Absent Players

[Andrew]

I'm a few weeks into running a new TOR campaign for my local group - I'm running them through Tales from Wilderland, on its own - but something's come up that I was wondering how everyone else deals with. One of my players has missed a couple of sessions, and another missed one - now I've no problems with catching them up on the story or running the game with less players, but I'm considering what to do about XP.

Do I give them normal XP to keep them on par with the rest of the group; hand them a couple of points to keep their hand in the game, but a little behind; or tell them "tough, turn up next time" and give them nothing? I'm currently leaning towards the middle option, where they get a couple of XP for the company completing adventures and goals, but none for turning up to sessions.

How does everyone else handle this?

[bluejay]

Never really happened much with my group but perhaps give them some options like an extra Fellowship Phase along the lines of Guard The Old Ford or Hunt With The Woodmen where they can earn some APs and XPs or other advantage.

[Deadmanwalking]

In our group, they just haven't gotten the XP. Given that the game is designed with the assumption of characters retiring at different times and new characters replacing them at only slightly above default starting character level no matter how experienced their predecessor, that makes sense.

Indeed, given that things like Hope losses and Shadow gains are an intentional balancing measure with the rising XP, giving people XP for sessions they don't risk those things seems a bit inappropriate, IMO.

Speaking of which, you should probably count the Fellowship Pool as lower while the player is gone as well, and not give out Hope to whoever has them as a Fellowship Focus, since the character effectively didn't exist for that session.

All this assumes their character is absent, either literally or in spirit (we often leave absent people's characters 'minding the ponies' while we do stuff). If the character is still actively participating, risks shadow, and spends Hope, they should get XP...but most people don't want someone borrowing their character like that in my experience.

[Falenthal]

I think all options can be equally satisfying. As Deadmanwalking said, the game is designed so that new and old players can work together. On the other hand, I don't want to be a judge that "punishes" the players for not showing up: we meet to have fun, and are not in school anymore. If having unleveled characters works against the fun, then given them their XPs and go on with the adventure.

That said, my usual solution is to give the absent player as many XPs as the rest, minus one.
Just symbolic, but noone gets angry with this.

[poosticks7]

I agree with deadmanwalking, one of the attractive strengths of The One Ring is that a new character can fit into the campaign easily beside more experienced characters.

[Earendil]

I think any solution the LM and players can agree on is fine. If the game could be rescheduled to a time when everyone can be present, that would probably be best, but of course that depends on the group.

If you have to go ahead with a player missing, my own inclination would be to keep the character present, as it's difficult to explain them suddenly appearing/disappearing in the middle of an adventure.

Have someone else play the character, with the absent player's permission, and either protect them somewhat (no randomly choosing them to be the one attacked by the hill-troll) at the cost of one less experience point, or let them share all the danger and receive the same experience as the others.

[zedturtle]

I usually have temporarily absent players fade into the background... note being focused on, nor interacting with the NPCs. Occasionally I've narrated that the hero was engaged by a foe but prevented from contributing to the larger fight by that for.

I won't worry too much about the XP. Nominally you're supposed to award an XP for attendance, but I think that's an individual decision based on your player dynamics.

[Majestic]

I've found this to be an issue for some games, but less so for TOR. For instance, I run a weekly 5E D&D game with my kids, and my youngest daughter keeps having to work, so she's missed a number of sessions. In a bi-weekly 5E game I'm in, the GM gives out half XP to those who can't make it, and that seems very fair (so nobody ends up vastly outpacing anyone else), but so far I haven't done any XP for those who miss a session.

Generally speaking, fantasy games can end up being tough to reconcile where the PC has gone. Often, the group is out "on a mission", be it in the wilderness or something similar, where it's tougher to explain where the character might otherwise be preoccupied.

One thing I've liked about TOR, OTOH, is that we can often accomplish an entire year's adventure in a single session (4-5 hours). So I usually have it that "so and so's Elf decided to head back to the Woodland Realm", and they're just gone that year. My game has a number of people (like one out of town friend) who just join us when they can, sporadically.

But I think PCs are competent enough with this game that they don't fall that far behind if they miss a session or two. It's not like there's different Levels for the PCs or monsters.

[Rich H]

Absent players is about the only real bugbear I have RPing. I can't stand running games with missing players as there are always ciritical parts of a scenario where at least one of the players will drive the plot so not having them around really impacts that. I simply don't run the game if a player can't make it and I'm pretty sure their input is needed to shape the direction of the story.

That being said, I think how to handle absent players is something that each group needs to agree on themselves. If I ever run a session without someone then they don't accrue any XPs (for the session or that part of the adventure they miss) or APs (even if someone rolls for their character accordingly) but I generally prefer not to run as above.

[Majestic]

I too will often postpone a session if a pivotal player (well, when their character is pivotal) can't attend.

Sometimes we can roll on without someone. But others (like this week's game, where one player can't make it) are important enough stories for the campaign that I want all of the regulars to be there for. For example, the next game will feature "The Anger of the Elvenking", and the whole intrigue with the Lamp of Balthi (and the coverup/hiding of it in Woodmen-town) has played a major part of our game.