Topic: When players don't show...

I have four players, and we've had a rotation of last minute "not gonna make its."  They're all good friends, and they have good reasons (sick, unexpectedly have to work late, friend in the hospital, etc.)  So this post is not on how to deal with people who are messing the game up, etc. 

What I want to do is figure out an interesting way to deal with the character when a player isn't there to play it.  Historically, we've dealt with it in a few ways:

1) The character just isn't there.  "Whoa - the rogue must be hiding in shadows...you can't find him anywhere!"

2) They are there in a "jackknife" capacity.  Mostly they just follow the party around until needed.  "Can we get the rogue to check for traps and try to pick this lock?"

3) They are "played" by another character.  This often results in minimal playing and ends up looking more like #2.

I feel like LotFP needs a more unusual approach as it's not like many other games.  I was thinking of developing an "AI" for absent players (with input from them).  Here are my initial thoughts.  There's no need for the "jackknife" method as most (any at all?) encounters don't require a particular class.

When the party comes to a decision on something, like, "we will move down the cave carefully, keeping an eye out for traps and listening for noises."  I make a roll for the character (3d6).  Most of the results are skewed toward them following along with the group (8-13).  However, on a 3, they do something really stupid.  Usually the opposite of the what the group intends.  On an 18, they seem to have "inside" information and may alert the group to something dangerous.  On the rolls of 4-7, they may still go along with the group, but have some other negative thing happen.  On rolls of 14-17, they'll go along with the group but have some positive benefits.

The pros to this are some more interesting things happening, and some risk to the character.  (As of now, they'd only die if the entire party dies...)

The cons are, they have a chance of being the only one who dies.

I also don't normally allow players to gain xp when they're absent, but would allow it under this method.  They're getting greater risk, so they should definitely get some reward out of it.

My players were at first skeptical, but then were starting to get into the idea.  Especially when we talked about them having catch phrases they would say when they rolled a certain result.

What do people think of this?  Is it crazy?  Would it work?  Anybody try other methods for making it more interesting when players don't show up to play their characters?

Re: When players don't show...

This is why I always try to end a session in a safe place. If the party is back in town when you break for the night, characters who's players don't show next time will just have something else to do. Usually I let the other players come up with a reason of why Character X can't join them, and it always turn into something embarassing. Explosive Diarrhea being the kindest one they've come up with yet.
If this is not the case then I usually go with option 1. They are simple not there. Using option 2 and 3 have always ended up with players having their characters killed off when they are absent and that just seems unfair. They have plenty of chances to mess up and end up dead later.

Re: When players don't show...

I've been using something like 2/3, but usually finding ways to get the character somewhere out of the way (ie, one session a character stood guard at the cave entrance while the rest of the party explored it, another session a character worked the signalling light while the rest of the party assaulted the smuggler's ship). But if the party is in the middle of something, someone else controls them minimally at necessary junctures (combat or spellcasting mostly).

Re: When players don't show...

I'm with madkinbeard, although I do 1 more than 2 or 3. Looking back on it you can easily "retcon" it that the character was there and they were either oddly ineffective or the ratio of adversarial situations was a little higher and the non-present character took care of them "off-screen"
As to denying experience for not playing, I've never been a fan of it, but then again I do view RPGs as much more purely cooperative than OSR games usually do.
Also I view experience as what encourages you to come back (so you can play your character with the new gains from experience), so it is an enticement, rather than the reward. The reward is actually playing the character.

Re: When players don't show...

One of the more creative solutions I've seen is the Alien Abductee prestige class.  In summary:

  • When the player is absent, the character simply vanishes into thin air.

  • When the player returns, the character returns to a random location (embarrassing circumstances optional), with no memory of what happened.

  • With each subsequent disappearance, the character recovers memories about his abductors.  In time the character gains hypervigilance, extraordinary luck (due to alien protection), knowledge of alien technology, and eventually a bonus to fight aliens.

One can adapt the concept to faerie, eldritch horrors, extra-dimensional entities, or anything else.  Or, heck, stay with Grays.

Frank Mitchell
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." -- Anatole France