Since my early days in RPG, I face a dilem:
When one character miss a gameday, what should we do with him?
At first, we put him in the Zombie-Mode (he follow the group around, doing nothing) for the sake of showing next week and being able to play without an elaborated plot.
Then D&D 3.0 (and following 3.5 and now Pathfinder) consolidate the role class. There are the hitter, the healer, the disable-man, and the support others. So now if one my players can't come to play, my group can't menage some events in the adventure as well as before and the increase deaths show me that I should change the Mark Rule (due to "The Gamers" film).
I now use the "Can't be here, your character will be played by one of the others players" Rule.
But I can't put a finger on it yet.
Someone has played like that, and can tell me what to expect. Or is there another option being used?
Thanks