"Mark Rule"

[Naponatom]

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

[The Wraith]

The 'played by others' is a rule I've always used when a player is not present for the session.

Usually, during a fight the character is played by another player who either has a character very similar to the 'Mark character' (in order to speed up the game-play), or by a player who has a character who is diametrically opposite to his (for example, a martial character and a caster character), although this second option is usually reserved for players who are very flexible and expert on playing (or the risk of slowing the game to a crawl is right behind the corner...)

When the group is involved in a role encounter, however, the 'Mark character' usually falls in 'zombie mode' again in order not to outshine the other characters (after all, the player is not there...), unless the role encounter involves him in a prominent way. In this case, the 'Mark character' is played either by one of the other players, trying to stick with the original player's way of guiding him (no pious characters who suddenly start to shout impropers to the king), or becomes temporarily an NPC (useful for giving some hints or motivations to the other characters - again, usually only if the situation and the hints are pertinent with the original personality of the character).

Of course, if the player starts to make this kind of a habit, it's better to allow him a reasonable way to retire the character (maybe making him find the true love of his life in a small hamlet and deciding to live there forever, or something like that) rather than killing him outright.

Of course, throwing 'Mark' against 'The Shadow' because the player never shows off and never gives a reason is always possible...

[wraithstrike]

The DM usually plays an NPC for our groups if everyone can't make it. I have a jack of all trades class to fill in for whoever is not there.

[inkedmsd]

I usually let another player play the character. We usually ask who would like to sub for the player or the player can choose a sub. Basically the subbed character helps out in combat and even gets to role play which can be kinda fun, as it sometimes takes the character into an interesting direction. However the original player gets the "vegas" option if they choose when they come back.

"Vegas" option is what happened on that game day I was gone stays in that game day I was gone and does not make me responsible for any actions committed by my character nor will it haunt my character's future.