PC got killed and can't be resurrected," would receive the same reaction as the DM telling us "Ok, you're walking towards town... and an ancient red dragon spots you and eats you all for lunch. Would you like to roll new characters?"

Of course, YMMV, but hopefully no matter what happens, you'll have a clear-cut "missing player" policy for the future

 

[ptolemy18]

I do, and the standard damage was enough to do him in in a few more rounds. And by your description you are the one who decided to specifically target the missing player's character with quote 'HELLA troglodytes'! My sympathy for whatever happens to your campaign just vanished, you set it up your own self.

Hey, he didn't have to stay in melee range of them. He noticed them approaching for 2-3 rounds before they jumped him. And only one troglodyte actually got into melee with him... too bad that was all it took. :/

(To be honest, I had been planning that the troglodytes would jump up to the windows before the game session began. I just didn't adjust the strategy because the player guarding the windows was absent.)

Anyway, it seems like he is going to make a new character and the campaign will go on... although maybe he's a writhing cauldron of campaign-destroying anger on the inside... I dunno... maybe I'll give his new character some extra gold for equipment.

Jason

 

[S'mon]

This is why I use Fate Points.... players spend them to have their PC not die. Saves a lot of trouble.

If you want a compromise, how about stabilised at -9hp & no XP for the session (XP are lost, not go to other PCs)? Maybe loses a finger, ear etc? If you think other players would object, then he's dead.

 

[S'mon]

All gaming groups should have a clear-cut policy for how they treat missing players' PCs. There must be some sort of paradigm that the players are comfortable with. I personally wouldn't like to play in a game where your PC is always at risk of dying, even when you are justifiably absent from the session. At that point, it's no longer really your PC, it's the party's and the DM's.

I always give players the choice - there PC can be present (gets half XP & can die, though with Fate Points probably not) or absent (no XP, doesn't die). If player notifies me well in advance their PC may be doing something offscreen & get offscreen XP.

 

[Glyfair]

I've a question for all the group siding with the "if the player isn't there, then the character wanders off." What do you do if it's not feasible in the story?

For example, last week the players were on a ship. This week, the ship gets attacked by pirates. How do you explain in the story why the missing character isn't involved in the attack?

Do you ignore this? (Sort of like the character just standing around in The Gamers)
Do you make an exception and have the PC involved in some way?

I've played in a number of games where players would regularly miss sessions (90% of the players were college students involved in scientific majors). There were enough players every week to play, but dropping a character suddenly one week and having him suddenly appear afterwards killed a lot of the suspension of disbelief at times.

One later campaign one of the players ran had a bit of deus ex machina involved. He had a magic bottle work it's way into the party. Whenever a player wasn't there - "Pop, into the bottle in a puff of smoke." Whenever he came back - "Pop, out of the bottle." (Indeed, it was a very good way of getting new PCs into the game - Pop. "Hey, who are you?")

That worked once, but doing it again would seem to kill the mood of the game with such an obvious metagame plot device appearing in the game.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

This is why I use Fate Points.... players spend them to have their PC not die. Saves a lot of trouble.

If you want a compromise, how about stabilised at -9hp & no XP for the session (XP are lost, not go to other PCs)? Maybe loses a finger, ear etc? If you think other players would object, then he's dead.

Go fate points! This is my preferred method.

No raising but plenty of fate points works for me.


I'll award full XP for a missed session, the trade off for not turning up is that their plot hooks don't get developed... Don't particularly like people to fall too far behind.

We slotted this in as I've got a player who can only make half the sessions, due to a horrible shift pattern. Thought having him at half xp compared to the rest of the party might suck rather badly. Fortunately the other players agreed!

 

[S'mon]

Yes, if you want players to be able to miss every other session you need a different system than mine. I only want regular players - going away for 3 months is ok, your PC can do likewise, but missing every other session isn't.

However if a player is present IMC their PC level cannot be more than 1 below the highest level PC, so their PC gets raised to that level if necessary, with minimum XP. I do this with players who return from a long absence; new entrants get this or whatever is the minimum XP total in the party.

 

[cmanos]

have him waking up screaming...it was all a dream. Now they have to replay last session again....

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've noticed a tendency for people to say, "Well, I'd rather do X, but since I already did Y once, I guess I'm stuck with it."

Nonsense. If you've come up with a better way to handle the situation in the future, sit the group down and say, "Hey, guys, I know we did Y last week, but I've been thinking, and X is a much better idea. I'd like to do it that way from now on."

Assuming your group has the maturity God gave a seagull, even the people who suffered under Option Y should be okay with it, as long as you're clear and reasonably consistent.