NPCing at Player's Character

[RealMarkP]

I dislike NPCing other people's characters. But it's a necessary evil when the player cannot make it to the session. I would like to get some feedback from the community on the various ways you deal with this absentees.

Example:
One of my players plays a Chaotic barbarian. When is he is absent, I have the other players take turn playing him. I created a list of actions that this barbarian can do and assigned a percentage range to it. Some of the actions are "release control of <Character Name> to the player to the left of you" and "The DM shall dictate his next action". This creates a round-robin approach of playing this character and gives me (the DM) the ability to override the character's actions. In essence, chaos.

This only works for a chaotic character and does not work well for a Lawful character.

[archangel.arcanis]

That doesn't really work for a chaotic character either. It really only works for someone under the insanity spell.

What we have always done is put them in the background. They are still there with the party and fighting another monster during a battle, got food poisoning (doesn't always work but can be entertaining), lost their voice, etc... Give reasons why they aren't behaving normally and just put them off to the side. If they can do something to help the party that doesn't use a non-renewable resource then let them, ie the barbarian rages to lift the portcullis but won't use his 1 time use magic item.

[veekie]

I generally work out some excuse/sidequest for them to be ostensibly at, though if it's a cliffhanger, then the player most familiar with them gets to pilot them in combat, after which they get removed one way or another.

[RealMarkP]

That doesn't really work for a chaotic character either. It really only works for someone under the insanity spell.

Well, the players try to simulate the other player as best as possible. It's not like the barbarian just becomes insane. Player X will play the barbarian until he rolls under 10%, so there is a good chance that player X will play the barbarian for quite some time.

What we have always done is put them in the background. They are still there with the party and fighting another monster during a battle, got food poisoning (doesn't always work but can be entertaining), lost their voice, etc... Give reasons why they aren't behaving normally and just put them off to the side. If they can do something to help the party that doesn't use a non-renewable resource then let them, ie the barbarian rages to lift the portcullis but won't use his 1 time use magic item.

Having a healbot cleric in the group takes the fun away of all those situations. Food poisoning? Neutralize it. Lost their voice? Restoration or something. But I see what you're saying. Perhaps as part of an atonement quest the barbarian needs to find his inner self by obstaining form combat all together? Or due to a ritualistic event, he takes part in a scarification/bleeding ritual where hes inches from death and constantly fatigued and therefore cannot take part in the quest? This got me thinking.

I generally work out some excuse/sidequest for them to be ostensibly at, though if it's a cliffhanger, then the player most familiar with them gets to pilot them in combat, after which they get removed one way or another.

I've done this for long absences. But for missing one session, it's a bit much. "Hey guys, I'll chill here for a day and will catch up with you later" doesn't work so well when you're going deeper and deeper into a dungeon/underdark/plane

[ShadowViper]

Why not do another activity if someone can't make it for one session? Especially true if you have a smaller group(like 4 people or less including the DM). Play Magic the Gathering, have a Gaming Console or PC LAN party, etc.

And if it's the same player that occasionally misses a seesion or two while all the others are always there, then start another campaign including only those people. That way when the one player can't make it for a session, simply pause the "everyone" campaign and progress the secondary. That way the missing player doesn't miss out on anything and you won't have this problem. But at the same time, it only works if it's just one player who misses a session occasionally, if others are off and on as well, it will not work so well.

[veekie]

Versions I've done includes:
- Auto-Failed a save against hallucinogens, spent the session thinking he was a fish.
- On a detour to investigate a character specific sidequest clue. This one is infinitely reusable and you can do a short one on one for that character if they're interested.

Versions I've considered:
- Being kidnapped by a monster(Phase Spiders for example)

[RealMarkP]

... then start another campaign including only those people.

I'm way ahead of you. I've been doing this with two out of the four players. I told them to create a new character, level 10, of any class (preferably one they have not played before). Worked out very well so far.

Being kidnapped by a monster(Phase Spiders for example)

I was thinking of combining your hallucinogenic idea with this one. I could have the party eventually find the missing player, face down in dirt, with all of his stuff missing. Would that be too evil?

[veekie]

All his stuff missing? Never.


I prefer to put out hints that he's been Dominated in the meantime, whether or not its true.

[b100d_arrowz]

My players and I try to end our sessions in a semi-populated area, or be with an importantish (at least in the party's mind  ) NPC so that if one of their characters has to miss a session we can say he went out out on the town doing whatever it is he does, or stayed with the NPC to "protect" it.

[Necrosnoop110]

Breaks the verisimilitude but at my table you either take another path if one is available "in game" or just vanish into L-space if an alternate path is not forthcoming.

[RobbyPants]

If I can get away with it, I have the PC in question be absent, and try to work out something one-on-one with them during the week.

If not, I run the PC as an NPC (or have the players do this).  Although, the only time I can remember doing that, it was on a session that was going to begin with the BBEG fight (there wasn't quite enough time at the end of the previous session) and several players didn't show up.  So I had the two remaining players run their PCs.  Sadly, it was a bit too tough of a fight, and two PCs died, one belonging to an absent player.  That was a fun phone call:

"Oh, BTW, you need to roll up a new PC.  Your druid died last session."

"Why were you playing my character?"

"Because we sort of left off at a cliffhanger and I couldn't just poof you out or have the other two guys just 'do something else'."

[RealMarkP]

Because we sort of left off at a cliffhanger and I couldn't just poof you out or have the other two guys just 'do something else'.

Exactly my predicament. Not only that, the fights are much harder to manage when you control 3-10 enemies, plus two complex NPC'd characters.

[veekie]

Oh, for absent players without an assigned alternate player, they will perform their usual actions, if they can't be removed properly, but they also gain Perfect Plot Armor, short of a TPK nothing permanent happens to a character who isn't there.

[RobbyPants]

Oh, for absent players without an assigned alternate player, they will perform their usual actions, if they can't be removed properly, but they also gain Perfect Plot Armor, short of a TPK nothing permanent happens to a character who isn't there.

I suppose that's not a bad idea.  The phone call would have gone a little better with her PC being KOed instead of killed.

[Novea]

I've seen various DMs do several different things, but the following have worked out the best.

1)  DM always tried to get us to end up in a city (like previously stated) so the character ran of with SOMEONE to have a little fun.  Next session, the character came back with information for the next plot hook.

2)  When stuck in a dungeon, (we are in the Underdark right now) the PC vanishes from site.. no tracks... s/he's just not there.  Maybe add some of the things from Hero's of Horror to get us scared that we may be next.  But it so happens that either s/he took a wrong turn when trying to find a restroom or they were captured.

3)  The DM would play the character a little.  The PC wouldn't have any rolls in combat unless something rather bad was going to happen to another PC... then they would step in with a perfectly timed spell, but the main rule was:  the PC would live no matter what happened b/c the player wasn't there to 'supervise" his PC. 

We also have a custom built character class: Drunken Monk (our DM didn't like hte one wizard came up with) that has a feat of "Where did he go now?"  If no one is watching the monk, he disappears to only be found randomly later.  Our monk has ended up in a locked / warded room... in the middle of the Tomb of Horrors passed out.  It's quite funny.  Those are just a few ideas.  Enjoy!

[RealMarkP]

I tried to put some of the ideas here into action. Since the game left off in a populated area and the absent player's character has a personal quest, I had him go off and do something related to the quest. The character, a barbarian, to fulfill one of his test of fortitude took an absurd amount of portions, alcohol and various 'drugs'. In a drug induced haze, he trashed a potion shop and tried to take on the town's guards. I didn't expect it, but the players took the entire session to find him before continuing on the quest.

[psyx]

I've given in trying to make it particularly believable. All I know is that putting a player character in another player's hands is something that should never be done, and that -as GM- it's not really my job either.

If the session can't be run without the character then it shouldn't be run without the player, so we play a one-off or card game. I have at least 5 players, so that I can generally run a man down if needs be.

The PC just fades into the background, elects to stand guard duty or other 'stay-behind' tasks, and generally does little. If there's a fight, she'll be 'hero fighting' in the background with something - trading blows to no actual effect.

Next session... they're back, and right there.

It's not realistic perhaps, but this is a game, and games are meant to be fun. Coming back to find your character screwed over or dead because someone else was playing him just sucks.

On the other hand, absent players don't get XP. No risk = no reward.