Okay so my group and i (me being the gm) are fairly new to pen and paper rpg’s and our biggest flaw is that we keep missing eachother, always someone cant make it.
My solution is that everyone has thier own pocket dimension and if thier not here they are in thier pocket dimension.
Im not sure about it though any other ideas? I’d like to have it seem natural
The character is just not there. Explanations are the opposite of natural usually.
It’s a fact of gaming life that not everyone will make every session. In my experience, you’re doing the right thing by trying to keep playing even if people can’t show… postponing sessions until everyone can make it can kill a game. Playing regularly (perhaps with some minimum quorum) keeps the flame alive.
(There are a number of pick-up games which explicitly embrace the drop-in style of play to handle this.)
As for strategies to accommodate missing players:
You can have the absent player’s character absent as well. Continuity-wise, this works better if you can arrange to finish each session in a settlement or somewhere else safe – the character is just off doing their own thing. This works particularly well in an urban game, where most of the action takes place in a settlement (such as the RPG Blade in the Dark).
You can have the absent player’s character become a not-proactive NPC (with a variable degree of plot immunity, depending on the play culture of the group). This does have the downside that the character will often get forgotten (see Mark the Red in the movie “The Gamers”).
You can allow one of the other players to run the absent player’s character. This requires a high degree of trust amongst your group, and/or that the absent player isn’t too protective of their character.
Boom.
d20pfsrd.com – Scar of Destiny – d20PFSRD
In the past I ran a very episodic campaign of Dungeon World, the PCs were a “special forces” unit for the empire’s army on the borderlands. Each session was a mission, and normally a self-contained session / one-shot. This was all because I knew I had players that were very inconsistent with showing up. Over time I had some more consistency of some players, and so ended up doing a bit of a story arc, eventually.
James E not sure how useful but my core RP group is mostly 3 people – 2 players and a GM.
Most systems/modules aren’t really designed for 2, so we often have the GM create a player too, as a mostly-silent PC, and rounding out the party.
The added advantage here is that we often rotate the GM chair around our group, so that works out well.
I ask the players that are on the game on this session, that each one says a probable situation of why the character in question is not with them.
In the next session, I give a “letter” to the player , to try to get answers …
Please view this post where i explain and have a PDF with the letter ( in spanish, sorry)
the letter says somethig like this:
LETTER TO THE PLAYER – REMINDINGS OF A LOST SESSION
Dear Player,
Heads rolled, enemies spat blood, their companions were scars and torches were lit in the dark corridors of the dangerous dungeon. But you were not here.
His lack, however, was noted. Each member of the group highlighted the following events that could explain their disappearance, described at the end of the session or at the time of absence:
____________
____________
____________
When you return from your personal adventure (or misadventure) and meet with the rest of the group, roll 2d6. With 10+, you have the own version about your disappearance. With 7-9, choose a truth from the list of options above. With 6-, choose 2 options from the list.
At the beginning of this session, tick 1 XP for each question that is answered below:
➲ What has been discovered that can be of great value?
➲ What new interesting place did you discover, what is it like?
➲ What new threat or danger did you encounter? What was?
Regards,
Your favorite GM.
nunoventura.wordpress.com – El Jugador falto!, y ahora?
Nuno Ventura that is great! Justin Gordon this might be useful in some of our groups games!
James E That is exactly what I do as well, but I call it a plot hole. I dig one and push the PC who’s player isn’t there in. I am not fond of GM controlled PCs and I do not believe in punishing players for having a life. This method has worked great for me for years.
At the moment, I generally just hand wave/plot hole the missing PC. After the fact, if I have time, I’ll try to come up with a love letter, similar to Nuno Ventura’s example, but usually more tailored to what I think they might have been up to and what they might have learned/encountered.