DM'ing: Making a Success of a Derailed Session

This week we had one of our regulars missing from the campaign. Normally this can be easily accounted for, you make up some sort of reason why the character needs a sidequest, or even play them out through the battles and such. Sometimes though, you want to make sure that everybody is there for the session. My particular reason was that this was going to be the very first dungeon in 4E.

The players were all ready to make their way into a secret secret passageway beneath a tomb in the hills, and all of a sudden the Tiefling Warlock (our missing PC) dropped to the flour and started frothing at the mouth. At the same time, an NPC who happened to be outside keeping guard, ran in saying there were monsters approaching from the outside.

The DM'ing strategy here was to give some sort of plot twist that may have been related to the fire beetles recently battled that would cause the players to cease their descent. At the same time, I set up an encounter outside that would pose a threat and keep their interest.

What I had not planned on was that they sealed the passageway behind them with the Warlock inside. This was to defend the unconscious from the attacking monsters, but while they fought kobolds outside, I had a different scenario play out below ground.

The heroes fought a good battle against the kobolds, but had a surprise waiting when they went to retrieve their fallen friend. As they descended the ladder to the room with the Warlock, they heard munching and chewing sounds, followed by moaning. When one of them pulled out a fire beetle gland for light, they saw 2 zombies chewing on the Warlock, and two more coming out of the dungeon entrance, or exit, as they recently discovered.

When all of the battles were finished, the players decided they needed to get medical attention to the frothing Warlock. They started heading back to town, and one more random encounter on route to the village was enough to make a well rounded session. Unfortunately, with all of the combat, and such little mystique and intrigue, the Warlock will be behind in XP for next time. These kinds of situations can be remedied with solo side quests and things of that nature. And in this digital age there is also the option of running an RP only sidequest for the PC to have him earn some XP in ways other than quests and combat. An entire quest could be done through emails, or even online using Gametable and Ventrilo, depending on how deep you prefer to go as a DM.

One thing that is exceptionally important: If you take great care in designing your campaigns, don't let an absent player take advantage of you. The planning that you put into your game is at least worth the regular attendance of your players. If you let them come and go as they please, and this interferes with the continuity of the storyline and such, or hinders others gameplay experience, don't just give them the XP they missed unless it's really for a good reason. Conversely, if you improv every session, don't lecture players on attendance when the entire game is made up on the spot. Let your players know where your boundaries are, and be understanding of when it's appropriate to miss a session, and when it's not. Everyone has their reasons, and missing out on XP might not be a fair penalty for some of those reasons.

-Lance of the Hill People