I've got a player who's an old friend who missed the last session because he was in another state visiting some chick. Now he's back, and he wants me to make him all caught up. First he wanted 2500 xp to get to level 4, where the rest of the party is, and then he wanted like 1k gold instead. I didn't make a decision in the three days since he's asked me, and we don't even play til Friday, but now he's all pissed off and I'm an a@~&~~&, blah blah blah.
Anyway, what do you guys do when a player misses a session?
It depends on the situation ...
Calls us to say why they're missing ahead of time so we can adjust what's going on? Usually just match up the XP and he gets what treasure the party gives him, have the character sort of a "ghost" in the background unless can safely park them somewhere for the day of adventuring.
Calls us the day of the game, but has a good reason? GMNPC for the day, gets XP and treasure for what happens that day.
Calls the day of the game with a lousy excuse or fails to call? Hand the sheet to another player to run ::chuckle:: Amazingly the new lackey is always the volunteer to go first in dangerous situations.
In your situation, if someone pulled that on me, especially after the name-calling, they'd be lucky to get the XP owed and better have a damned good apology ready when they show up at the next game. ;p
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Like Gamer Girl, it really depends on the situation.
A good reason or lots of advance notice (or better yet, both) will get full rewards. Day-of cancellation without a good reason, or just a plain no-show, is at best going to get half XP and whatever loot the other players share, but liable to get less than that if it's a regular thing or a really lame/non-existant reason.
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Anyway, what do you guys do when a player misses a session?
When a player misses, their character is NPC'ed, usually by another player. I dislike hand-waving reason why a certain character didn't participate and i also don't like the disparity in creates in XP totals (something your player complained about).
-Skeld
I have a very heavily fluctuating group. A third of us work 9-5s a couple are in grad school, some work retail and 1 works as a Nurse (Hell hours). It is literally impossible to get everyone together regularly.
We handle absenses 1 of 2 ways in terms of story. The PC was there, he was just fighting one of the other monsters that was totally there also (ghost pc). Or we come up with a story reason for the pc to have split off. Maybe he was scouting ahead, running an errand, or maybe he went back to report on their status. Whatever works for hte story.
In terms of XP i keep my players at the same XP total. Its too messy to start having characters at different levels, its harder to balance encounters, players get discouraged because someone is more powerful etc. I had a game where two of my players were 2 levels higher then the rest because they were consistently there when we had different totals. It wasnt pretty. Think of a level 5 wizard vs a level 3 sorceror. The sorc figures why did i even show up.
Treasure is an attendance thing since thats based on the encounters run. You want treasure be at the event. Though we divide things that are sold at the end of an adventure evenly among the party.
I personally believe his disrespect does not warrant free gifts. If he wants to catch up with the group, then he's on lunch detail for the group. If he has a problem with that, then he should plan to do something else on Friday.
But hey, I tend to react to name-calling worse than most.
I personally believe his disrespect does not warrant free gifts. If he wants to catch up with the group, then he's on lunch detail for the group. If he has a problem with that, then he should plan to do something else on Friday.
But hey, I tend to react to name-calling worse than most.
I think it depends on your relationship with the player. My group is pretty close, and to be honest making fun of eachother is a sport when we arent playing. But it seems with the op its not really the name calling thats the issue, but that the player got angry when he didnt immediately respond to his wishes. I will think about it and let you know before next game is my normal response to such requests. If they persist, I say, ok answer right now is no, sure you dont want me to think about it? I usually send them an email later on with what I decide. Gotta love the internet, makes dming that much less phonecall intensive.
Ya, but he's the type of person who will bring it up for years to come.
Although it's not really fair to everyone else that he gets the same advancement benefit while visiting some chick as the people who played, ultimately, it hurts the group to have a weaker person running with them, so it's probably best overall if he doesn't get to far behind. He did let me know ahead of time, too. Well, not me personally, but I heard about it. :/
In my group we are all we cannot always foresee what is going to happen by the next session. Sometimes palyers have to cancel.
It is a rule that we all try our best to make it.If someone misses a session I try to write the person out of the story or alternately let someone else run the character.
All characters are at the same XP. It makes it a lot easier for me. If a character misses a session it is basically up to the other players whether or not the missing players character gets any loot.
My players are all good people and can see the benefit of the entire group being strong and ussually treat eachother fairly well.
I think your players attitude is a problem though. You should smack him on the mouth for wining and once more for bad language, and one more time for good measure.
I've got a player who's an old friend who missed the last session because he was in another state visiting some chick. Now he's back, and he wants me to make him all caught up. First he wanted 2500 xp to get to level 4, where the rest of the party is, and then he wanted like 1k gold instead. I didn't make a decision in the three days since he's asked me, and we don't even play til Friday, but now he's all pissed off and I'm an a!%*!&#, blah blah blah.
Anyway, what do you guys do when a player misses a session?
If the session is missed because they had to which to me might include wedding, graduations, have seen seen an old friends in a long time and it might be another long time if they miss this chance, then I give half XP for that session.
If you choose to miss the session to go out drinking, watch a movie, etc, then you get nothing.
XP is a great motivator to get players that want to be there to be there.
In neither case do they get any gold from me, but if the party wishes to hold split the treasure as if they were there anyway that is between him and the party.
Gotta agree with the above posts regarding keeping the group on an even XP keel...
BUT
If he's going to be a royal pain in the a$$ about this - clip him 1XP into 4th and no share of loot...
Like Grandfathers "direct" solution though... heheh.
Maybe make up by offering him a Glasgow Kiss ;)
How valuable is he to your game? Friends are fine and good, but if his absences and attitude are detrimental to your game, I'd have a serious talk with him and tell him to shape up or ship out!
Through the years I've had to cut a couple of players loose from my games and truthfully, I really don't miss them. And neither do the other players. No one likes a whiny b!+ch.
So...he missed your game and is causing a royal stink just to meet some chick. Is she hot, as in Megan Fox hot? Did he get laid? If the answer is no to both of these questions, then I'm with Black Dow > Glasgow Kiss! Maybe 2 or 3 of 'em. :)
Years ago, way back in first edition days, we had a problem player in our group. He was playing a paladin (piss-poorly in all respects--had a very poor understanding of Lawful Good actions) and was a chronic late-show-and-leave-early-without-warning-us-in-advance kind of guy ... but was in my husband's unit in the army (as were the other players, I was the only fem <G>).
Anywho, one Saturday, he was a complete no-show. We held the game for an hour beyond his normal tardiness, not for him, but because one of the other guys had to run help his gal with her car really fast. When that guy got back, and Mr. Paladin had still not shown up or called, we decided to just play without him.
We were playing a silver-based world, using the gold-based rules for XP, so leveling had been slow, but steady, allowing all the guys that were new to the rules to be learning what they could do without the hastle of having to explain whole new sets of abilities and spells to fast. BUT, for that day of gaming, the hubby, who was GMing, gave us gold XP, with all of us in full agreement. We made three levels that day of gaming, and Mr. Paladin missed it all.
On Monday, back at the base, they found out that he'd blown us all off for a chance with a chick. When he found out that we'd out-leveled him so badly, and that he was not going to get the same XP because he'd failed to call any of the guys to tell 'em he wasn't going to be there (he'd known the night before that he wasn't, and just hadn't bothered to say anything), he decided to drop out of the game. He was never missed :)
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Although it's not really fair to everyone else that he gets the same advancement benefit while visiting some chick as the people who played.
Depends; what's the CR of this chick?
If she looks like Mammy Graul, maybe he should get danger money.
He did let me know ahead of time, too. Well, not me personally, but I heard about it. :/
Hopefully, not on a bathroom wall?
Well, I have been fortunate, because my players call unless an emergency has happened. The latest I was called was about 2 hours before, when a players wife was rushed to the hospital. In fact, after he took her home, she told him to come anyway, but I had already canceled the session.
That said, when a player misses a meeting s/he is npc'd since with only 4 players we know how each character is played and we can do what they would normally do, and as DM I have veto rights. They get full xp and appropriate treasure as I usually place useful treasure based on the characters rather than random or what occurs in the module.
-- david
Papa.DRB
I had this problem some years ago, and always with the same player. Usually we cancelled the session when one player could not show up. At one moment I got tired of cancelling sessions (since this got out of hand) and I introduced the following rules after consultation with the players:
1) The dates we play, are agreed beforehand by all the players, so that all players can check their schedules and see if they are free that night. If someone cannot make it on a particular date, we schedule another date at that particular moment. We always schedule two dates ahead.
2) We play once every 2-3 weeks. When we cannot make it in 3 weeks, we plan a session after 4 weeks, and then another session 1 week later to make up for the lost session. The only exception is in summer (July/August) when everyone is on holiday. We usually have a long break then.
3) When someone wants to cancel a session, he or she can try to contact all the players to plan another date (e.g. Friday instead of Saturday). If this is OK with all the players and with me, then this other date becomes the new date. If one of the players (or me) cannot make it on the new date, the session will be run as scheduled and the player misses the session.
4) There will be no XP and treasure for players/characters missing a session. I know that this might mean that some characters will be running behind. There is a risk, however, that people will use this as an excuse not to attend, which is not fair towards the players who do attend and who do all the hard work.
5) If a player goes on a long holiday out of season, we schedule evenings with the other players and play something else, e.g. a one-shot adventure instead of the regular campaign. Sometimes I also do a special summer campaign in July/August if enough players are available.
So far, this schedule works pretty well. Of all the sessions in 2 years only one player has missed one session. Otherwise I have had full attendance. There was one long break (in fact, it is occuring now), because one of my players is in New-Zealand at the moment, and we have scheduled 2 sessions with another adventure which lasts 2 evenings. My players are also satisfied with the system, since it provides clarity and continuity in the campaign (which was sometimes a problem in the past).
Thankfully everyone in the game I play in lives pretty close to each other. If one person can't make it, one of us will go pick up their character sheet, or simply roll up a quick proxy of them and continue.
In the game I run as the DM, the players live considerably further away, so communication is imperative. If players show up and we find out we're missing someone, we then discuss whether to play or just do something else, like hang out and watch movies or something. I've never really had a problem of players not showing up, but have had a terrible time with players showing up late as hell. I.E:the game is supposed to start at 6:30, and end somewhere between 9-10pm. Players sometimes don't arrive til after 8:30pm. *makes a mean face*
I missed last night's game.
I was very annoyed. With myself. And my bowels.
Anyway, to add insult to injury by docking exp while my character was actually adventuring and could've died (even though I wasn't there) doesn't seem to be too fair. I like Gamer Girrl's suggestion based on how much effort the player is putting in. I am always apologetic when I can't make it, try to inform in advance, and keep up to date (so I can update my journal).
So at least I try!
Still stinks to have a character die on you when you're not there though. But that's the risk you run I think...
On a partially related note, I don't like it too much when characters get out of sync on levels. Well, I don't when it's the party's most powerful character getting a level or two ahead. Issue escalation anyone?
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Player misses session? Sierra Oscar Lima. (SOL for those of a non-NATO-phonetic bent)
Sorry, it's not my responsibility to keep you in line with the rest when you're not there.
*shrugs* And I'm rather remorseless, if the above didn't make that clear.
If the situation was beyond the player's control, completely beyond (flu, hospital, family emergency), then I'd discuss possible side-questing or alternate advancement.
I've got a player who's an old friend who missed the last session because he was in another state visiting some chick. Now he's back, and he wants me to make him all caught up. First he wanted 2500 xp to get to level 4, where the rest of the party is, and then he wanted like 1k gold instead. I didn't make a decision in the three days since he's asked me, and we don't even play til Friday, but now he's all pissed off and I'm an a&%&#~~, blah blah blah. Anyway, what do you guys do when a player misses a session?
Depends:
1) Missed because he/she was partying and/or weren't courteous about it? No XP for that session. Tough s#@+, you made your choice. Can't be that important to you, now can it?2) Missed for other reasons and/or were courteous with some forewarning? I give the character normal XP to the character as if the player were there. Life happens.
3) Tell me I'm an a~!$%~!? STFU and don't talk to me again. What possibly makes you think you deserve anything now, f*#%tard?
For our group, as we get older #1 never occurs anymore, and #3 never did occur.
As everyone else, it depends on the situation. If a player misses, more likely than not it's due to some sort of last-minute emergency - something happened to keep them away like family trouble or sudden illness, or the internet going kablooey since we play over Ventrilo, that's happened a few times. I usually NPC the player for situations like that, and they get all the reward they would have gotten.
If a player cancels for another reason - which has happened a few times, once a player quit on us mid-session to go on a date for example - their character is again NPC'd (no reason to punish the rest of the players for their absence) but they gain no XP for that session. Whether or not they get a share of the loot is up to the other players (who are generally in as bad a mood about it as I am).
If more than two people cancel for whatever reason, the session is cancelled. That's too many missing people for me to run, I decided.
I've never actually had a player call me an insulting name like that over a game situation though. I'd likely be showing the fellow the door, removing his account from my forums and changing the password on Vent.
HE WAS SEEING A GIRL! A GIRL! Something that many gammers would give a bag of gold for a chance at. Give the guy a break he is only human and if he is like any of the other men I know the list of important things in life are as follows:
1: Food
2: Girls
3: Everything else
So he was seeing a girl. Big whoop. Is he a boy or a man?
Time is the most precious commodity anyone has. If you're going to be so rude and disrespectful as to waste everyone else's time over a sig-o (potential or otherwise) when you've already made plans with your group well ahead of time to be available and ready to play, you don't deserve the consideration of the rest of the group. You deservedly get bupkus. Of course, that's if you don't tell anyone ahead of time of your change of plans. If you're considerate of others, you deserve consideration as well.
If you're considerate of others, you deserve consideration as well.
^That.
I've always had players who do everything in their power to make it to the game on time, and always tell me when they know in advance that they'll have to miss all or part of a session. Most of my games follow a "level up when I tell you to" system, so XP isn't an issue. If it's a White Wolf game or something else where individual points of XP are important, they'll get all of the standard XP but miss out on the one or two bonus points I may have given out (although I'll often find time to run a "what your character was up to" mini-session to recover that). Treasure is up to the party, but they generally feel the same way I do.However, disrespect or repeatedly missing a session without notifying me is a really good way to get replaced.
An SMS saying 'dude, can't make tonight' takes all of a few seconds.
That's all I require to be cool as a GM. I wont be giving you lots of toys or XP - in fact it may be none - but no harm no foul. I don't get paid if I don't show up to work, why do you get paid if you don't show up to game?
People who just 'don't show' don't get a re-invite.
If there's an option to come to my game, or score with a chick, I think I couldn't take you seriously if you blew the chick off. :p
I play, and DM, in a weekly session (currently the DM). I know how annoying this is as it happens on and off to us as well - with the overriding issue being one of letting us know ahead of time.
Having said that, we do divide the issues into two distinct areas. If you don't attend, your character is NPC'd (usually by handing to another player); regardless of whether you let us know beforehand or not. The gaming is separate to the communication.
If there was a breakdown in communication, to us that's a separate issue - it's just inconsiderate. I'd mention it, maybe even shout about it, but I wouldn't penalize the character.
As you say he let you know ahead of time then I'd have no issue with that. However, if his character didn't take part in the session (and share the risk) then he shouldn't gain the reward - which is mostly why I NPC them to avoid such disparities.
That's my opinion though.