IG & OOG: How do you deal with no-show players?

[VirgilCaine]

Since I seem to be cursed with this problem, how do you deal with characters that don't show up?

I've got two possibilities:

1. Have the character fall ill suddenly, able to keep up but not act.
2. Have the character suddenly warp to the Ethereal Plane, with the same result [lower level games, only, of course].


However, besides these, how do you deal with them out of game?

 

[Crothian]

Depends why they are not there. If they flaked on me, their characters go in the gimp suite. If they have familoy or work problems, I'll let them either be an NPc or allow someone else to control them. Basically, if the reason is okay I, they are okay. If they just forget and don't call or don't seem to care then the character will posisble suffer and the person may be asked not to return if they do it enough times.

 

[Pbartender]

Typically, they fall into 'background' mode... They fade into the background and tag along for the adventure. They do nothing significant, unless specifically asked to by the other characters.

The character gains some fraction (usually 1/2, the same share as an NPC) of the experience the rest of the party gets.

 

[Steel_Wind]

We've got a very stable gaming circle, so the only reason that someone can't be there is because they *can't* be there.

I tend to run adventures where there's a lot of epic journeys. Leaving somebody behind is generally not an option. If it is, I run a mini-adventure. But usually, there is a long standing 10 session epic quest the party is in the middle of and that's not an option.

So the absent player's character goes with the party and hangs back, unless it's combat - then they are involved - same as everyone else. They share in kill and story points as others do - but obviously get no individual awards.

I would not do this and would put them to half XP if absenteeism was really a problem with my group - but it's not.

I try NOT to kill someone who is absent and until recently could have said I'd never done it in 25 years of DMing.

However, the player was new to the group - was clearly not fitting in well into my game. He was a power gamer munchkin - and that's just NOT my game.

So, when the dice indicated that he was about to be criticalled by an Ogre's great axe, I didn't stop the Ogre from putting 9d6 of steel through his chest. And that was the end of Yarken.

Not a recommended good DMing practice, mind you.

First time ever.

 

[Baron Opal]

Characters of no-show players are simply "not there". When the players arrive, the characters are "there".

As far as awards go, I have a mostly ad-hoc experience system, I advance levels or grant blocks of exp. as I deem appropriate. Every character gains the same amount of experience. However, only those who are present can use that experience to level up, make magic items, etc. The treasure, tangible or otherwise, is granted to the characters present and they decide how it is split. Also, I use an action point system similar to Ebberon, so only those who participate gaine bonus action points.

Baron Opal

 

[shilsen]

Run the characters as NPCs.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I try NOT to kill someone who is absent and until recently could have said I'd never done it in 25 years of DMing.

However, the player was new to the group - was clearly not fitting in well into my game. He was a power gamer munchkin - and that's just NOT my game.

So, when the dice indicated that he was about to be criticalled by an Ogre's great axe, I didn't stop the Ogre from putting 9d6 of steel through his chest. And that was the end of Yarken.

I wouldn't have stopped the ogre from criticalling him either, but I would make clear that the ogre and asking the player to leave the group are two separate events.

 

[DaveMage]

We don't play when someone can't make it.

 

[IronWolf]

Player's that aren't there generally have their character played by another PC. Generally when a player misses a game they had a real life reason come up, so I try not to penalize them for missing a game - as missing the game was penalty enough.

 

[TheGemini]

We don't play when someone can't make it.

What Dave said. I say "Hey, when CAN we all make the game?"

I spend hours trying to create the perfect balance in the encounter, and try to emphasize that everyone is a valuable member of the team. They all have unique abilities that enable the group to advance. If I kept true to that without someone there, it would be a boring encounter. PC 1 is supposed to get the vital clue, but he's not there...or PC 2 could jump the crevasse, but he's not there...PC 3 could turn the wights...etc.

I find that when I hack up a perfectly good encounter to fit a partial-group's abilities that the encounter is rather uninspired for me.