Variable Attendance: What To Do When Players are Absent

Jul 11 2008, 11:57 am

EXCUSES, EXCUSES
And you thought cancer spoiled all the fun. Wait until someone becomes cancer-free, yet another reason for visitors to come out of the wood work. The good thing is that one of the players in my group has, after her second go-around of treatment, been officially swept clean by the glory of radiation. No longer will the chemo schedule interrupt our game agenda. She found out the good news on Monday.

While she and her husband had then intended to join in the game Thursday night, they had some unexpected company in the form of her sister on Wednesday night. Coupled with pending visitors this weekend while still regrouping from the final doctor's visit revelation, they felt it prudent to bow out. Another player was compelled by her sense of decency and goodwill (such intrusive vices) to fill in for a coworker who had a "family thing," no doubt in the form of a "Happy Fun Ball" night (http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=229058).

So, we were down to three players. Having had my own reasons for taking a couple weeks off (nasty bicycle spill), I held no ill will against the absentees. However, the game could not continue as planned. I simply did not want half the group to miss out on the next turn of events.

FIGHT SCENE
You can trudge forward with the missing players' characters running on automatic, but that is only reasonable out if you intended scenarios without any major decision-making on their parts. A fair alternative was to inject some inconsequential combat into the plot. You can make any reason to stage combat. Skirmishes can be entirely related to the storyline or unexpected random encounters. They can manifest by way of literary devices like the flashback or dream sequence (or wait, maybe those are sitcom devices). The point is, it's fantasy and anything can happen.

The downside here is the extra work involved, particularly if you feel the need to involve all present characters in the battle. This is achieved by the DM and/or players running multiple character sheets. If players are unfamiliar with different classes and abilities, or still new to the game in general, as one of my players is, this extra duty may slow the game play appreciably.

SIDESHOW ATTRACTIONS
We decided instead to put the campaign on hold in favor of a side quest. I had some pre-constructed characters in stat block form for the players to choose from. That data we migrated to full character sheets. I had them roll a dozen or so percentile numbers to generate some guidance from a random adventure chart and plugged it into an old adventure starter I culled from online years ago. Within a half hour's time, we had a new game on our hands.

With a few adjustments here and there, the new party of three 6th level elven adventurers were ready to investigate the mystery of sea vessels gone missing, disrupting vital trade with a coastal city. Expressing little interest in inviting outside forces to join their investigations, the local navy and militia representatives left our group including a monk, ranger, and fighter to follow its own leads. Over the course the evening they met with a pirate hide-out, an invisible sea hag, an underwater scuffle, and a very sleepy fighter.

Discovering new places and people is such an enjoyable part of role playing, I really didn't mind going a little off track this time. I also can't wait to get back to the feature presentation.