By pitching the story back to their adolescence or even just a couple of months before the campaign got started I can select which members of the party would be in town at the right time.

There are reveals I want to introduce this way. So I’m planning a few stories in that direction anyway.

In general though if it’s a one off unavoidable drop then we’ll just relax and take a night off, but if we’ve missed a session already and this would make it two games running then we drop into a historic story.

While we did little odd games here and there for the most part it was/is one long series of adventures. We have 3 different campaign worlds. I use the same techniques in each. However 2 of the campaigns are adlibbed last minute games and weren’t really what I was talking about.

Our primary campaign is about the end of the world. While it’s based in the old World of Darkness campaign world, we of course heavily bastardized it’s cosmology & mythology over the years, but the game is good for that. The campaign became a story of answering “Why is the world ending?” for the players if not the characters. I try to make it kinda like reading a book.

I think it helps that I write the games/stories as sequences of events. The rest of the game is a sort of “freeplay” with me hinting in ways to keep them from floundering. When they trigger one of the events then stuff happens and storyline moves onward. Plus it allows the players to write the story along with me. Actions always have repercussions.

The hardest part is when a large sequence of events is based on one of the absentee players. In which case writing the game in ‘events’ prevents that from being a problem. The timeline of events change & I always need to rewrite a few events here and there to make sure they all jive with the over all timeline, but for the most part everything keeps moving onward.

It helps to write the opponents in terms of variables. Since I never know who I have playing on a given game-day I need to keep this tracked as a range of opponents depending on number of characters.

One other tactics the players (I didn’t care/mind their good roleplayers) did was taking over the missing character. This only caused ‘problems’ when someone died. In which case the ‘borrowed’ player was given a slight plot immunity. They would be ‘mortally wounded’ instead of killed along with their friends. While the players might have had a fatality the worst they could do to the borrowed char was knock him out or some such. He would wake up in the hospital or nearby with a concussion. etc etc. This is usually done when they players think they need the missing characters abilities. Hell, sometimes their right.

Swordgleam: I’ve had that same trouble with Toon– I’ve heard it’s great but haven’t found it. KAMB does sound like a zany night. They both sound like a fun break from the norm.

Tapiochre: Playing backstory does sound like a good way to do it. It sounds better if you’re down to one or two players, since everyone plays separately from the rest (if they met in the first session), right? If you still have 3 or 4 players, it sounds like there’s a wait for your slice of story. Or do you have a good solution to that?

SmallBlueGod: That sounds like a pretty cool series– a bit like Multiverser (by description, at least). It sounds more like a good campaign structure (one that can take absences here and there) rather than a backup game. Or were you playing something else at the time too?

We were joking around at some point (based on an RPG we came across) about what us the players stats were like in game terms. So we assigned stats round table style to one another as ‘stereotypes’ of ourselves.

Obviously we are a easy going and secure bunch. While the characters would turn out more well rounded than most games (for starting characters) this really didn’t matter considering our games were starting out at ‘high levels’ to begin with, and due to the grim and gritty nature of the game survival was not guaranteed.

This had a great flavor for contemporary games like Mutants & Master minds and World of Darkness (our current favorite), in addition to any horror based games like Ravenloft & I assume call of Cthulu (though I never got my group to play that one). This way the player would play someone who had similar skill sets & personality and life to their own. Or they could move it around for roleplaying sake & I would often give little ‘freebies’ if the player could tell a cool enough background story. This was actually a requirement for any background points or gear.

So when a character died or that story ended and we moved into the next story we just pulled out the character template sheets (all ‘human’ base stats) & applied whatever template was needed (powers, backgrounds, & advantages/level) for the new character. Then we’d ad lib why & how the characters enter the story. We (I allowed players to award one another XP bonuses for roleplaying) would award bonuses (usually xp) for creative & clever character intros. In addition if a character died in mid story (rarer that I would have thought) any XP or such would transfer over to the new character as an incentive.

If they wanted to change the characters personality around (changing it from their own template) then they would get rewarded for roleplaying, else at least the story got off the ground with some real sense of interest & characters that wouldn’t need 2 to 4 hours to create and introduce. As such I’ve used this ploy to get some One-shots off the ground when players couldn’t make it and we needed a quick sidetrack game.

This was ideal since I wanted to tell many angles of the chronicle at once. I had a lot of ‘one shot’ games in my mind. Each would add to the grand-finale with some esoteric bit of info (another piece of a larger puzzle) being the reward. While there were quite a few survivors those games are generally Horror oriented & as such there were a lot of character deaths, but damn they were awesome! It seem that when the players aren’t upset by the character’s death their looking for the coolest & most heroic way to die. Our favorite games turned out to be the ‘worst’ where nearly everyone died but the world was saved due to our efforts. Except for this one guy Ken/Ekvin. His characters never died. The antics of me trying to throw enough at him to kill his characters (& Failing) proved downright comical.

Sometimes (often) the various characters would make it through and we would move onto the next short story. Since it’s all the same ‘world’ the end result is many of the background cast are (were once) actually the player’s character.

This led to many player inspired spin-offs. At some point the group would want to revisit their old characters. To ‘see how there are doing now’ and of course more horror and trauma would ensue. Usually ending in some huge noble death or another.

We’re still ending the world from yet another perspective/short story, but eventually there’s going to be a huge battle royal type of campaign where the players will get to pick which of their now many background characters they want to save the world (or damn it) in the end.

I realize this may not work for everyone. I know I have a quick witted group of players. Some of which excel at improv, some don’t. However the central tenet of our game is “Tell me a story”. For us it’s all about being entertained by a non-stop story.

Now with that said when a player couldn’t show we either told a different story, or else something tragic (not death) & unfortunate takes the character out of commission for that game. Usually some type of unconsciousness via some unseen enemy. Though one player had narcolepsy as a flaw once. All of this has a way of making the next game the ‘save so & so’ game which was also fun.

I hope that makes sense. While I can Tell a mean short story, my mastery of the written word is somewhat tenuous at times.

When a player is absent and the current plot can’t go on without them the other players have the opportunity to play out a story from earlier in their lives.

This isn’t perfect but it can provide an in flavour scenario, that may open up new opportunities in the main plot.

Toon is all one-shots that generally last about half an hour each, and everyone takes turns GMing. Kobolds Ate My Babies goes one step further – if no one agrees to GM, everyone rolls dice, and the ‘loser’ has to GM. I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet since picking it up last week, but it looks easy and fun.

Both are really silly and light-hearted games that feature a lot of PC death and infighting. Kobolds looks like it would take at least three players to really be fun, but Toon definitely works with only two people. According to a player of mine, running a brief Toon adventure gave him a lot more respect for what a GM does, so you might get some added rewards from your off-key game night.

If I may venture OT again, that -was- the problem with losing my player – I was -just- getting to the part where his PC’s destiny AND backstory were being revealed, beginning with the first session he missed.

The character is an amnesiac and “slightly mad” warlock who made a pact with a mysterious fey queen; he knows that she’s tasked him with helping the party, but he doesn’t know how or why – and neither does the player. I think he may have left his history hazy since he joined mid-campaign, but the conflict the party was dealing with at the time didn’t leave me with enough wiggle room to go into it until it was too late.

The revelation will still be important to the other characters, but now I’m looking at removing his piece from the board, as it were, when that scene’s done. He’s kind of a pain for me to run, especially since I’ve already got an NPC in the party, and I’m not sure what else I should do with him after that point in the story. I have some ideas, but I have other story threads to chew on which seem more relevant now.

His contribution of the fey queen proved to be a valuable addition to my story. The good news is that none of his “business,” strictly speaking, is all that important to the overall plot. It -could- have been, but it doesn’t -have- to be. It sounds like Arthwollipot doesn’t have the luxury of letting his go, though, and that’s a shame.

(I did have a subplot involving a succubus that I would have “saved” for his character if I’d known he was joining, but it ended up going to another NPC. I suppose it all worked out OK.)

The second edition (the red rulebook from ’89, as opposed to the original boxed set) was the one I played most, and it’s very rules-light and easy to pick up. I don’t think the -rules- reinforce the wacky plots and infighting as much as they reinforce the mortality rate – Troubleshooters are damage magnets, not superheroes. That’s why the Computer has given you five identical clones in case of accidental loss or erasure. Rejoice in the Computer’s bountiful generosity!

It’s the setting and the environment that reinforce the wackiness and infighting. I mean, you’re supposed to execute mutants and secret society members – and every PC is a mutant and/or a member of a secret society. You can guard your own secret(s) all you like, but you’ll probably decide eventually that the best defense is a good offense. Then there’s the R&D equipment you’ve been asked to field test, which is probably more dangerous to you than to your enemies…

There were many scenarios published for the game, some of which were better than others, but almost all of them had good gags and lootable material. (Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues, written by Real Science Fiction Author John M. Ford, is highly recommended.) And they spent a lot of time parodying other RPGs, as well, which can be a fun break for groups.

Glancing at the Wikipedia page for the latest version of Paranoia, it mentions that the new game supports three “styles” of play – Zap, Classic, and Straight. That’s pretty cool. Man, I need to buy it. They’ve also anthologized and updated some of the classic adventures as “Flashbacks.”

Just avoid “Paranoia fifth edition,” whatever you do. Not Recommended.

Walt: I don’t know how good PTA is for a one-shot– my other group still struggles with it after several sessions. We did make it through the pilot on the first night– while it wasn’t our best session ever, it was adequate and fun. For a pickup/emergency game, I guess that’s all I should expect.

Clem: One shot prequels and side quests is a good idea. As long as the players don’t demand continuity, you’d get the advantage of a familiar system and not too many constraints.

Itliaf: It sounds like your groups substitutions are great if they’re crowding out your planned campaigns. I want to be in your group when we’re short one player.

My game group was tried and true, one game, one DM per school semester for years but as Real Life intruded we came up with (probably too many) options to make up for missing players or DM burnout. Many of these have expanded into semi-regular features. Munchkin and DnD minis are the easiest to throw together on short notice, since everyone in my group has at least a few DDM cards to share. We also have a regular halloween game which started as a Zombie one-off (dusted off Alternity Dark Matter for the next year). Another (which I don’t DM) is known simply as “Goblins” which is loosely improvised D&D game with a party of low-level goblins. Even as it has become a regular feature, there is only the most basic plot, so no one minds if one or two people are missing. It still has enough humor and cartoon violence to make for a fun evening, with the personal spin of having a set of recurring characters.

I’ll explain… The meaning of the ‘game’ is to have one player start with a completely winged premise of an adventure, preferably in a ruleset all the players are familiar with. Have someone set a timer (say, for an hour) and let that first person do his stuff. When the timer runs out, everyone ‘shifts seats’ and the next person will have to take up where the first one left off (passing on character sheets where needed).

I have to say, it was a fresh new experience, with the added bonus of being forced to improvise (I really need to work on that skill) and your buddies not being able to scoff at you (’cause they’re up next!)

The corebook (and every official supplement) has hero and villain archetypes.

Ronin Arts put out a bunch of Archetype PDFs. There are some others, too (Adamant and Misfit, among others).

Walt

Darth: Zombie attack does sound good. It’ll work in any system, though I’d definitely aim for lower powered PCs to make the idea better for a survival POV. I read World War Z; it’d be hard to really brief everyone well since it develops over time, but I liked the way it built up the apocalypse. Though maybe that’s more campaign like and I just need to have Zombies break down the door. Hmm…

Todd: Please chime in on the “which version and which system” Paranoia question to Darth in the comment above.

Todd and Sinewave: I love board games as an alternative… I have a lot of good ones. Unfortunately, they don’t scratch the “want roleplaying” itch the same way. [Though I suspect you could get some good roleplay in Diplomacy...]