What do you do when players don't show?

[Timeboxer]

So last night I met my players fully expecting to run my usual Eberron game, which has been going surprisingly smoothly, before I unexpectedly was told that one of my players was missing the session because she was at work, and the other said she needed to do homework. Which left me with four out of six players.

Now, usually the policy that we use when one person is missing is to Mark¹ them, but the consensus amongst my players is that if two people are missing, they would still like to game, but they'd like to do something else since having everyone present is vital to what's going on. I offered to change things up a bit and run some sort of spontaneous Ninja Burger or BESM game or some other easy one-shot, but apparently Eberron was in demand.

So, they lugged all of the stuff into a room while I rushed back to my apartment and frantically dug through my copies of Dungeon Magazine. Eventually, I ended up printing off the pregenerated PCs from Keith Baker's website, and pulled Dungeon 115 off of my bookshelf so that I could retrofit Raiders of the Black Ice to take place in the Frostfell in Eberron with Tonnsberg as a House Tharashk enclave, and handed each of them the PCs that I felt would be most challenging for them to play, telling them that this was a "roleplaying exercise." Because I knew time was limited, I started them off in medias res fighting a wolf and four snow goblins so that they could at least get some combat in. And much fun was had by all.

So, what's my story. What do you guys do when your players unexpectedly don't show up to your session?

¹ Mark (v. tr.): Roleplaying. To assume that a character is present even though his player is not there.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I never constuct a campaign to rely on any PC or combination thereof. As long as one player shows, he may adventure if he chooses.

 

[Ruined]

My game revolves heavily around the characters at hand, and any loss of character is noticeable. However, we're all adults saddled with large helpings of RL, so we have to miss sessions. The current rule of thumb is that 2/3 of the game is playable, but any less than that results in no game for that week. We've got six players, so if two are absent, we roll on without them. I usually NPC the characters off to the side, occasionally handing out bits of relevant knowledge or useful spells, but they blend well into the background.

It'd be cool to have some sideline game/adventure to play just in case, but usually spouses are happy to have their mates home for a rare Thursday night, or another will be able to use the free time to their advantage.

 

[scourger]

If a player isn't there, then that character isn't there. And, we game on. I find it very challenging to arrange a campaign to allow it, but I've had pretty good luck so far.

 

[Timeboxer]

It'd be cool to have some sideline game/adventure to play just in case

This is actually why I recollected the pregenerated characters -- so that next time I can hand them out again to whoever's there, and those who were there at the last Emergency Playing Session can give them the story so far.

 

[IronWolf]

In our group we have 5 players and a DM. We try to keep close tabs on who can make the session and who cannot well ahead of time. The standing rule is we will run the game if at least three of the players can make it. The missing players' characters get played by players that are able to make the game.

This has worked well for us. Most of us drive a decent distance to get to the game so we all make a concious effort to let people know if they will be able to make it or not.

 

[Crothian]

In one game we have 5 players, as long as 3 show up we game. Everyone knows this and we all know that thinghs come up and sometimes you just can't make it.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Let see five players have have run with 3 - the other characters step out of the advenure if at all possible. When they return there may be a delay while their character rejoins the party. If 3 cant make it the game gets cancelled.

Excuses
One character caught a fever and spent the time in the town hopice. (as pcs could not cast remove disease), seperate missions for organization or family - not done IC.
If caught inside a dungeon choices are much smaller, but returning to base is more frequent since I hate Megadungeons.

 

[tarchon]

I think we always had 3 players as a quorum, but everyone was aware that PCs as NPCs had very high mortality rates, especially after several no-show sessions.

I've got some good news and some bad news - while you were gone, your character got killed. No, wait, wait... there was a wand of reincarnation in the loot... hey, now don't underestimate the Scent feat.

 

[pogre]

I recruited 8 for my current game with expectations that many would miss several sessions. As long as I had 4 I presumed I could run. We almost always have seven - the same seven - and quite often all eight!

If someone misses we just do not include their character in the adventure. A bit of a pain if we are mid-adventure, but we make up an excuse (they got sick) and move on.