At long last, Master of Dungeons, the day of the game is upon thee, and it is time to tear thine players apart with your malice. That's what was supposed to happen, at least, until one of your players had to warn you last minute that something came up, and they won't show up for the game. What now?
Well, now that the ideal scenario — aka all players present — is off the table, it's time to improvise a bit, which is what every 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons Master does well, right? Still, we're here to suggest some options for you, just in case.
8 Have 🐲The Character Sidelined 🐟
A very common solution is to simply continue things and ignore the fact that the character is present. They're with the group, following everybody and stuff, but no one interacts with them or addresses their silence. They've been demoted to extras and will continue that way until the next session.
It's not the most glamorous solution if you take the story part of your campaigns seriously, but this is one of the moments where metagaming is beneficial. The players know someone is missing, so they won't address their character, even in moments where their characters would talk to the absentee's character. We all know what is going on, and we don't need an explanation for their odd behavior.
7 Take Over The Character ไ
To be fair, this is what most DMs are probably trying to avoid, but it is a solution. You can just take the character's sheet and control them for the session, staying in the background, and helping with the occasional fight. As long as the character won't be important during this session story-wise, that's not a big problem.
The biggest issue for the DMs is that now you have one more thing to take care of. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Between maps, plots, and NPCs, the downside of taking over the char𓄧acter is that it can be overwhelming. Thus, there is a similar yet different▨ solution...
6 Lཧet The Group Take Over
In case one of your players is trustworthy to do such a thing, you can let them be responsible for the absent player's character. If your table has a more experienced player, then playing the game with two characters is doable, and quite a fun experience.
Alternatively, you can let the character into the entire group's hands. "So, what is Bart, the Bard going to do on his turn, guys?" And just let them fight over who the bard will heal decide themselves.
5 𝔉 Make Them Leave For A While 🥂
Another common yet successful way to deal with an absent player is to create an excuse to temporarily remove the character from the party. Maybe they need to research something at the library and will stay there for a while. Maybe they're still recovering from the last fight. Maybe they're hungover. Whatever excuse fits the moment.
It's hard to give you a specific excuse as it will depend on what is going on in your campaign, but there's probably something that can excuse their presence at least for a while. And then, they'll be back for the next session. Hopefully.
4 💜 Replace Them With An NPC
If the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:support character can't appear, for example, you can remove them using something similar to the tips above and have an NPC tag along for the ride — hopefully one that is also a support character. Or, just replace the character with whatever NPC is available at the moment for the group.
"But what's the point of replacing them with an NPC instead of just taking the character over myself?" Well, there are two strong reasons for that. First, you can use a simple NPC sheet that is much clearer for you. Second, you're using a character that you're supposed to roleplay, so you don't need to worry about going off-character or having to stay quiet in the background. And, as a bonus third reason, you don't need to worry about wasting your player's resources, like having to use the material components they saved for a resurrection.
3 🍬 H🏅ave An Emergency Plan
In case of absences happening more than you'd like to, it would be nice to have contingency plans for that. In case it's a specific player, have an in-character reason for them to go in and out of the group constantly. If it's in general, then you need to create a reason in your world.
You can have an anthology campaign where its stories aren't connected, so having character swaps, or in this case, character disappearances, isn't a big deal. Having them as guild members is a good excuse, for instance; you don't need to hire the same group of people to deal with every problem.
2 ꦜ Do Side Missions
Granted, the group shouldn't be jeopardized because of one person not showing up. However, in case you have multiple people missing for today, or the person/people missing was necessary for plot reasons, you can do a smaller scale session, where people can still have a good time.
It is fun to have this type of session sporadically, and whoever is missing them won't miss a lot either way. If possible, you can focus on backstories from the people who are present, or do a good old Goblin hunt. Or, if the players are up to it, a one-shot with an entirely different group of characters could be fun, if you can all create characters quickly enough.
1 ✤ Talk To The Absent Player ♈
This won't work if it's a last-minute absence, but in case your player has talked to you beforehand that they won't make it, you can both work on an excuse together. They're the ones in charge of the character, so they're the best person to talk to about why they would temporarily leave the group.
That way you have the player's blessing as well, and though they'll probably be sad for missing the game, they'll be glad that they still had some input on the character besides not being there.
Bonus: Can They Appear Online?
This is far from ideal, but we're already discussing a non-ideal situation. Depending on why the player can't appear, it doesn't mean they're necessarily busy. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Can't they pop up online and play while everyone is gathered?
Sure, they won't be as participative as the rest of the group, but they'll hear what's going on, and they'll be able to do their inputs themselves rather than have someone else controlling the character.