Missing in Action

When I was a teenager, I spake as a teenager, I understood as a teenager, I thought as a teenager, and I played D&D, like, 36 hours a week. But when I became a man, I put away teenagerish things and now have to scramble to consistently book weekly game sessions that all the players can make it to. (With apologies to 1 Corinthians.)

I know that many other adults suffering under all the real-world pressures of adulting feel this same pain, and know the frustration that comes of having to cancel game night because one or two players can’t make it. So rather than cancel, GMs and players should talk about options for keeping the game going when someone is absent.

Whither GM?

Many players might be inclined to automatically assume that for sessions where the GM is unavailable owing to life stuff, there won’t be a session. And if so, it’s worth a reminder that anyone can be a GM. If you’ve been playing long enough, you’ve probably already absorbed everything you need to know about running a game from the GMs who’ve run games for you — so why not give it a shot? A night when the regular GM can’t make it is a great time to run your first game. Just grab a one-shot adventure or a starter set for your game of choice and go. You can even pitch your group about running a starter adventure that one or more of the other players have already played through if you like. With you running your first game for your regular group, people will be less concerned about getting a brand-new story and more focused on having fun.

The GM PC

For a GM who’s up for a challenge, running a character on the side is an obvious solution to the problem of a missing player. The player will need to make sure the GM has a current copy of their character sheet or details, with many GMs who are comfortable running player characters asking players to pass on a copy of their character sheets each time the characters level up. On the plus side, a GM willing to run a character probably has a strong sense that they’re capable of doing the job, and will be faithful to what the player would want the character to do. On the downside, a GM already has way too much to do, and running a player character on the side can make for a tough session.

Side Trek

If it fits the current continuity of the campaign, an effective way to cover for a missing player is to have their character go missing as well. Not in any nefarious way, but by having them step out of the main story for a session. This approach only works if the previous session ended at a natural breakpoint — the characters about to start a journey, undertake downtime, enter a ruin for the first time, and so forth. If it works for the setup, a playerless character might go ahead of the journey to act as a scout. They might slip away from the rest of group to deal with their own downtime stuff. If the area of the ruins is particularly dangerous, they might hang back and make sure no monsters follow the party in, then catch up later — which is to say, in the next session when the player returns.

The Backup Player

Players who are willing can volunteer to run another player’s character for a session. Aside from the other character’s sheet or details — obtained from the player or from a GM who has a backup of everyone’s character sheets — a player taking on someone else’s character needs to understand and respect how the other player typically runs the character, and should do their best to play the character the way the other player would have. This approach works best for a player whose own character is straightforward. Running a warrior whose entire personality is built around smashing things with a maul makes it relatively easy to also focus on running a side character — even a complicated character such as a caster. But the player of a spellcaster already dealing with casting mechanics, resources, and spell lists might have trouble taking on another caster at the same time.

Fade Into the Background

It’s often workable to have a missing player’s character present during an entire session, but just not really there. The character is understood to be with the party and part of the action, but they simply spend their time on the narrative sidelines while the other characters do the narrative heavy lifting. Having a character fade into the background in combat is easily done by splitting off a couple of foes who they can focus on alone while everyone else works together in the main fight.

Character as Mechanical Benefit

Sometimes the best way to deal with a character whose player is absent is to have no one play them, then make up for their absence in other ways. With this extension of the “Fade Into the Background” approach, the GM simply narrates the character’s presence during interaction scenes, exploration, or combat encounters, then gives the other players mechanical benefits from that presence. For example, the character might grant advantage to other characters’ skill checks during social encounters by acting as a support or a foil. They might allow a different character each round to deal double damage in combat in lieu of the playerless character making attacks. A character might also deal a fixed amount of damage each round to one or more enemies, with the GM coming up with a number that feels right rather than rolling attacks and damage.

Mix and Match

No matter which approach your group decides on when a player has to miss out on a session, you’ll find it useful to keep the other approaches in mind as well. Your GM might start out running a player character because the session starts with intrigue or action in which the character needs to play an important part, then have the character fade into the background as the session continues. Or the character might fade into the background at the start of the session, then be picked up and run by another player for a key combat or roleplaying scene. 

With any of these approaches, the most important takeaway is that having a player unable to make a session doesn’t need to mean cancelling that session. Especially for players with limited time, getting together to game is an important real-life social encounter. If a bunch of players all can’t make it, there might be nothing for it but to call for a rain check. But with just one player missing — or even two players in a large enough group — it’s worth the effort to find ways to carry on.