RE: (TFT) Never played in my campaign again

["Tim.Sireno" <tim.sireno@econmktg.com>]

> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 02:09:51 -0600
> From: "David Michael Grouchy II" <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>
> Subject: (TFT) Never played in my campaign again
>
>     Jeff Brumfield never played in my campaign again.  I had a house rule
> that when a player couldn't make a session their character would be played
> anyway.  The way I figured it was once they entered the pits, were in the
> labyrinth, the characters wouldn't just disappear or reappear in a flash
of
> lightning.  I felt it was incentive to get the players to show up
regularly.

<Snip>

>     Anyway, I never saw Jeff at a session again.   Years later I ran into
> him at a bar, and we talked about his band.  I asked him why he never came
> back.  He said that they guys told him that because he didn't show up, I
> blew up his character, burned it, hacked it to pieces, and feed it to a
> demon.  I was stunned.  I have also relaxed my house rule of characters
> being played even when the player is not there.  I have even gone so far
as
> to have a bolt of lightning strike and their character magically appear
when
> they show up an hour late, and the party is deep in the middle of a fight.
> Jeff played in other games, under other GMs.  He even played with some of
> the same players, but back then in the Jr-High to High School days Jeff
> Brumfield never played in my campaign again.
>
>  David Michael Grouchy II

	Well, Grouchy, looks like you had a run in with the same problem that the
GM's
in my old gaming group had. How to address, where an absent players
character is
during a adventure.  Since our group had ten players, and three GM's, two of
the GM's
usually got the benefit of learning from the third GM's mis-steps. Early on,
one  GM
decided the same thing as you, the players were to be played while they were
absent.
Everyone thought it was ok. That is until one particular gaming session -
where
the 'acknowledged' party leader was absent.

      Want to guess what happened? Well, the usual of course, whoever's
player was absent,
that character was elected to do the things the other players decided they
didn't want
to do themselves. The dialogue usually goes, "I don't want to try(do) it,
you try(Do) it."
"Oh No, since <player X> isn't here, we'll let his character try(do) it.".
In this particular
session, the group had earlier elected the party leader's character to carry
the backpack
loaded with explosive gems. And when the party later came upon a big gem
mounted on a pedestal that looked like it might be trapped, they again
debated who's job it was to check this gem out.

      It turned out the GM was 're-using' a particularly fiendish trap
designed by a player who was a past member of the group. And two of the
party members who dissented the current party leadership, had a pretty good
idea of what this trap was. So when the group debated who should check this
gem out, they (the two dissenter's) quickly volunteered the party leaders
character. Thus the group elected the party leader's character to do the
job!

      Well, this pedestal trap was designed to release a Greater Demon when
the gem was removed, and of course, the GM figured that the imprisoned demon
would vent his rage at whoever swiped the gem. The next ensuing moments were
very memorable, indeed, for everyone involved. The demon got out, and
quickly begins pummeling said party leaders character into a pancake, and
then the GM announces he's going to do the saving rolls for the explosive
gems inside that hefty backpack (which the players had forgotten the
character was carrying from earlier...), and everyone now realised they
wished to be in another room! The resulting explosion killed the demon and
four of the party members (the party leader and one of the dissenters was
among them).

	So when the group reported back the following day to the absent
player/party leader, (who was me!) I was rather admittedly shocked. (BTW, it
happened to be one of my friends who designed that particular trap, in the
presence of myself and two other players of the group for a 'honeypot trap'
in the wizards lab of our party purchased townhouse...) Needless to say, Me
and that particular GM never quite agreed with each other on how that
adventure should have been handled.

	Well, the upshot of all this was, the third Gm (in our group of three GM's)
& I had decided that:
#1 - Absent player characters should be taken 'Off the scene', unless the
group has stopped in the middle of a fight in which the characters were
involved. (We also later made the decision to try to avoid stopping a
session in the middle of a fight for sanity purposes).

#2 - There needed to be a good way of explaining where the absent players
character's were 'off camera' during the adventure. We each came up with our
own individual takes on this. But weren't really satisfied with the results
for some time.

#3 - And finally when players were absent the characters were to be played
by the GM as a NPC 'in survival only mode', and not what groups members
saying what the characters behavior should/would be!

	Within a few months of this event, a player in my campaign came up with a
darling solution while devising a magic item to solve his characters hatred
for camping outdoors. A 'holding gem' house!  So the party went into the
capital city, first purchased a old tavern, and then contracted a high power
wizard to put the tavern inside a 'Holding gem' and set it up so the party
could enter an leave the gem.

	Viola! Problem missing party member problem solved, whenever a party member
was absent, they were considered to be in the gem. And some party member was
always carrying the gem, they could be brought along with the party
adventuring!

	Needlessly to say, there was alot of side issues to worrywort over - such
as what happened when the Holding gem was broken?  What if everyone tried
popping out of the gem at the same time, Etc. But that was often part of the
fun! (for both the GM's and the players.)  But the 'holding gem house' idea
became a real hit in my campaign, and in a few others. Unfortunately,  we
never convinced the first Gm of holding gem houses' usefulness, and he
continued to play the absent players characters and continued to get them
killed. So, eventually, some of the other group members and I gave up
playing in his campaign... Which was a pity, because during that time, the
Gm then got mad at us for doing so, and childishly, tried getting even by
lashing out in various ways at 'the traitors' while on our campaigns. He
became the first of *TWO* players I've ever had to throw out of my of
campaign in my gaming 'career' of twenty odd years.  So in that one respect,
he had definitely made his mark on my game world, which I doubt I'll ever
forget. He was one of my first experiences with a *Player Killer* in
roleplaying!

	Did everyone else have a similar Gming experience with this absent player
problem?

	- Tim Sireno
        AKA White Wolf

(Incidentally, in case some of you are wondering, the second player got
thrown out of my campaign for setting fire to one of my dry erase markers
while disagreeing with me... )









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