The Empty Chair

The EMPTY CHAIR

As an avid and committed role-playing gamer and a game master for almost forty years there is one thing that I find almost as annoying as a barracks room lawyer - FMPs (Frequently Missing Players). Since Gary Gygax first gathered players together to roll a bunch of oddly shaped dice until today all GMs have had to deal with the subject of the empty chair at their gaming tables. Of course we all realize that, well, life happens; people get sick, jobs screw with our hours/days, family get-togethers occur, weddings happen, funerals, etc. These are all unavoidable and therefore must be considered forgivable transgressions. Then there are those players, usually family members or old friends, who play when they have “nothing better to do”. Because of their status as important people in your life they can’t be easily banned from your group. However, their frequent absence from the gaming sessions can disrupt the game because, let’s face it, role-playing games are a team effort and most games are not “one-shot” adventures, but part of an on-going campaign. Many times these games are direct continuations of where you and your group left off the last time you met. So when a player doesn’t show up because he or she wants to stay home to watch a sports team play that day, or an awards show that night, or maybe they just want to see a movie, their absence can disrupt everyone’s game.

OK, we all have preferences, I understand that. We all should. However, unlike board games, dice games, or card games, role-playing games are not a “casual” game. RPGs are more akin to a serialized, on-going event. Poker, darts, Zombie Dice, Munchkin, these are all games that can be played anytime regardless if the same players were present the last time you played or not. When dealing with a never-ending story game like Dungeons & Dragons, Mutants & Masterminds or Kromore things take on a different set of gaming circumstances. What do you do when Antonia decides not to show up for Arkham Horror because she wants to watch a preseason baseball game? Nothing, everyone just gets together as scheduled and plays without her. What do you do when the player running your paladin decides he doesn’t want to join the day’s game because he wants to stay home and watch a Doctor Who marathon instead of helping your party fight off the horde of half-dragon hobgoblin barbarians that was flanking your party at the end of the last game?

Over the decades of playing RPGs I have come across almost as many ways to deal with this as I have had campaigns to oversee. As a GM I have honed decisive ways of dealing with the syndrome of the empty chair. I hope these ideas help to give you some time-honored advice as to the many ways one can handle the problem of the frequently missing player.

Many GMs try to set up regular game days and times. This gives your players a way to plan around the game. They can set up their movie excursions or date nights or softball games around the game schedule. However, as mentioned above, life happens. Sometimes you just can’t say, “I can’t go to your wedding because I’m running my elf archer that day.” Excluding life events and unforeseen problems setting up a regular game session in advance is a great way to help keep players showing up for campaign.

Some Game Masters, myself included, simply have a secondary RPG ready to run. This is a good option since it keeps the players role-playing. Many players look forward to game day, they wait all week (or month) to get together and roll some dice and be part of a fun role-playing session. One must keep in mind what games his or her players enjoy playing to make this work. I am blessed with some great players who trust that no matter what game I pull off my shelf they will have a great time playing. My group has two main RPGs that we play, a World of Greyhawk mash-up of AD&D / 3rd edition and a Mutants & Masterminds 2e Freedom City campaign. I also keep several “back-up” games ready to play that all my players have characters ready to go for; a 1970’s Call of Cthulhu setting, a Rebel Era Star Wars d20 adventure, a Gamma World game, a Ghostbusters team, and a Swashbuckling Adventures high seas Sinbad-type group. If my players want a one-shot game my shelf is full of options from Tunnels & Trolls to Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards, Gangbusters to Top Secret, Bushido to Boot Hill, Kromore to Man Myth and Magic. Options, that’s the key.

Some GMs just continue the game without the player. They simply act as if the character was never there. The game goes on with no real reason to explain why Agron the dwarf fighter is suddenly missing. Yes, this may be arguably the easiest way to deal with this situation, but at its core it is also just bad and lazy game mastering.

The first and arguably the oldest way to deal with this is what many grognards over the decades have referred to as the “GM Solution”. This is where the game master simply takes over the character and runs him. If the GM wants to take charge of a character for a missing player than that can work fine, but how much extra work do most GMs really want? They already have a plethora of NPCs to run. Maps, on-going game notes, building the game tiles, and running the miniatures keep most good GMs busy enough as it is.

A handful of GMs I have met over the years use the “Pass the Buck” solution. This is when they will allow another player to run the character for the missing person. However, if the players are allowed to take their character sheets home with them between games then this, obviously, won’t work. I myself never let players take their character sheets home with them although they are free to make copies of the character for their own records. The other problem is that some players don’t want to have another player run their character especially if the game is heavy on the “Role Play” aspect of gaming. Players invest so much time, effort and emotions into their characters and become so attached to them that they would not be happy to hear that another person ran their character in their absences – especially if that character dies under the watch of another player. Some use a variation of this I refer to as the “Collective”. This option has the attending players all take control of the character and run him as they see fit. A big problem with this is usually the amount of time spent by all of the players deciding what they all agree upon for the character to do. “Zombie Robot” is another version where the missing player’s character is just set on autopilot. He does the same actions over and over again in predefined situations; always power attacking with his/her sword the nearest enemy, always hiding in shadows until a back-stab attack presents itself, always firing magic missiles at opponents, etc.

However, if you don’t want to take a break from your game because of an empty chair then my two favorite tactics are the “Sniper” and the “Trap from Nowhere”:

The “Sniper” is a tactic where at the beginning of the game session the missing player is attacked in such a way that he or she is taken out of the game for the duration without outright killing them. Remember, you’re the GM, if you say that the attack left the player in a magically induced coma that can’t be healed until the group finds the antidote then no healing spell or medication will awaken them. The party is then left with a way to deal with the comatose individual and how to handle the body until they can awaken or heal their comrade. This works well with players who enjoy a game that makes them think because now they have a problem that simply hacking and slashing won’t fix. How will they deal with the unconscious body? Now they have someone to defend during combat and this creates a fun scene in game. Should they leave his/her body somewhere like a secret room they found or the room at the local inn? When he or she wakes up they can follow the trail of dead goblins to their group and rejoin them.

The “Trap from Nowhere” is a perfect way to handle the empty chair for players who are more inclined to enjoy games that they can just hack and slash their way through. You simply begin the day’s adventure with the missing player’s character falling into a trap; a pit trap or teleportation trap works best. The pit slides them away from the scene (and possibly collapses in on itself to keep the party from rescuing their team mate outright). The teleportation trap is a one-shot magical trap that by its very single-use nature prevents the group from jumping in after their party member to save them. This way the group can continue gaming and having fun. Now when the missing player returns for a future game it’s easy to write him or her back in by saying that the character has been found, or saved.

Variations of these can be tweaked for games of different genres and eras. Perhaps the “Trap from Nowhere” is a van screeching up and abducting the player in question. Maybe the “Sniper” is a hit and run accident that takes the player out of the game for that day. Remember players can fall overboard when on ships or simply get lost while scouting ahead of the party. Perhaps they are whisked away by their deity or his avatar to answer for alleged crimes against their god. In my Mutants & Masterminds game I once wrote out a missing player by having his character called into court to act as a witness against the super villain on trial.

Another technique I have used from time-to-time since the 1970’s is one I like to call, “Running with the Horde.” This idea works very well when you know that one or more of your players will be absent, but you still want the other players to enjoy the game session without having to resort to pulling out different RPGs or another game altogether like Elder Sign, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, or Forbidden Desert. Let the players play through a game where they get to run the bad guys, or at least their minions. You may not want to have them play the masterminds or “end bosses” of the campaign, but playing as members of that angry horde of orc barbarians (or pirates, or gangbangers, or cultists, or whatever depending on what the RPG is you are playing) will make for a fun game day. Let the players run through an adventure where the minions get to ransack a town or capture a political prisoner, or make a sacrifice for their elder being god. Let them see exactly how evil their adversaries are by playing through their eyes for a session. An alternative version of this is to have the players run NPCs that are involved in this adventure, perhaps some of the townsfolk, merchants, or captives they have to save.

Additional variations of this idea include:

• “The Flashback”- Have the players at the gaming table run characters from the backstory. Maybe they are not the first group to go on this quest but the second or third. Perhaps the adventure is built upon something that happen in the ancient past and your players can run those individuals who set the adventure’s wheels in motion. These options can be interesting to players as it gives them a way to see the adventure from a different angle.

• “The Bodyguard” - Have the missing player’s character escorting an NPC to freedom, back to town, or even guarding the party’s horses, boats, or other form of transportation.

• “The Errand Boy”- Perhaps the group is low on supplies such as torches, rations, rope, ten foot poles, or potions of healing. The character is temporarily written out of the game by going back to town to fetch the much needed supplies for the party.

No matter what solution you decide upon to handle the empty chair problem there is still one question the GM has to tackle. Experience points (XP, Hero Points, Karma, Power Points or whatever you game uses to simulate character advancement is important and how should you handle it). The GM needs to decide whether or not it’s fair to give the missing player’s character XP. Personally I don’t give out XP to the missing players. This is not done as a way to punish them at all. Remember, XP is hard won by players during the game. Their characters faced dangers and overcame great difficulty to earn that XP, which is a reward -and no one should be rewarded for not participating. It’s an insult to the players who actually made it to the game, faced the dangers and saved the day.

Why should the players bother showing up at all if they know they’ll get XP even if they don’t play?

With a good GM, and a little creativity, a player’s character can be temporarily written out of any game in an intelligent manner. Remember that using a different technique each time keeps the story interesting and lively. Never use the same idea over and over again as that becomes trite and is a sign of lazy GMing. Players enjoy an imaginative GM as much as they enjoy slaying dragons, overcoming traps, and dealing with NPCs.

- The Great Gygaxian Grognard