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Handling Missing Players

by Mike on 6 May 2019

Getting a group together to play RPGs regularly remains the hardest part of the hobby. One factor in this topic is how we handle the game when players aren't able to attend. What do we do with their characters? Which options offer us the most flexibilty and ensure the most games? Which techniques most likely keep people at the table and which might push people away?

After discussing the topic with several GMs, I found common trends in how we handle missing players for the games we run. This includes:

Ignore that they're missing and just keep running the game.
In the fiction of the game, send the character off to engage in some other activity.
Let another player run the character.
Let the GM run the character.
Cancel the game until all or all-but-one player can make it.

Back in 2019 I ran a poll on the topic with about 3,100 responses and found that

about half let characters just fade into the background.
about one in four let someone else run the missing character.
about one in ten let the character go on a side quest.
about one in ten cancel the game.

Based on these results and my own thoughts, here are my own recommendations.

Running a Game Comes First

Getting friends together regularly is worth more than the pure cohesion of the story. We love sharing these stories at the table but real life happens. It's hard for many of us to maintain a regular RPG schedule. Many people have other priorities in their lives, like it or not.

Thus, if someone misses a session we should do our best to run a game anyway. This is why having six primary players and two on-call players can work well. If you can manage to run a game with three or four players, it would take five to six people cancelling before you have to cancel a game.

If we can work the absence of a character into the story, that's great. Sometimes the story lines up well to support a character's absence. Maybe they go undercover for a while or conduct some research. Maybe they go on a side quest. Maybe they go hang out at the inn because of a bum knee acting up.

Sometimes there's no good reason for a character's absence, though. In that case, just ignore it and run the game anyway.

Letting It Go

In the case where one or two players can't make it but we still have enough to run a game, run the game even if it doesn't make perfect sense in the story. Let the characters fade back into the scenery like Homer Simpson into the bushes. When they come back, they come back.

Most of us are adults. We have commitments to keep. We recognize that the real world intruded on our fiction. That's ok. We can let the realism of our fantasy world fade a bit for the sake of getting together for a good game.

For GMs who run stories really wired to the characters this can be hard to do. Loosen your grip on the story to help support a more regular gaming schedule. In the end, it's worth it.

Running Characters for Missing Players

Some groups have someone else, either the GM or another player, run the missing players's character. This isn't an unworkable approach but it can cause a few problems. First, what if the player or GM running the character makes choices the main player of that character wouldn't make? What if the character dies? These situations might not be typical but if they come up they can cause problems.

You also have the problem of too many characters on the table compared to the players. Running characters as NPCs or having players running multiple characters can complicate the game and put too much spotlight time on the player running additional characters. A GM's life is usually hard enough that running an additional character adds an extra burden.

Instead, let the character fade into the background and focus on the characters whose players are in attendance.

Making it Easy to Return

When handling missing players make it easy for them to come back to the table. Over the years I've seen people suggest that missing players need to be somehow punished for not showing up. I'd recommend "less stick" and "more carrot". If you make it hard for players to come back to the table, you're increasing the chance they won't come back at all.

Consider experience and leveling. One of the many advantages of using milestone experience instead of calculating experience points is that players who miss a game won't also miss out on character progression. They'll know that even though they missed a game, their character will still keep up.

Granting levels to absent characters might not seem fair, but experience points and levels are arbitrary rewards anyway. If players miss out on a game and their character falls behind, it's less inviting to come back to the table.

Missing out on a game is punishment enough, we don't have to compound it.

Keep the Game Running

Whatever rules you put in place for a player absence, ask yourself if it best serves the game. The most tight and cohesive story is no story at all if no one makes it to the table. Choose an approach for missing players to keep the game going and make it as easy and inviting as possible for players to keep coming to the table.

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