Why punish a player if they can't come to the game?

[Savage Wombat]

I award 1/2 experience to characters whose players aren't there, because I know that I am less likely to endanger or kill a character whose player isn't present.

If you think it's unfair to "dock exp" from an absent player, try killing that player's character and see how he takes it.

 

[Pseudonym]

My group plays Thursday nights. I am going to miss the next three sessions: the first for a wedding rehersal and dinner, the following two for my honeymoon.

My character is still with the group, fighting alongside the party and functioning as the party's primary spellcaster/healer. My character may be running on NPC autopilot, but is no less present. He won't wink out of existance in the middle of the dungeon.

Luckily my DM will give my character xp based upon what my character does, otherwise I think I'd kick down the fourth wall and go on strike. No XP for fighting along side the party and providing magical support? Fine, hope you guys load up on anti-toxin and take 20 on those heal checks.

 

[DonTadow]

Its not as much as punishing players as much as it is rewarding the players who are there. YOu're not really punishing anyone. You're not taking anything away. You're giving xp to people who play your game. Your question si similiar to saying why is Mountain Dew punishing me for not buying their drink. How come i didnt get a chance to earn a xbox. Well, their not, their just giving a reward to those who play, just like d and d.

Now, players whom miss consequitive sessions in my campaign without calling or with a lame excuse I normally boot out of my campaign. That is punishment. I've done this a few times. The big reason is because as a DM, alot of my stories and games revolve around the players and I might write 8 to 10 pages of handout for a pc only for him not to show up all of a sudden. That's irritating to me. Then I have to explain what that character is doing while the pc is fighting the dragon or just play it as an npc (which i hate doing). I dont mind doing it once but when it becomes frequent that is me taking away from time i could be spending with other pcs.

If you're really about the fun, why do you care about if you got xp or not? Sounds kind of counterproductive to your argument. Its like saying "I am not doing this work for the money buut for fun " then at the endo f the day complaining that you didn't get your check.

 

[rvalle]

To me having a person-less character there causes too many problems.

Does the character get attacked as much as the others? What if he dies? Does that character become the default door opener?

Basicly the DM/Party is going to be making desisions that the player may not have made and/or the player would have made desisions the DM/party do not.

What about magic item selection? Do you pick the item you think the player would want the most? What if s/he says "oh man, I would have picked THAT item instead of this one"?

And who's fun is being hindered by them not being there? The characters? How can it be fun for a player to have his character level up when s/he is off doing something else?

I can see the point about wanting to keep the party's level close together. Other then that I just don't see it.

rv

 

[Arravis]

You're correct JoeGKushner in that what works for one group may not work for another.

All my players are adults, they all want to be there, none ever miss because they didn't "feel" like showing up. Everyone there is always extremely eager to be there, I have no "casual" players or "reluctant" players, etc. I don't let people like that into my game, to be honest. I work too hard on my game for people that aren't really into it.

What I don't understand at all is the point of view of so many people that giving XP to a player that wasn't there is somehow punishing the other players! How the heck is it punishing them?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

In my game they get run as NPC's. Which isn't good, but I'm not going to run the character and the players will tend to use that character as a...well a meatshield at times. Say Frido's player doesn't show so now he's an NPC. "Who's opening the door?", "Frido is!" cry the players in unison. I have enough running my NPC's to be honest, I can't put full effort into running someones PC, so I let the players do so and they usually play them as an afterthought so to say. The big problem is when the spellcaster doesn't show up, now someone has to manage the most difficult character in the game. But any character who is there gets any XP earned by the group. Now if the players isn't showing up time after time then we have a problem and a player that is about to be kicked.

 

[Pseudonym]

What I don't understand at all is the point of view of so many people that giving XP to a player that wasn't there is somehow punishing the other players! How the heck is it punishing them?

That's the thing I don't get either. A party of 4 PCs defeats a CR4 encounter, they gain xp.
A party of 3 PCs and 1 NPC defeats a CR4 encounter, they gain the same amount of xp.

 

[farscapesg1]

At least in my game, people always make the time and effort. Sometimes though, things come up. Someone's mother dies, kid's need to go to the doctor, they have to work overtime, etc. What effort should they have put in, that is clearly not good enough for so many of you? Why do you feel the need to judge people's lives in a way that you feel the need to not "reward" them?

It's a game.

In the situation of sickness, a death in the family, medical attention for the kids, etc. then things can be overlooked. As I mentioned, in our group all you have to do is provide your character information. They can email it to the DM or post it on a messageboard that I created for the group. It's that simple. Then when they can't make it, we have access to print the information out and play the character (which I usually do).

The "It's a game" attitude doesn't fly for me. Yes, it's a game, but at the same time you have a committment to the group. I'm not saying the group comes before your family, but it is the lack of committment and common decency that irritates me.

When a player misses a session, especially in smaller groups, that makes the group suffer. At one point our group only had 5 players. My DM has a strict rule that if there are less then 4 players, the game would be cancelled. Everyone knows this in the group. If one person misses, I usually take up the reigns of his character along with my wizard (and running two wizards or a wizard and a psionicist is not fun, let me tell you). However, we had a couple sessions where 2 people missed and one of them didn't notify the DM So, the rest of the group drove over an hour and we didn't end up playing.

Now, some may say that is the fault of the DM, but since it was a rule that everyone knew, it was the fault of the players being inconsiderate and rude. All they had to do was pick up a phone and call. I get together with the group to play DND, not board games or to sit around and BS. I can do that with my wife at home or with our other friends, and not have spent the gas money and time to drive there and back.

Edit -> There are times when a player is too dedicated We had one player that actually showed up to the game to give us his character information while his wife was in the hospital in labor We constantly tease him about it now, even though he tried to explain that the doctors said she would be in labor for at least a couple hours. By the time he got there, they had already called the DM to tell him to turn around and come back (since he didn't have a cell phone on him).

 

[JoeGKushner]

You're correct JoeGKushner in that what works for one group may not work for another.

All my players are adults, they all want to be there, none ever miss because they didn't "feel" like showing up. Everyone there is always extremely eager to be there, I have no "casual" players or "reluctant" players, etc. I don't let people like that into my game, to be honest. I work too hard on my game for people that aren't really into it.

What I don't understand at all is the point of view of so many people that giving XP to a player that wasn't there is somehow punishing the other players! How the heck is it punishing them?

It's punishing them because...

1. Player wasn't there. Earned XP. Why do I need to be here when my contribution is going to be awarded the same as if I was here or not here?

2. Player wasn't there. Earned XP. why do I need to be here when I can miss the game and still earn experience points?

Those are probably the two biggest arguements I've seen. The former from heavily intense role players who put a lot of effort into every game they're at, and the latter the casual player whose peeved that people are getting the same amount of xp for less than the same amount of work, when they could be the ones doing that lesser amount of work.

 

[Belen]

In another thread an issue got brought up that I've never had (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=146556). It seems many DM's do not give full XP (or non) if a player can't make it to the game. I don't understand why.

The game is supposed to be about fun, and as a DM, I always saw it as my job to make it fun. Why would I want characters to be left behind? How does it increase the fun? I'm not there to judge the players or be their parents. If they can't make it, they can't make it. Life happens, why would I add an in-game punishment to their problems?

I'm just trying to understand the reasons why this is done. I've always assumed that it was one of those things that goes back to the 70's where the players were competitive with each other and the DM's role was adversarial. It's been a very long time since those days and it just doesn't fit D&D in the way it's been since as far back as I've played (1983).

It is called manners. If everyone else makes the effort to come to the game, then it is not fair to give XP to the one person who could not be bothered to show up an participate.

Now, if it is an emergency or if they give me advance warning, then we can work things out. They can do some RP on the side, such as write up why they are away from the party etc and they can get some XP, but if everyone makes the effort, then you should not be rewarded for poor manners.