Gaming Group Flux

This last weekend, one of my players in my Saturday Gaming Group (I also have the Monday and Thursday Groups ;), told us that he had to take an indefinite leave of absence due to work.

That got me thinking about how many players I've seen come and go in my group. Let's face it, it's never easy to lose a player. This is (I hope) a friend who is moving out of your orbit, for whatever reason. Hopefully it's a short absence, but sometimes they move out of your life completely. Besides all the other real life issues, how does this affect your game?

First, the loss of a player and his or her character affects the story. That character might have been essential to the storylines in your game. If you're playing a game about putting the rightful heir on the throne, the game takes a sudden turn if the rightful heir suddenly isn't there.

Second, the missing character might have had a certain role in the group. If he or she was your tank (i.e., can both dish out and take damage like no one else), then the combat effectiveness of your group is reduced. If the character handled all the diplomatic aspects, then the group might be unable to close a crucial deal.

Third, it's an empty chair. Some games require a certain number of characters to work well. We've all seen games that have a "sweet spot" in terms of players. Maybe losing one player puts you below that number, and the game becomes far more difficult.

Take my Saturday Ptolus Game, for instance. I started with five players. I now have three full time (and one who can attend periodically), and only two of them were in the game back when we started. One player got a job that required him to work on Saturdays. Another moved to North Carolina. The third (the one who sparked this topic) has always had to drive 90+ minutes to get to the game, and work's left him too tired to do that anymore. I've picked up two new players since then. So, how did I deal with losing these characters?

Well, the player who moved to North Carolina was not difficult. He had been missing games because of a new baby and preparing for the move, so we just had the character vanish one night on a mysterious errand for his elvish crime syndicate.

The second one, who got a new job, was tougher, as he played the party cleric. Worse, he had just rescued a young girl from the Dark Reliquary, a home to demons and undead. Well, I decided to have him and the girl be kidnapped by the demons. The party has been building up their forces to one day free him. (They are rightfully scared of the place, as they had to release a demon god from a prison to escape it in the first place.)

Now we're losing the party tank, who was crucial in several party storylines. He had a quest for the Church of Lothian, the most powerful in the land, to recover a holy artifact from the dark elves. He had just become a underboss for one of the two major criminal organizations in Ptolus. And he has a quest from the demon god he released to recover a different artifact from the leader of the Dark Reliquary.

So, look back up the page at the three consequences of losing a character: Story, Party Role, and Minimum Players. Pretty much all three apply, as he was involved in major storylines, was a major damage dealer for the party, and we're down to three full-time players (Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 is built around four players and a DM.)

So, this Saturday, we spent a lot of time talking about what to do. Here are some possible solutions we discussed:

1. Time Out! We discussed pressing "pause" on Ptolus until the player can return. While this is simple solution, it leaves us at a loss as to what to play in the meantime, and we have no idea when the character could return. Also, whenever a game is "put to bed" like that, there's always a chance it will never wake up again.

2. Take the Mountain to Mohammed. We're in the middle of discussing with the player about traveling down to his place once or twice a month to play Ptolus. The problems with this is that we gamed at my place because it was centrally located. Four of the players live about 40 minutes northwest of me, and he lived 90 minutes southeast of me. So, those players would have a lot more driving to do. Also, the player just moved into a house, so he's not set up for gaming yet.

3. Next! We've also discussed finding a new player, as well as retiring a few other player characters whose stories have more or less come to a close for the moment. This is almost as big a change as Option #1. Finding a new player is always a bit stressful, and I'm sure I'll be talking about the problems of integrating a new player into an established group in future posts.

So, what do you do when this happens to you? Well, there is no cookie-cutter solution that works for everyone, as your situation will probably be different from mine. All you really can do is talk it out with everyone, and see what they want to do. But keep in mind some of the things I've talked about above, and it will help you find a solution.

For us, it looks like we're going to do some old-school gaming with one of my favorite game worlds: TORG. After that, we'll see. I'll keep you posted.