It’s a fact of life, it happens to gamers everywhere, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of... sometimes you (or another player) just can’t get to your game. As it happens, I’ve got important civic reasons I won’t be able to post for the next six weeks or so, except very rarely, so I’m trying to use the time to write up some new topics and think of posts I’ll be able to do. This seems like a good one. So, what do you do? There are a few schools of thought. Firstly, some GMs simply drag the missing players’ characters along, and they continue to take damage, be targeted by traps/effects, and so on. But coming back to find that your character died because you were sick last week is no fun, so it’s not my favourite. You can always have them ‘on patrol’ or scouting somewhere out of the room, which avoids the first problem, but it does occasionally mean some narrative stretching, especially when something unexpected crops up (getting lost, a teleport trap, or whatever). It does mean that people don’t suffer for being away, though, and that seems better overall to me. Alternately, a character ‘just isn’t there’, which means they miss out on all the damage, treasure, and experience, but this isn’t much fun either. Losing out on XP because your mother needed a hand putting shelves up, just plain sucks. In addition, most modern games don’t work well with unequal experience, working on accomplishments, or the entire group leveling up at once. All of these are also based on someone being out for one night, but what if someone has to be away for longer? Sick parents, sick kids, work, school/university, or any other kinds of complication might remove a player for a longer period, which isn’t fun for anyone. What can often be a good idea is to catch up with them by email, and agree on a narrative reason their character isn’t there- an emergency comes up and they need to go <rescue someone, venture across the seas, return home>. Catch them up when they’re able to get back and maybe have a quick, written “flashback scene” that they can tell the other players when they’re able to return, so that it makes sense that they’re still the same level and appropriately geared. The end result is, look after your players. Don’t punish them for not being able to make it, because it might be circumstances completely out of their control. Do you have any ideas or examples of how you’ve dealt with players being absent, short- or long-term? Tell us about it, and I’ll be able to read them and think of better times... (Originally posted on 27 September 2018) Categories All Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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