In my current Shadowrun game we're pretty lucky as a group that the game lends itself to characters being gone, for various reasons, and new or one shot characters coming in to present their specialized technical skills. As the Players are a group of undercover cops, when one is gone (Like say the player I have this week on vacation in Kentucky) all we have to do is say "Well his character is on surveillance duty, or on vacation", and we can move on with the game.

Now obviously this means sometimes regularly attending players advance much further than the few non-attending ones.

But in our upcoming D&D game this will be a much more difficult thing to deal with. The group will be a group of teenage villagers, who's village was destroyed in an epic battle between the last group of player characters-one of whom was driven to madness by a recovered artifact he wielded. This group will start out in the destroyed ruins of their village with the goal of goal of finding the surviving PC's and getting their revenge. (A sort of coming of age tale)

But dealing with player absence will be a lot harder in this game. So what I am looking for is creative solutions to deal with player absence. I am sure some of you must have some excellent input!

Quote from: Serious PaulIn my current Shadowrun game we're pretty lucky as a group that the game lends itself to characters being gone, for various reasons, and new or one shot characters coming in to present their specialized technical skills. As the Players are a group of undercover cops, when one is gone (Like say the player I have this week on vacation in Kentucky) all we have to do is say "Well his character is on surveillance duty, or on vacation", and we can move on with the game.

Now obviously this means sometimes regularly attending players advance much further than the few non-attending ones.

But in our upcoming D&D game this will be a much more difficult thing to deal with. The group will be a group of teenage villagers, who's village was destroyed in an epic battle between the last group of player characters-one of whom was driven to madness by a recovered artifact he wielded. This group will start out in the destroyed ruins of their village with the goal of goal of finding the surviving PC's and getting their revenge. (A sort of coming of age tale)

But dealing with player absence will be a lot harder in this game. So what I am looking for is creative solutions to deal with player absence. I am sure some of you must have some excellent input!

For me personally, I just go the "Don't sweat it" route.

If a player isn't there, then his character isn't there. If the player shows up next time, the plcharacter just appears. Its only a game after all.

Quote from: Serious PaulBut dealing with player absence will be a lot harder in this game. So what I am looking for is creative solutions to deal with player absence. I am sure some of you must have some excellent input!

Not really. I pretty much just do what Abyssal Maw does.

Seanchai

Usually one of the other players runs the PC, with the GM having veto power over actions. The PC still gets full xp, a full share of treasure, and all of the perks and downsides that appear during the adventure.

I have a rule that if you're not there, your character tags along, but is absolutely useless.  This means he gets XP, but can't be counted on to do even the most basic of things in any sort of stressful situation (combat, negotiations, etc.).  After a battle he can help heal, etc., but he won't be able to do anything that helps advance the actual adventure.   I hate player absences (unless there are extenuating circumstances, of course) and I hate running NPCs/absent PCs with the party.  The upside for the players is that the character is guaranteed not to get killed off or humiliated this way.

Now, my players aren't undercover cops, so that's probably a hard line to take.  Is there an in-game way you can justify absences.  You're talking fantasy here, so I'm not against some wizard or demon snatching people away while the player is gone and then some benevolent force freeing them when the player returns.  It takes a bit of thought as to why this is happening (and the players just might think it's a GM trick to deal with the absent player), but if you assume the characters are "chosen ones" or something, and just don't know it, and then they find clues leading to a confrontation with the wizard/demon/etc. later it could turn out pretty cool.  Or it could suck.  It all depends on the exceution.  

Pete

What Abyssmal said. Puff, the PCs of the absent player aren't present in the direct area of adventure for whatever reason seems to fit for the moment, puff, they're back. Sickness, staying back to guard the base, vacation, keeping the head down for a recently alerted enemy, whatever.

In regards of advancement, I simply give a bit limited number of XP out. They shouldn't completely hang behind, but it should also make a difference if you're present and risking your personage or not.

My players are allowed to miss occasionally when work, dates, significant others, families, or studies demand it.

But any regular or repeated absences is likely to get you kicked off a group around here.

Likewise, you don't get any xp if you're not there.

In my games what happens to an absent character depends on the campaign.  He might be on a mission, there might not be anything happening in his region that year (if there isn't a coherent "Party"), he might have gone off on his own for a while, or he might just have been hit by a brick.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditIn my games what happens to an absent character depends on the campaign.  He might be on a mission, there might not be anything happening in his region that year (if there isn't a coherent "Party"), he might have gone off on his own for a while, or he might just have been hit by a brick.

Yeah, that too.  When I run a VtM or Shadowrun game for example it doesn't matter so much (the missing character is just somewhere else in the city).  But I'm running D&D and they're in a dungeon it gets problematic.  

Pete

Generally, we just "ghost out" the missing PCs, assuming that they are present, but largely ineffectual, or tied up by "other combatants" that don't show up on the battle mat. I alter encounters and other obstacles on the fly to account for that fact. It is not the most "realistic" way to deal with missing players, but it works well enough most nights.

Other ways you can handle missing dungeoneers:

1. Have everyone make a list of people that, in the case of their absence, they would like to run their characters and the order of preference.

2. Have the PCs tag along and allow other players to invoke their skills, but not have them perform any actions otherwise. So, you can have the thief disarm traps, but not have him charge into combat.

3. Think of a really good, ingame reason why players can appear and disappear like that... perhaps your campaign is actually taking place in some virtual reality MMO?

4. When we were much, much younger, we would have the absentee's PC open every door, but that was a rowdier, uglier time

The way I do it is:

1. If the player lets me know in advance they can have their character played by a) any other member of the group who be there, b) me as the GM.  

2. If they do not let me know in advance then I play their Character.

If I play their Character as GM then I Role Play it as I think the Player would.

If they assign a Player to play their character then they have the choice of how they want it played:

Play Styles:
1. Low Key (does not much more than use defined skills)
2. Moderate (can take initiative but should play with extra caution)
3. Full Throttle (play the character the way the Player would)

In all cases the Player agrees that whatever happens as a result of their not attending is to be lived with.

As for XP, that depends on the Play Style.  
1.  no XP other than the standard (for my system) group split
2.  normal experience with group split (ie - if they Full Kill they get the XP)
3.  normal XP with any bonus for Adventurous Playing (daring play)

 If the Character dies in the process of being played with Style 1 then I allow free temple resurrection, provided the party takes the body back with them.  If not, then *sigh*, oh well.   If the Character dies in the process of 2 or 3 then that's too bad.

Treasure splits are done normally regardless, with the exception of Magic picks. In that case the absent Character better have assigned their Character to a friendly Player or to me, in which case they have the normal shot at it.  Otherwise, oh well.

In other words, I have Game Rules for absent players.