I have a 7pc campaign that I run, and one of them cannot attend our next session. Our next adventure will run over 2 sessions, and he can attend the 2nd session.
He is our Cleric, so it is important that his PC play.
I was thinking of options:
1 having one of our players run 2 characters.
2 find another friend to play his PC for 1 session.
3 just not have his character involved at all.
any other suggestions?
Also how do you handle XP for PCs that are no-shows? I don't want to give out full XP to someone who is not there.
Thanks for any advice!
if the player is fine with option one and two, try 2 first, then 1.
else, 3 is just fine.
With 7 Pcs, the lack of one shouldn't be that bad.
Regardless of party "need", we typically have the absent player's PC stay out of the session if at all possible. No one wants to get the call that their character died while they were away.
/ absent players receive full XP for their character
// +1 that party of 7 should be fine sans 1
It's more work for you as the GM, but honestly, why not make it part of the adventure? Have their PC abducted by the baddies - or perhaps some completely unaffiliated party - and make the night's adventure deal with that. Delay the start of the adventure you had planned until everyone can make it for both sessions.
Have you ever seen the gamers? We treat it like that. The PC stares in the void and the other players makes fun of it.
It the PC is needed to avoid a TPK it contributes healing, buffing, using aid another and such. In no case a PC should die when its player is not on the table (excluding TPK, of course)
Have you ever seen the gamers? We treat it like that. The PC stares in the void and the other players makes fun of it.
We call it "Mark The Redding" and we'll do it the player misses a session while the party is out and about. But that's usually not the case as we try really hard to wrap up during *Government Week.
/in Kingmaker, you gotta get back to your nation for at least one week per month.
Not quite your question, but as my group is a lot smaller than yours, I often handle no shows by doing something else, like running a one-shot adventure such as "We Be Goblins" or having a board game night instead. No-shows are infrequent enough and rescheduling is easy enough that we rarely play without everyone present.
With a 7 person group, no-shows obviously are much more commonplace and rescheduling is a pain, so playing the planned adventure without the player makes a lot more sense.
Personally, I like to work it into the story, like LyingBastard wrote. However, sometimes the easiest thing is to not have the character involved for that gaming session and to simply ignore the player's disappearance and reappearance. It doesn't make any sense and is not realistic, but if the players are okay with it, that makes for less juggling for you (other than the party being less powerful/capable). That's what I did as a 10-year old GM, and sometimes I have to listen to the advice of my younger self.
The XP question is answered by your overall policy. Does everyone in the party have equal XP? If someone dies and makes a new character, do they start with the same XP as the others? If yes and yes, then an absence does not warrant an XP hit. Otherwise, you can rule that absent players get no XP at all - just run the idea by your players first (if you're the consensus type like me).
- Niilo
@lying bastard & Niilo- I was thinking of working the absence into the story.
Also not everyone has equal XP, I do give out bonuses for various things, but they are all 7th level.
No one has died yet. But when a new player joined, he just started at the same level as the party, but had the minimum XP for that level.
Thanks everyone for the comments
When our current AP began we had an issue where some folks were just.. not showing up, and it prompted the group to discuss what to do. We basically came up with:
Someone who gives advance notice of an absence (or has a very good reason for not doing so) gets full Xp and full loot. This is done for the purpose of keeping the group as a whole on the same page.
Someone who consistently fails to show up, give notice and such would start to not get that XP.
Now in our group- it never actually had to be applied. Said players simply stopped showing up.. but in theory at least the rule is still in effect.
-S
We do one of 2 things.
1) He is guarding the camp and horses for the day. No xp.
2) If PC has absolutely irreplaceble skill (only one with any healing, disable device, read magic, etc...). Then he is following with group and takes no actions except for that ability. GM doesn't attack him and he doesn't attack monsters (unless a TPK is looming). But then he is available to heal, disable device, read magic, etc... He gets xps just for the actions taken.
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With 7 players, the loss of one should not effect the party that much.
That said, I almost always try to come up with a reason for the PC to be absent as well:
1) The PC gets kidnapped by baddies. The party can spend the session tracking them down, but they can't rescue the PC until the next session when the player returns.
2) The "Bombur Effect": PC blunders into some hazard that renders them unconscious for the entirety of the session. Either a magical trap, or a sleep poison, or a disease of some kind that renders the PC effectively unconscious and/or helpless.
3) The "Statis Effect": The PC gets turned to stone, or sealed in ice, or some other effect that completely traps/removes the PC from the action. The prty finds the cure at the end of the session. A baleful polymorph also works for this.
4) "Your Mom Called": Doesn't work in a dungeon, but elsewhere the PC can be called away temporarily by a relative to see to some familial responsibility until the player can return.
5) "Nobody's Home": due to a magical effect or a drug or a poison, or some other hazard, the PC enters a stupefied and highly suggestible state where they will basically behave as if hypnotized - responding to the party's requests in the most literal manner and taking no initiative of their own
The important thing is that no matter which of the methods you choose, it should be slightly embarrassing for the player upon his/her return. Also, it's important to present this to the other players as a fait accompli: The PC just in-advisably swallowed a strange potion, or was fiddling with a weird mechanism, or got brained by falling masonry, or whatever.
What we do is one other person will run the character but whatever happens happens. If the character dies then so be it. If they are able to contribute then they get XP. It is not that big of a deal.
We have played in a group with 6 players for...well, a really long time. I was DM most of that time, and had to develop a certain set of flexible rules since we were young adults when we started and we all know that young adults' fancies on Friday nights can turn to things other than gaming. Now this is playing every other Friday night to allow for the Friday night follies in between game sessions. But I digress.
Rule #1 - will play with 4 of the 6 PC's, but no fewer.
Rule #2 - first time you fail to show up without advance (24+ hour) notice your character gets a disease. Don't show up without advance notice twice in a row and the character becomes bedridden and deathly ill. Do it 3 times in a row and character dies without being able to be revived (never had to exercise this, although I did get to part b once or twice).
Rule #3 - characters of absent players get 1/2 experience if it's with a valid advance notice and 0 experience if no advance notice of absence is given.
That's about it. These days we don't have problems with no shows as we are all adults and respect each others' schedules. We discuss schedule conflicts in advance and work out alternate sessions as needed. Nobody gets docked experience if they can't make a session, and someone else at the table plays their character (or the DM makes a rp call if needed).
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We either find someone to fill in or I (the GM) will play the character with full XP and loot either way. We're all friends and responsible, so we don't have problems with people not communicating when they can and can't make it. If I was playing with people I didn't know and/or who weren't very reliable, I'd probably have to change the way we handle it.
My 4e group goes with the "missing PC had some bad fish" approach and play without them.
My PF group reschedules until everyone can play.
The result is my twice-monthly 4e campaign meets twice a month and my "weekly" PF campaign meets 1 or 2 times a month and has gone as long as 9 weeks without playing.
With 7 players I'm surprised that no-shows aren't more common. BTW, if a guy tells you in advance that he can't make a session, I wouldn't call that a "no-show".
We have to deal with this in our group on a semi-regular basis. One guy has to go on business trips about once every other month, the other guy has family issues about as often. I often have gigs or other work conflicts myself. Generally we try and put the absent character on some sort of bus - one guy just took the Craft Magical Arms and Armor feat, so we have him stuck in the workshop improving our gear when he doesn't show.
What sucks is when one session ends on a cliffhanger and then you can't make it the following week. I've personally had my PC killed twice by this method (the same character, actually). GM conceded that, especially the second time, things would probably have gone very differently if I had been there to play my character.
That second time I even left detailed instructions involving conjuring an obscuring mist to keep the unseen repeating xbow sniper from PWNing the party. Which the other players promptly ignored and ran out of the mist to get lit up by the sniper again, just because I wasn't there to explain that the rogue would have a tough time hitting and wouldn't get his sneak attack damage if they stayed hidden. Dummies...
I have a 7pc campaign that I run, and one of them cannot attend our next session. Our next adventure will run over 2 sessions, and he can attend the 2nd session.
He is our Cleric, so it is important that his PC play.I was thinking of options:
1 having one of our players run 2 characters.
2 find another friend to play his PC for 1 session.
3 just not have his character involved at all.any other suggestions?
Also how do you handle XP for PCs that are no-shows? I don't want to give out full XP to someone who is not there.
Thanks for any advice!
Not sure if you've had the session yet.
As they need their Cleric, let someone else run him.If he dies, have the party wake up from the "dream" they all just had together - except for the cleric who remains comatose until the real player returns ... maybe he stayed in the dream longer and learned something to help them out later?
You can play on this however you like. I used this tactic once following a TPK - your job as GM is to sell the idea that it was planned that way all along ;) Have fun - that's what it's all about!
1. Kidnap the PC.
2. Replace him with a double ganger.
3.Mind control the PC.
4.Send PC to fight the party
You get all the fun of mind control without a player having to do nothing because he's not there. Also the party won't be sure witch one is real because you will be playing both of them.
Before you have the group run the absent player's character you should ask yourself a few questions:
What are the odds the character will die under the control of the other players?
Do the other players tend to not act in good faith?
How crucial is it that the character be there?
How would the player react to his character dying?
How would you work a new character into the game?
Will there be significant time on the sidelines and will the new character be more or less caught up with the old one in terms of equipment, experience and plot involvement?
Are the PCs at a level for which death is only a minor inconvenience?
Personally, I don't mind my character being played without me since the other players tend to act in good faith, I have other characters I'd like to play and the GM is very good about bringing in new characters on the double quick with level appropriate equipment (even if it stretches the bounds of believability sometimes).
If I had to reroll at a lower level or with a significant disadvantage in equipment there's no way I'd let the other PCs touch my character sheet.
Once you start playing with adults more, life intrudes. This is why we no longer give out EPS (everyone levels at once).
In one game, we bring in a back-up character. In another either a back-up (someone plays 2 PC's) or if a copy is available (which means that player is OK with somebody else playing it)someone plays the missing guy. In another game we switch to a very free flowing back up campaign.
No ones PC ever gets punished for the player having a life. Now yes, complete surprise no-shows can lead to that player being dropped, if they happen enough. There's no reason to even just simply not show, barring being in the ER.
I think it would be fun to put together a short one-shot where the players take on characters from a historical event important to the campaign. Maybe one in which everyone knows that the temporary characters have zero chance of survival. I'm thinking Alamo type situation. Maybe they touch an artifact that pulls there consciousnesses back in time to ancient battle that figures prominently in the campaign.
It gives you a chance to give background flavor and possibly plot bits while putting the campaign temporarily on hold. Personally, I would award the PCs experience for their time in the ancient past and possibly award them with some small trait (1/2 feat) that stays with their permanent character if they manage to meet certain objectives (survive, die saving the princess, seal up the gateway to hell getting trapped on the wrong side). Maybe the official story is incorrect and someone who history has remembered as a cad died heroically knowing how things would look to future generations. Also, you'll probably have lots of alternate NPCs to have the PCs take over if they die before everyone else.
How cool would it be to play a 4th level fighter facing down the hordes of Hell?
In the group I used to play in and the group that I run, we just act like the character isn't there. The player isn't there, the character isn't there. If he or she shows up before the end of the session, so does their character! No one plays thems, they don't become NPCs, and they don't get a share of the loot or XP from that session (I give XP each session).
Master Arminas