Basically I have 3 players. Used to play solo with my husband every weekend then 2 more people joined in. Since then I've had a 2 months pause because of military duty of Player1. That was ok. Last week Player2 had a relative visiting for a week. We didn't play. This week Player2 has family function and must leave early. Next week Player2 has wedding and Player1 is now taking a summer job and isn't sure if and when they will make it. Husband is getting fed up.
I'm thinking of running the campaign each week same time with whoever shows up, run any missing players as NPCs (silent going along) and posting a summary after each game for anyone missing to catch up. What do you think? How do you handle this?
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In my home games, we always run unless the GM is the only person who can show up. Some groups carry along the missing player's PCs as silent, non-reactive, members of the party.
In a couple groups, the GM runs the characters when necessary (healing!) but we don't do anything that will kill the character. Only the player can get their character killed.
In my home games, we always run unless the GM is the only person who can show up. Some groups carry along the missing player's PCs as silent, non-reactive, members of the party.
In a couple groups, the GM runs the characters when necessary (healing!) but we don't do anything that will kill the character. Only the player can get their character killed.
Thanks. I like the bit "only a player can get their character killed". Something I'll keep in mind.
Edit. Just a note. I understand that my players have valid reasons for being unable to attend. But I still want the game to move forward...
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I've found that once you get out of your early 20s, scheduling games gets harder and harder, and that increases with the number of players. Kids, jobs, family commitments, and membership in other organizations (e.g. church, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Elks Club) all take precidence over gaming.
I find that it's good to set ground rules on what constitues a quorum fro play. At the moment, we have a 5-person group (GM, 4 players.) Obviously, we cancel if the GM can't make it, but our rule is that a quorum consists of 2 players. If a player isn't there, the GM will run the PC as an NPC, with the spotlight off that character.
Our rule is that a PC can get killed even if the player isn't there, but PC death tends to be very rare in our games. (Our general practice is that a PC has to make a very serious error for the consequence to be death.)
I've found that once you get out of your early 20s, scheduling games gets harder and harder, and that increases with the number of players. Kids, jobs, family commitments, and membership in other organizations (e.g. church, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Elks Club) all take precidence over gaming.
I find that it's good to set ground rules on what constitues a quorum fro play. At the moment, we have a 5-person group (GM, 4 players.) Obviously, we cancel if the GM can't make it, but our rule is that a quorum consists of 2 players. If a player isn't there, the GM will run the PC as an NPC, with the spotlight off that character.
Our rule is that a PC can get killed even if the player isn't there, but PC death tends to be very rare in our games. (Our general practice is that a PC has to make a very serious error for the consequence to be death.)
Thanks for the tips :) Good to know that other people also continue playing if someone's missing. I've been feeling kinda guilty about this :S
I generally reserve PC death for "I will ask you for the 10th time... Are you sure you wanna try seduction on the Balor?" So practically never.
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In my home games, we always run unless the GM is the only person who can show up. Some groups carry along the missing player's PCs as silent, non-reactive, members of the party.
In a couple groups, the GM runs the characters when necessary (healing!) but we don't do anything that will kill the character. Only the player can get their character killed.
That is exactly how I do it.
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When the GM asks, "Are you sure you really want to do that?" the correct answer is, "No!"
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Id consider how PF society play works. You could modify it to your campaign. Have a handful of NPCs that can either be run by the players or GM. In this case, if an NPC bites the dust, it isnt a PC who's player was unable to game that day.
This is assuming you can find narrative reasons to swap characters often like PFS allows. Just an idea.
Yeah, I've wondered the same flaky thoughts sometimes.
When it was a 'one-off' sort of thing for the regular group, I'd say "Fate of the party, if you need my character to pull the party's bacon out of the fire permission given for that, too."
Of course, it does require enough of a trust level to know that your character isn't going to get screwed over by that, and communication is kind of important, too.
Summer in the States(or winter for Australia) is a very rough time for scheduling for some reason over VTT.
What do you think? How do you handle this?
I eventually, recently went to Play by Email (PbEM).
See QE PBeM Homepage
Face to face tabletop gaming has other joys, but at least it lets you interact, be creative, and likely keep an interest in face to face sessions. It also creates a body of work to use a recruitment tool.
In service,
Rich
www.zhalindor.com/staats2.htm