So we are four in my current group and have two games running, one is a campaign, and the other is a string of semi-related one shots where we do whatever our hearts desire.
We play the one shots when we’re missing a player, because it’s easier to catch up on the action, when said action was ‘I wanna try and roll animal handling for the bartender’. But even there, the game becomes unbalanced and weird, we tried giving a player control of two characters but that idea was quickly scrapped.
what do you guys do when you are missing a player? Do you just lower the stats of the enemies?
It varies: we've got one RP-heavy campaign and so we switch focus of RP/mini-goals to have focus off that character, so another player or the DM can take over if combat comes up. Here we only skip or reschedule sessions if we're in the middle of something focused on a specific player and they can't make a session. I'm in another campaign that if someone has to be out, detailed instructions are left for any combat/spell usage, and we just go straight into it regardless. This has worked better for immersion than the first campaign I was in, which had a brand-new DM, and people would just magically pop in and out of existence. Yes, we've probably been lucky that no one has gotten someone else's character killed, but the DMs are conscious of that too, I think. And if it was a concern and they wanted to make sure people were actually here for a big combat, they'd reserve the right to nix someone piloting a second character and move the schedule or do a oneshot.
Usually we just play as normal unless we’re at some BIG point in the game like a boss fight or similar, I don’t think it really makes a difference for random encounters and small fights, they might turn out harder than with a full party but the party can still beat them, sometimes I will reduce the number of monsters, e.g. if the encounter is something like 3d6 orcs and I happen to roll an 18 when a player is missing, I will reduce that by a third or so. The campaign I DM is an official module though. I really dislike having a player control another player’s character and would not want my character controlled by another player either but I’ve seen that work in other campaigns.
I have done things like start a session with the comment, "So, Ragnor decided to go visit his mentor's grave while the rest of you head north to investigate the ruins.." If there is a way to explain an absence in story terms, I do that.
If such an disappearance doesn't make sense of would hinder the party, like when I ended the last session with them coming face to face with a major foe they had previously defeated and whose home base they have now infiltrated in attempt to rescue a prisoner, I will either run that character for the combat portion of the session, or will have another player do so. I am fortunate in that my core group is people who have played together for years, so we can all trust each other not to abuse a character if the player is not present. There have even been situations, like when one member was dealing with an unpredictable work schedule, that we arranged ahead of time for exactly this contingency. For one campaign, my best friend and I created identical twins for our PCs, so that if one of us had to miss a session, the other player could run both characters.
The best thing I can suggest, is that if this is an ongoing concern, you talk to your group about it.
One of my DM's turn them into a cationic lump of flesh that the group has to take care of, only happened once so far but when it did happen, we had a three-hour session on how to open a magic barrel as we couldn't do much else.
I have done things like start a session with the comment, "So, Ragnor decided to go visit his mentor's grave while the rest of you head north to investigate the ruins.." If there is a way to explain an absence in story terms, I do that.
If such an disappearance doesn't make sense of would hinder the party, like when I ended the last session with them coming face to face with a major foe they had previously defeated and whose home base they have now infiltrated in attempt to rescue a prisoner, I will either run that character for the combat portion of the session, or will have another player do so. I am fortunate in that my core group is people who have played together for years, so we can all trust each other not to abuse a character if the player is not present. There have even been situations, like when one member was dealing with an unpredictable work schedule, that we arranged ahead of time for exactly this contingency. For one campaign, my best friend and I created identical twins for our PCs, so that if one of us had to miss a session, the other player could run both characters.
The best thing I can suggest, is that if this is an ongoing concern, you talk to your group about it.
Pretty much this. Most of the time, it's easy enough as the DM to kind of keep them at the back of the group, and using them as a vehicle for discovery. If we're at a big boss fight? Well, maybe its time for a week off so we can all be there for the big fight next time.
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So we are four in my current group and have two games running, one is a campaign, and the other is a string of semi-related one shots where we do whatever our hearts desire.
We play the one shots when we’re missing a player, because it’s easier to catch up on the action, when said action was ‘I wanna try and roll animal handling for the bartender’. But even there, the game becomes unbalanced and weird, we tried giving a player control of two characters but that idea was quickly scrapped.
what do you guys do when you are missing a player? Do you just lower the stats of the enemies?
If go with lowering the number of enemies rather than stats. Action economy is often the bigger factor.
It varies: we've got one RP-heavy campaign and so we switch focus of RP/mini-goals to have focus off that character, so another player or the DM can take over if combat comes up. Here we only skip or reschedule sessions if we're in the middle of something focused on a specific player and they can't make a session. I'm in another campaign that if someone has to be out, detailed instructions are left for any combat/spell usage, and we just go straight into it regardless. This has worked better for immersion than the first campaign I was in, which had a brand-new DM, and people would just magically pop in and out of existence. Yes, we've probably been lucky that no one has gotten someone else's character killed, but the DMs are conscious of that too, I think. And if it was a concern and they wanted to make sure people were actually here for a big combat, they'd reserve the right to nix someone piloting a second character and move the schedule or do a oneshot.
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Usually we just play as normal unless we’re at some BIG point in the game like a boss fight or similar, I don’t think it really makes a difference for random encounters and small fights, they might turn out harder than with a full party but the party can still beat them, sometimes I will reduce the number of monsters, e.g. if the encounter is something like 3d6 orcs and I happen to roll an 18 when a player is missing, I will reduce that by a third or so. The campaign I DM is an official module though. I really dislike having a player control another player’s character and would not want my character controlled by another player either but I’ve seen that work in other campaigns.
For me this depends entirely on the situation.
I have done things like start a session with the comment, "So, Ragnor decided to go visit his mentor's grave while the rest of you head north to investigate the ruins.."
If there is a way to explain an absence in story terms, I do that.
If such an disappearance doesn't make sense of would hinder the party, like when I ended the last session with them coming face to face with a major foe they had previously defeated and whose home base they have now infiltrated in attempt to rescue a prisoner, I will either run that character for the combat portion of the session, or will have another player do so.
I am fortunate in that my core group is people who have played together for years, so we can all trust each other not to abuse a character if the player is not present.
There have even been situations, like when one member was dealing with an unpredictable work schedule, that we arranged ahead of time for exactly this contingency. For one campaign, my best friend and I created identical twins for our PCs, so that if one of us had to miss a session, the other player could run both characters.
The best thing I can suggest, is that if this is an ongoing concern, you talk to your group about it.
One of my DM's turn them into a cationic lump of flesh that the group has to take care of, only happened once so far but when it did happen, we had a three-hour session on how to open a magic barrel as we couldn't do much else.
PyscoSonic#4554
Pretty much this. Most of the time, it's easy enough as the DM to kind of keep them at the back of the group, and using them as a vehicle for discovery. If we're at a big boss fight? Well, maybe its time for a week off so we can all be there for the big fight next time.