What happens to pcs when the player can't make it to the session in your table?

What happens to pcs when the player can't make it to the session in your table?

In our table the pcs started by falling unconscious and with our goliath carrying them around. Eventually we started stuffing unconscious pcs in barrels for easier storage and transportation. At some point returning players started popping up from any available barrel, and now all barrels in the setting are considered quantum barrels that might or might not contain adventurers. The gm now has returning players roll for whether or not their pc is in any barrel the group might come across.

They get turned into Chibis

I've seen some GMs come up with a reasonable reason why the PC isn't present. For example, one session when several players couldn't make it, those of us who did make the session spent it trying to find out what had happened to them. They had been kidnapped.

I've seen GMs who just don't talk about the missing PC. Basically, the PC is there and doing things from an in-character perspective, but from an OOC one they aren't doing anything.

In both cases, the player who didn't turn up doesn't get any XP from the session. Loot can go either way. If the loot is just from things that happened that session the missing player usually doesn't get any. If the loot is from what the party has been doing from a while, they usually get a share.

Sometimes the PC gets NPC'd for the session.

A few times I've had the GM give me control of another players character because the PC was that important to the sessions plot. I never liked doing that.

Our PC's gang rape their PC.

Then the next time we see the player in person... We gang rape them.

usually my GM says that the group splits up and whoever cant make it to an session just gets lost while the other ones have an adventure.

Fatal ?

In my group, people will sometime contract the disease Jungle-Fungulitus, which turns the infected person into a mass of organic stone and moss. This makes the victim invulnerable, but leaves them paralyzed until their body fights off the disease. The victim will appear to follow other people as the moss-like outer layer slides the body towards nearby people in an attempt to spread the disease. However the DC of the fortitude save to resist the disease is 1, so a person will always pass, as long as they're around to roll it.

In the current Cyberpunk game I'm in we're police officers so no shows are stuck in the office doing paperwork and handling our information support.

In the previous Pathfinder game it never actually arose but our DM asked us if it would be ok to run missing players as NPCs.

They're present, but useless except occasionally as skill/lore wikis or medics. Implicitly, this means they're also immune to injuries. They do get session rewards, though, to keep everyone at approximately the same level.

Only exception was when the guy playing our tech-priest was absent and the Inquisitor who lives in his head had to make statements. Typically, he's a filter but the GM took control of his "mouth".

On that note, we're gonna need to give her a vox channel.

if i can i just find a way to write them out of the adventure but if the last session ended in the middle of a dungeon or something or i expect the current session to do so i will bring them along and have them fight in a very timid manner and retreat at the first sign of danger.

its a tough balancing act but i have gotten the hang of making sure they dont die outside of tpks

so basically a little extra dps mostly.

if its a small cave or something the missing player waits outside.

i have just had them get stuck in a trap for a session a few times

although thinking about it it occurs to me with a lot of characters i can just come up with an excuse for them having to leave suddenly i will try doing that in future

In my d&d campaign I usually send the missing character to a tavern, that's because my only pc that can't make it sometimes is a drunk dwarf pirate so makes sense he would just go get wasted sometimes

If I can find a good story reason for them not being present I do so. For example guarding the party's car or catering their wounds back at the safehouse. If I can't I usually just forget about their existence for duration of this session. Of course they don't get any exp or loot for it.

We are working for an impatient Queen who expects results in less then the time it takes for her to issue orders and she expects constant updates of our progress.
First time a player missed a session the DM jokingly said she was had a 'Royal Summons'.
As in the Queen literally had her summoned magically to present a report.
Since then it's been what happens when we miss a session, their PC is literally summoned before the Queen's court.

Having a game about japanese delinquents, so someone skipping school or calling in sick are pretty easy ways to explain it.

In the most recent campaign I've joined, the PCs go off doing their own thing if they have to miss a session and the session after that, they can spend a fate point to teleport immediately to one of the group's characters, wherever they may be. It only works once per session though.

I'm already thinking how we could be able to exploit this.

They do something else that gives them the same level of XP as everyone else. Really now, why would you guys not keep others on the same page just because they couldn't make it for a session?

If it's at the start of a new adventure, then the character is simply doing something personal or otherwise busy somewhere else. This works well because we have the assumption that everyone has their own home in the main city somewhere, and they all have a "lifestyle cost" that they must pay every in-game year.

If it's in the middle of an adventure, in comedy-filled games we joke that the character got diarrhea and is pooping out of sight (because we're all mentally 5) but in more serious situations I have them be knocked out or some other more appropriate excuse.

Some of the players skip sessions because they couldn't be arsed to come. They can catch up with the others once they do come and put some effort into rping so they get some bonus exp.

Because I'm playing a system where mission a session or ten worth of XP over a real-time year of play isn't going to make a PC drastically underpowered.

>Some of the players skip sessions because they couldn't be arsed to come.

So why are they still in the group at all?

bag of holding specifically for companions.

Because they are part of our larger gaming group.

No, I mean, why is the group tolerating someone who will just not show up because "eh, just because."?

It's a lot simpler to just remove players like that than to construct some convoluted houserule scheme to deal with their attendance issues.

Because telling someone to fuck off doesn't work if you sre going to play csgo with them the next evening.

They become NPCs with the agreement they won't die by my actions. They may be horribly injured or anything else, but not killed.

What if you just don't invite them anymore?

They don't want to be there, so you just stop telling them where you meet and when you meet and voilĂ ! You don't have the issue anymore.

Because real human relationships are more complicated than simple on/off deals.

The more I read about these games the less I consider them geek activities. It sounds like a lot of fun if you have the right friends and don't let it consume your life.

I just run them as an NPC.
In combat they hang back using basic ranged attacks or basic melee attacks if they need to, unless a party member gives them a reasonable instruction.
If they can do something that others can't, like use healing magic or identifying items, they'll do it when another party member prompts them to.

No need to get cranky now, senpai

Besides,
> Because real human relationships are more complicated than simple on/off deals.
is not a good counterargument. Are you saying that you think they might find out and be offended or something?
What exactly is the issue?

If they don't show up because they can't be arsed to come for a couple of hours of relaxation and human interaction, then you're well in your right to ask them something like
>Hey man, I heard that you didn't feel like coming last time, what's the matter?
Maybe something is up in their life and, as a buddy, it might help if they have someone to talk to

But if it's seriously just them not giving a fuck about the game, plain lazyness on their part and they tell you something like
>Yeah man, I just didn't feel like coming
or
>Yeah, I bought this cool new vidya that I really wanted to play
Then you are well in your right to re-schedule and exclude them from your games. That doesn't mean that you can't be friends anymore, it just means that you aren't doing something in particular together.

When my friends play something that I am not interested in, as a reasonable human being I will tell them
>Thank you for the offer but I'm not feeling up for that right now. Maybe another time

And because they aren't spergs, they understand. But communication is needed, to ascertain what the fuck is going on and the reasons for said fuckery going on.

So long as we are not resuming in the middle of something I make-up an explanation that fits with how the character normally acts; e.g. the greedy cleric couldn't be bothered because he is grifting the faithful for personal spending money.

If we were in the middle of something and resume I take control of the character and try my best to do what they normally would till I can excuse them going of to do something else.

As long as the group isn't in the middle of something together, I'll usually have the PC wind up sick or busy with something else. Worst case scenario I'll play them as a background character. Only really putting any thought into their actions if it's combat, otherwise they're following everyone else's lead.

Had one GM that's play them no matter what, make decisions for them, and actually get a few killed in the process. Don't do that guys, nobody likes that.

My group is really bad for this since nearly everyone has families. We just have their character taking care of other commitments since we really got wrapped up into this bullshit by forces out of our control and we still have lives that need dealing with.

Missing a session means missing out on XP and loot.

You don't get rewarded for doing nothing in my campaigns.

Yep. They fatally gang rape them...

They had a sudden attack of conscience and decided to sit out on our inevitably collateral-damage heavy run. Which is the only reason that the team were able to keep from our troll heavy that we'd "accepted" a mission to blow the orc underground to hell.