Hello! I just recently started DMing Dnd and I have a group of people who are interested in consistently coming to our weekly sessions. However, without our group, I have one player who has a very inconsistent schedule so they told me they aren't sure if they can join them. Not wanting one person to be left out of all our sessions entirely, are there any tips or systems that can accommodate for a player that can pop in when their schedule allows it?
I was thinking of making a sidekick character and giving them that stat block so they can join on the fly. But just want to see if there are other methods people use.
1. excuse the character with a basic narrative. i.e. if the character were a criminal background then each time the player cannot attend, you simply have his gang show up with a job to pull or the law comes sniffing around and the character has to lay low for a session.
2. you and the player handle the character cooperatively. i.e. the character is perhaps a transmutation wizard that has caused himself to be a dr Jekyll mr hyde persona. mr hyde could be an NPC or even a monster to be overcome.
3. the other players play the character by a sort of committee. This is often referred to as pack mule i.e. the character is there mechanically but not so much as a role playing presence.
I am sure there are countless variations on how any of those choices could be tweaked but... thems the basics, I figure. good luck. and let us know what you decide.
There are several ways to handle it depending on how the group reacts to the situation.
1) They can just not play. Unfortunate, but if they have no way to show up semi regularly then it might be best since having a player pop in and out who isn't familiar with what is going on, what happened last week, the longer term goals for the characters can be disruptive as you bring them up to speed every week they can make it. Also, if the player doesn't show up regularly then they might tend to take the game less seriously, play things for laughs, take actions that won't have consequences for them since they aren't there every week. This depends a lot on what the player is like and certainly wouldn't be a problem for most occasional players but some do have that issue. In these cases, it would be best if they didn't play at all.
2) If everyone in the group are friends or understand the player's situation and inability to play regularly and are ok with an occasional player then there are several routes you can take.
- have a side kick/party NPC that they can play when they show up. The NPC is otherwise run by the DM or one of the rest of the players depending on what works for the group. The DM makes decisions on the NPC advancement if or when it levels up.
- let the player build a character that will be played as an NPC when the player can't make it. In this case the player is more invested in the character and may have more fun and have more to contribute when they do play but since the character is an NPC then when they aren't there the NPC is subject to the same risks as the rest of the party. The DM or the other players would handle character decisions when the player isn't there. The player makes decisions on the character advancement when it levels up.
- have the player create their own character that only appears when the player can make it. You need a bit of willing suspension of disbelief or some other mechanic to explain how the character manages to join the party wherever they are but this can work ok (I've seen in used in on-going Adventurers League campaigns where a character can't be played as an NPC if the player isn't there). If you are running a home game you can still choose to level up the character at the same rate as the rest of the party (naratively they have been off doing their own thing to level up). Have a chat with the other players to make sure this is ok with them since some may object to a character advancing in the story even if they haven't been played as often (this is easier with milestone leveling than XP leveling).
I've been in this situation before a few times. With one group, the players were very happy to play fast and loose with the narrative and RP in order for players to do what they wanted to do. This helped our inconsistent player feel less guilty when they couldn't show up, as we would literally ignore their character when they were gone and then just assume the character was there the whole time when they can join. Sometimes the players came up with a reason why the character was so quiet, or missing from combat, and sometimes they were happy to just move on and keep playing as if nothing was wrong. This also helped have fun with the player who couldn't stick with a character for more than 5 sessions...everyone put the fun of the players over the consistency of the narrative and handwaved away whatever we needed to keep going.
With another group who wanted more narrative consistency and serious RP, the PC would be "run" by another one of the players or by the DM. They trusted us to be conservative with RP and combat decisions, avoiding any decisions that could be important. Obviously this takes some trust and extra work on everyone's part, but it helps keep storyline consistency. And the busy player helped by making an easy to run character in combat without secrets in their backstory.
Best thing to do is talk several options over with your group....and then after you try one way, check in again and see if it's working for them or if you want to try something else!
I was thinking of making a sidekick character and giving them that stat block so they can join on the fly. But just want to see if there are other methods people use.
In general, you either have to give them characters they can play when they do show up (which doesn't have to always be the same character, or even a PC -- in a recent session where I managed to have my character unable to get there the DM had me control monsters) or work out a way where their character can legitimately appear and disappear (how hard this is depends on the way session breaks work -- if the PCs are at home at the end of a session, it's pretty easy to just say "character X is called away on other business". If the PCs are in the wilds, it's harder. If the PCs were in the middle of combat...).
Thank you for all of the responses! I had a chat with the group about a solution for this and took some of your tips. We boiled down it down into 2 options.
1. They will make a character and we can just have them be a background character when he's not around. The group is cool enough with the narrative that they don't mind bending reality to have a player show up every now and then. We are going off of the XP system for leveling so I will have their character be leveled at the person with the lowest amount of exp/level. That way they are more invested into the story/characters.
2. Another member of the group is going to take a stab at dming and they will do mostly one-offs/flavor of the month systems in which they can join. It would give me a week break from dming/more time to prep the dnd campaign and let me relax a bit and play a character every once in a while.
One of my players just had a baby so needed to step away but wanted a window to drop in time to time. So I had a Djinn turn him into a pseudo dragon that accompanies the party as familiar. But when the moon is bright and then planets align for one night he gets turned back into his character until he can’t play again.
if one of your other players is like a ranger give them a large beast they have a bond with like a wolf, mastiff or a panther and have it be like a reverse Werewolf that when there is a cosmic event is turned into a humanoid. So when they can’t make it the party has an animal helper they can use the creatures stat block for.
Here is what I did for the chaos crew as most can always come but we have a few players who wont be there consistantly. One is able to just tp in and out and we have a recao at the start of each session for everyone to catch up. They sometines are just there following or are left behind somewhere to catch up. I just come up with something appropriate to the specific session and it works well, we havent really had any issues with it as of yet.
I play in a group of eight. Typically one DM and seven players. There were multiple times were someone had work or school or whatever. Our go to method is to just ignore them. Pretend they aren't there and fill them in when they make the next session. Since there are so many of us we don't suffer mechanically but if there were four or five of us it might be more obvious. I would try to communicate with the other players and see if they are willing to play when the other player's schedule opens up. Playing on odd days like that might not be possible but if they are willing to play for a second time that week so the other person gets a chance to play it would be awesome, I would jump at that opportunity.
I think the sidekick options for the often irregulars is your best bet with story mechanisms to convey them to the PCs and away.
Depending on how "developed" your game is, another thing you could do to provoke or inspire out of session engagement is some sort campaign management tool like WorldAnvil or OneNote. Sure there will be some content that is DM only, but there is usually content designed for player consumption and contribution, so while they may not be able to sit at the table, the occasional player may be able to help write up the lore as it grows with the parties adventures. It's an option.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If everyone is on board, I'd try to make sure someone did up a summary of each session so the schedule issue person could keep up. From there, I see a few ideas, and offer another.
A character who is perhaps tied to a Deity somehow, who is occasionally snatched away to carry out tasks for their God. You could use Patron as well, or as advised above, a gang or crew. Anything that would kind of offer an in/out toggle for them. As DM, you simply need to keep a closer eye on combat, mostly, so it's not too deadly when he/she is absent, nor to easy when they are present. A good group of friends can pull this off with next to no issue (see CR Campaign 2 for examples) with the character being gone for extended periods, then present for a stretch. It's not an impossible situation for sure, so I wouldn't fret TOO much about it. Good groups of friends always overcome challenges like that and I'll bet it adds a level of fun and creativity the campaign might otherwise not see.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Other mechanics that would allow for flexile play - Two PC's share one body (magical mishap) - could be fun to switch back and forth randomly when both players are there - PC trapped/tied to an object, driftglobe, sword, inkpen and "randomly" sucked in and out of it - Elemental PC/Djin trapped in a lamp (aka genie) who is temperamental and decides to hide in their lamp periodically and sulk - PC with narcolepsy or amnesia - Wild Magic Sorcerer who gets randomly sent to other planes for unspecified amounts of time.
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Hello! I just recently started DMing Dnd and I have a group of people who are interested in consistently coming to our weekly sessions. However, without our group, I have one player who has a very inconsistent schedule so they told me they aren't sure if they can join them. Not wanting one person to be left out of all our sessions entirely, are there any tips or systems that can accommodate for a player that can pop in when their schedule allows it?
I was thinking of making a sidekick character and giving them that stat block so they can join on the fly. But just want to see if there are other methods people use.
there are plenty of ways to accommodate.
essentially you either:
1. excuse the character with a basic narrative. i.e. if the character were a criminal background then each time the player cannot attend, you simply have his gang show up with a job to pull or the law comes sniffing around and the character has to lay low for a session.
2. you and the player handle the character cooperatively. i.e. the character is perhaps a transmutation wizard that has caused himself to be a dr Jekyll mr hyde persona. mr hyde could be an NPC or even a monster to be overcome.
3. the other players play the character by a sort of committee. This is often referred to as pack mule i.e. the character is there mechanically but not so much as a role playing presence.
I am sure there are countless variations on how any of those choices could be tweaked but... thems the basics, I figure. good luck. and let us know what you decide.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
There are several ways to handle it depending on how the group reacts to the situation.
1) They can just not play. Unfortunate, but if they have no way to show up semi regularly then it might be best since having a player pop in and out who isn't familiar with what is going on, what happened last week, the longer term goals for the characters can be disruptive as you bring them up to speed every week they can make it. Also, if the player doesn't show up regularly then they might tend to take the game less seriously, play things for laughs, take actions that won't have consequences for them since they aren't there every week. This depends a lot on what the player is like and certainly wouldn't be a problem for most occasional players but some do have that issue. In these cases, it would be best if they didn't play at all.
2) If everyone in the group are friends or understand the player's situation and inability to play regularly and are ok with an occasional player then there are several routes you can take.
- have a side kick/party NPC that they can play when they show up. The NPC is otherwise run by the DM or one of the rest of the players depending on what works for the group. The DM makes decisions on the NPC advancement if or when it levels up.
- let the player build a character that will be played as an NPC when the player can't make it. In this case the player is more invested in the character and may have more fun and have more to contribute when they do play but since the character is an NPC then when they aren't there the NPC is subject to the same risks as the rest of the party. The DM or the other players would handle character decisions when the player isn't there. The player makes decisions on the character advancement when it levels up.
- have the player create their own character that only appears when the player can make it. You need a bit of willing suspension of disbelief or some other mechanic to explain how the character manages to join the party wherever they are but this can work ok (I've seen in used in on-going Adventurers League campaigns where a character can't be played as an NPC if the player isn't there). If you are running a home game you can still choose to level up the character at the same rate as the rest of the party (naratively they have been off doing their own thing to level up). Have a chat with the other players to make sure this is ok with them since some may object to a character advancing in the story even if they haven't been played as often (this is easier with milestone leveling than XP leveling).
I've been in this situation before a few times. With one group, the players were very happy to play fast and loose with the narrative and RP in order for players to do what they wanted to do. This helped our inconsistent player feel less guilty when they couldn't show up, as we would literally ignore their character when they were gone and then just assume the character was there the whole time when they can join. Sometimes the players came up with a reason why the character was so quiet, or missing from combat, and sometimes they were happy to just move on and keep playing as if nothing was wrong. This also helped have fun with the player who couldn't stick with a character for more than 5 sessions...everyone put the fun of the players over the consistency of the narrative and handwaved away whatever we needed to keep going.
With another group who wanted more narrative consistency and serious RP, the PC would be "run" by another one of the players or by the DM. They trusted us to be conservative with RP and combat decisions, avoiding any decisions that could be important. Obviously this takes some trust and extra work on everyone's part, but it helps keep storyline consistency. And the busy player helped by making an easy to run character in combat without secrets in their backstory.
Best thing to do is talk several options over with your group....and then after you try one way, check in again and see if it's working for them or if you want to try something else!
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
In general, you either have to give them characters they can play when they do show up (which doesn't have to always be the same character, or even a PC -- in a recent session where I managed to have my character unable to get there the DM had me control monsters) or work out a way where their character can legitimately appear and disappear (how hard this is depends on the way session breaks work -- if the PCs are at home at the end of a session, it's pretty easy to just say "character X is called away on other business". If the PCs are in the wilds, it's harder. If the PCs were in the middle of combat...).
Thank you for all of the responses! I had a chat with the group about a solution for this and took some of your tips. We boiled down it down into 2 options.
1. They will make a character and we can just have them be a background character when he's not around. The group is cool enough with the narrative that they don't mind bending reality to have a player show up every now and then. We are going off of the XP system for leveling so I will have their character be leveled at the person with the lowest amount of exp/level. That way they are more invested into the story/characters.
2. Another member of the group is going to take a stab at dming and they will do mostly one-offs/flavor of the month systems in which they can join. It would give me a week break from dming/more time to prep the dnd campaign and let me relax a bit and play a character every once in a while.
One of my players just had a baby so needed to step away but wanted a window to drop in time to time. So I had a Djinn turn him into a pseudo dragon that accompanies the party as familiar. But when the moon is bright and then planets align for one night he gets turned back into his character until he can’t play again.
if one of your other players is like a ranger give them a large beast they have a bond with like a wolf, mastiff or a panther and have it be like a reverse Werewolf that when there is a cosmic event is turned into a humanoid. So when they can’t make it the party has an animal helper they can use the creatures stat block for.
Here is what I did for the chaos crew as most can always come but we have a few players who wont be there consistantly. One is able to just tp in and out and we have a recao at the start of each session for everyone to catch up. They sometines are just there following or are left behind somewhere to catch up. I just come up with something appropriate to the specific session and it works well, we havent really had any issues with it as of yet.
I play in a group of eight. Typically one DM and seven players. There were multiple times were someone had work or school or whatever. Our go to method is to just ignore them. Pretend they aren't there and fill them in when they make the next session. Since there are so many of us we don't suffer mechanically but if there were four or five of us it might be more obvious. I would try to communicate with the other players and see if they are willing to play when the other player's schedule opens up. Playing on odd days like that might not be possible but if they are willing to play for a second time that week so the other person gets a chance to play it would be awesome, I would jump at that opportunity.
Keep your friends close, and enemies closer.
I think the sidekick options for the often irregulars is your best bet with story mechanisms to convey them to the PCs and away.
Depending on how "developed" your game is, another thing you could do to provoke or inspire out of session engagement is some sort campaign management tool like WorldAnvil or OneNote. Sure there will be some content that is DM only, but there is usually content designed for player consumption and contribution, so while they may not be able to sit at the table, the occasional player may be able to help write up the lore as it grows with the parties adventures. It's an option.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If everyone is on board, I'd try to make sure someone did up a summary of each session so the schedule issue person could keep up. From there, I see a few ideas, and offer another.
A character who is perhaps tied to a Deity somehow, who is occasionally snatched away to carry out tasks for their God. You could use Patron as well, or as advised above, a gang or crew. Anything that would kind of offer an in/out toggle for them. As DM, you simply need to keep a closer eye on combat, mostly, so it's not too deadly when he/she is absent, nor to easy when they are present. A good group of friends can pull this off with next to no issue (see CR Campaign 2 for examples) with the character being gone for extended periods, then present for a stretch. It's not an impossible situation for sure, so I wouldn't fret TOO much about it. Good groups of friends always overcome challenges like that and I'll bet it adds a level of fun and creativity the campaign might otherwise not see.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Where there's a will there's a way!
Other mechanics that would allow for flexile play
- Two PC's share one body (magical mishap) - could be fun to switch back and forth randomly when both players are there
- PC trapped/tied to an object, driftglobe, sword, inkpen and "randomly" sucked in and out of it
- Elemental PC/Djin trapped in a lamp (aka genie) who is temperamental and decides to hide in their lamp periodically and sulk
- PC with narcolepsy or amnesia
- Wild Magic Sorcerer who gets randomly sent to other planes for unspecified amounts of time.