Re: [BNW] A Topic to Discuss

[GSZalonef@netscape.net]

bnw@gamerz.net wrote:
>
> Okay how do you guys deal with players dropping out of
> a game in the middle of an adventure? Do you continue
> to run the character as an NPC, dump them, or
> something else.
> 

Since you sent this to MANY lists .. I assume you want a general discussion.  

This is always an awkward situation, and it is made worse by the different ways a player can bail on you.  

If the player is just MIA for one session, I prefer to stick them on the sidelines for some valid reason.  More often than not, I use the character as a sort of Deus ex machina device to steer the other players toward something they missed -- they are away from the team scouting or doing research or surfing the web and they "discover" an important clue that the other players missed.  This should be used sparingly, or the players will start to depend on such GM largess.  This removes the character from game play consiquences when the player is unavailable for whatever reason.

It is more difficult when the player leaves for a prolonged period of time.   This depends on several factors, including where in the campaign the exit occurs.  If the campaign is near the end, I try and figure a reasonable excuse to write the character out.  This works well if you KNOW that the player is leaving.  the GM and player can script a glorious exit for the soon to be MIA player.  If this happens without prior warning, it is a little harder to set up.  The only guideline i can give you here is to try and avoid a situation that affects the character in some permanent manner.

If the player is leaving for good, the above recomendations go out the window.  Use the psuedo-NPC to advance the story.  This does not necessarily mean death or dismemberment -- use the relationship to further the over all plot.  Maybe the character becomes an important contact, maybe he or she show up with information, maybe he or she just vanishes and leads the other players to ANOTHER storyline.

There are no hard and fast rules here.  The worst thing you can do IMO is to simply pretend the character never existed, and an almost equally bad option is to punish the player for being AWOL or MIA.  In one EXTREMELY short lived Call of Cthulhu campaign (it lasted like 6 sessions) I was in, the Keeper used absent characters to show us "how the monster worked" with mind numbing or lethal results.  You see why the campaign didn't last.

Zalonef 
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