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this is hypothetical only but Id like to know how to handle this
not getting into the whys or the hows ... just a simple "what do I do"
if 2 players leave a 5 or 4 man table at the tail end of the scenario (under an hour left) leaving it at 3 or worse 2 players obviously breaking legality what do you do
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I'd like to hear an official ruling on this, but in a pinch, I would:
1. Recalculate the new party APL, and adjust the difficulty of the upcoming encounters based on the new APL and party size.
2. In table of now 3 players, I would have a pregen join the the group.
3. In a table of now 2 players, I would probably allow each remaining player to choose a pregen for them to control and take it from there (this actually happened to me once during a game of We Be Goblins Too!).
If possible, I'd try to make the addition of Prengens as seamless as possible, but it would probably end up as something like "We're here because [insert relevant VC here] thought you could use some help, and it looks like they were right!"
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For the leaving players if it cannot be resccheduled: if they have had 3 encounters, hand out 1 xp, 0 pp, partial gold chronicles to the players leaving.
Then:
If left with 3 players offer them the option of continuing with a hastily summoned pregen so they can finish the scenario.
If left with 2 players, ask the organisers/venture officers present what the best option is for them, maybe someone who has already played the adventure can join in with a pregen to raise the number of players to 3 and then add another pregen to make the table legal again.
Edit: mostly ninja'd bij Jack -_-
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We have this issue at one of the locations where I play. It is easier to deal with when you know about it in advance. When it first happened that players needed to leave in the middle of the scenario, I added in a pregen to finish the scenario.
That location also has the occasional problem that the store closes well before game sessions are scheduled to end. Most nights it isn't a problem because one of the employees plays PFS with us and is happy to lock up after the games are finished. But on nights he is unavailable, our games are limited to 2 to 3 hours. (I'm not sure what the event organizer is planning to do now that said employee has moved to the other side of the state.)
Due to both of these issues, I have found it helpful to have quests with me and ready to run.
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ya Ive spent time studying your thread and it is a fairly different situation as yours is a regular games day
I have had a situation where a game was all the way to the last encounter and we had a player leave (which would have caused a tier change) but since you cant retier a game 85% of the way through ... ya
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ya Ive spent time studying your thread and it is a fairly different situation as yours is a regular games day
I have had a situation where a game was all the way to the last encounter and we had a player leave (which would have caused a tier change) but since you cant retier a game 85% of the way through ... ya
The first time it happened to us, it wasn't that different than what you describe. The venue is somewhat irrelevant. The players simply packed up, and said, "Well, gotta go! Bye!"
We were all left somewhat speechless.
We had one encounter left and there were still 3 PCs there, so I added a pregen to the party and we finished the scenario.
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I'd like to hear an official ruling on this, but in a pinch, I would:
1. Recalculate the new party APL, and adjust the difficulty of the upcoming encounters based on the new APL and party size.
2. In table of now 3 players, I would have a pregen join the the group.
3. In a table of now 2 players, I would probably allow each remaining player to choose a pregen for them to control and take it from there (this actually happened to me once during a game of We Be Goblins Too!).If possible, I'd try to make the addition of Prengens as seamless as possible, but it would probably end up as something like "We're here because [insert relevant VC here] thought you could use some help, and it looks like they were right!"
I dont know if there is anything in the Guide against this, but I see nothing wrong with these suggestions.
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Not just the secondary either. They very well might have completed the primary by that point.
The guide says, apply creative solutions (and I would say this applies to the GM in this case). I would add, don't be a worry wart and go with what the table agrees to.
I dont know if there is anything in the Guide against this, but I see nothing wrong with these suggestions.
Totally agreed. Unless they decide to specifically write some language in there to address this (I wouldnt count on it, since its a fringe case), then yea, do whatever the rest of the players want, within the normal bounds of the PFS rules. Have fun!
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As far as adjusting the subtier, I would put the 'Uncle' rule into effect, probably.
Basically, they were playing up, but the loss of players adjusts them down. If they want to continue playing up with the newer smaller party, they can. If they complete the scenario that way, they get the rewards they should for the subtier they completed.
At any point between combats, they can collectively call 'Uncle' and switch to low tier, but if they do that, they get the rewards for that tier as if they completed the entire scenario at that subtier.
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As far as adjusting the subtier, I would put the 'Uncle' rule into effect, probably.
Basically, they were playing up, but the loss of players adjusts them down. If they want to continue playing up with the newer smaller party, they can. If they complete the scenario that way, they get the rewards they should for the subtier they completed.
At any point between combats, they can collectively call 'Uncle' and switch to low tier, but if they do that, they get the rewards for that tier as if they completed the entire scenario at that subtier.
This is what I usually do in that situation.
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In an extreme case, you can always do what you would do if the group runs out of time - decide what "would have happened" and call the game. Give them XP, gold, and prestige based on what they've completed, and give everyone Chronciles.
It is very unfair to everyone for players to show up and then leave early, but sometimes it can't be helped. It is better to continue with pregens if you can.
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I'd give the option of just continuing, perhaps now gaining the 4 player adjustment. Some scenarios are easy enough that this works just fine. I'd definitely contribute to the discussion if the remaining part of the scenario was going to be harder or easier than expected.
I'd also give them the "pregens show up" and "quit now, regardless of situation" option.
But once they choose, they've chosen. No crying uncle later
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I am not sure what the basis for doing this is. If a PC dies during the game you dont recalculate, why would you do it because someone leaves?On the people left in the game:
If 3+ players are left it is still a legal table. You recalculate APL and carry on. It shouldn't change Tier so their gold won't be affected, really just future encounters in that run (doing 4 player adjustments, etc).
Six player table in a Season 3, Tier 1-5. The character levels are 5, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2. The APL is 2.66_, which rounds to 3. They must play the higher subtier (according to the guide).
The first encounter is pretty rough, but they scrape through. Before anyone gets a chance to get healed up, the player playing the 5th-level character stands up and says, "Thanks guys, that was fun, but now I gotta leave. See ya!"
This is a situation where the least disruptive course of action is to allow the other five players to continue on, without adding a pregen, but played at subtier 1-2. There is no reason to punish the five players who are still in the game for the poor behavior of the player who left after 15 minutes.
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Six player table in a Season 3, Tier 1-5. The character levels are 5, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2. The APL is 2.66_, which rounds to 3. They must play the higher subtier (according to the guide).The first encounter is pretty rough, but they scrape through. Before anyone gets a chance to get healed up, the player playing the 5th-level character stands up and says, "Thanks guys, that was fun, but now I gotta leave. See ya!"
This is a situation where the least disruptive course of action is to allow the other five players to continue on, without adding a pregen, but played at subtier 1-2. There is no reason to punish the five players who are still in the game for the poor behavior of the player who left after 15 minutes.
Except, what if the rest of the table wanted to play 'up'? Is the departure and poor behavior of that player now forcing the table to play something they didn't want to at a level they didn't want to? It doesn't usually make that much of a difference, but there are some scenarios out there that reward higher tiers with better gear/equipment?
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Except, what if the rest of the table wanted to play 'up'?
Six player table in a Season 3, Tier 1-5. The character levels are 5, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2. The APL is 2.66_, which rounds to 3. They must play the higher subtier (according to the guide).The first encounter is pretty rough, but they scrape through. Before anyone gets a chance to get healed up, the player playing the 5th-level character stands up and says, "Thanks guys, that was fun, but now I gotta leave. See ya!"
This is a situation where the least disruptive course of action is to allow the other five players to continue on, without adding a pregen, but played at subtier 1-2. There is no reason to punish the five players who are still in the game for the poor behavior of the player who left after 15 minutes.
Sure! If they want to continue the game in the high subtier, I'm okay with that.
They might be about to face a CR 7 encounter, though.
All because of one player.
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This has happened a few times for me. Normally I will just fill in the missing slot with a pregen (if this took us to 3 players) based on one of the missing players and rescale the scenario as a 4-player game from that point on. If the pregen had some class ability with limited uses (spells, channel, LoH, ect) I might remove some uses based on what the player had done up to that point.
The missing players get rewards based on what they were here for. If they got 3 encounters, 1xp, and 0 or 1 Prestige based on what they did to help accomplish the goals of that scenario up to that point.
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This has happened a few times for me. Normally I will just fill in the missing slot with a pregen (if this took us to 3 players) based on one of the missing players and rescale the scenario as a 4-player game from that point on. If the pregen had some class ability with limited uses (spells, channel, LoH, ect) I might remove some uses based on what the player had done up to that point.
The missing players get rewards based on what they were here for. If they got 3 encounters, 1xp, and 0 or 1 Prestige based on what they did to help accomplish the goals of that scenario up to that point.
This is the commonsense approach.
Basically do whatever it takes to keep the game going for the rest.