Quote from: Exploderwizard;815298Well I have a few that may have been committed at one time, but they have obviously escaped now.

Those make the best Call of Cthulhu players.

As an aside, I was once in an asylum and the break room was playing... Hellraiser II on the TV.

Yes, the one in an asylum where one of the psychiatrists was a murderous psycho and summoned a bunch of demons before becoming a cenobite.


(I was visiting, for what it's worth)

Quote from: jhkim;813881In the D&D5 group I play in, we have one player whose job now forces him to travel regularly. He is not at all a flake, and is a good player, but he just can't maintain our weekly schedule at this time because of his travel schedule. So far, he has only made it to about half the sessions, and thus he lags far behind everyone else on XP.

We've boosted him up so that he's up to the player with the next-lowest XP. Still, it seems a bit unfair.

In some other systems, the effect is still there but can be less glaring. So, for example, in GURPS or Amber the difference between a 115 point character and a 130 point character isn't all that glaring - but the difference between 3rd level and 6th level in D&D is.

How do other people deal with a situation like this?

Since my campaigns tend to involve large parties and both PCs and NPCs kept in rotation, this is a little easier to handle. If the group finds a good stopping point, the character of the absent player is simply left on the ship, at camp, in the home base or some other secure location. If the player shows up, fine. If not, that's fine too. If the group isn't at a good place to stop when the session ends, the player has to designate another player to run his PC in his absence, subject to DM veto. In this case, the PC is basically treated as a henchman. As a DM, I try to make sure the PC is played as the absent player would want, and that the character isn't used as a total patsy.

This way the PC can keep up with the others to a large degree and I don't have to shoot SoD all to hell.

Quote from: Old Geezer;814128Actually, to be fair to myself, if that was the ONLY choice I'd be just as pissed.  I'd applaud the referee for knowing my tastes, though.

I want multiple adventures/quests available, any of which the players can choose or not choose to take.  With the clear understanding if they say "Bugger all of these, let's hire a ship and set sail for the Isles of Langerhans" the referee says "Okay, but give me a week to get ready for that."

One of my fondest gaming memories was when our party of 1st to 3rd level PCs took over the Sea Ghost ship from one of the U modules and put out to sea. Took the DM by surprise but he was able to wing it -something every self-respecting DM needs to be able to do.

Quote from: rawma;814139So what do you do in the meantime, this week?

If you make preparations and they take the whole session, then it seems artificially hard to get going on something just because the referee didn't prepare it (if the hiring and setting sail would take minutes if the referee were ready); otherwise you have to take what's available or not play.

Ideally, the referee has some generic challenges to adapt quickly, and even a prepared destination would still present comparable obstacles, but then there's no reason to say "give me a week", is there?

Preparing for an expedition can be almost as interesting as the expedition itself. Don't believe me? Watch Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

There is also the option of a few random encounters (monsters, storms, etc).

Quote from: Bren;815079And I don't know where the nails or the damn rope are which means a trip to wander the endless aisle of the Home Despot.

Also, if we're playing 3.5 or Pathfinder, none of us have "Use Rope" or "Hammer Nails" or "Knowledge: Crucifixion."

Quote from: Old Geezer;817296Also, if we're playing 3.5 or Pathfinder, none of us have "Use Rope" or "Hammer Nails" or "Knowledge: Crucifixion."

Do you really need a "Use Hammer" skill to hit yourself in the head? 'cause that sounds like it would be about as much fun.

3.x/PF Organized Play has bequeathed us all a remarkably pedantic crop of  community players/GMs. You thought rules lawyering in your day was bad...
:rolleyes: fuggedaboudit.

But fugg 'em, take da goddamn untrained, offhand penalty an' crucify da sunzabitches anyway. Take 20 if's yah has to. Next time dey'll think twice 'bout cuttin' out on yah game.

Quote from: Opaopajr;8174063.x/PF Organized Play has bequeathed us all a remarkably pedantic crop of  community players/GMs. You thought rules lawyering in your day was bad...

I never thought rules lawyering was particular bad back in the day. Of course we argued about rules interpretations in RPGs just like we did when playing wargames. Discussing the rules seldom bogged the game down all that much; it never wrecked the game; and it seemed a natural outcome of playing a game with rules and with human players.