In our latest episode, we answered a listener’s question regarding how to handle players missing sessions. This is a common problem in the TTRPG world, as life has a tendency of getting in the way. The question from Greg the LVTeacherman read:
“I’m the advisor for the gaming club at my high school, and I often have students who miss a session or sessions for various reasons, such as grades, sports, appointments, etc. How do you deal with situations like this? Obviously, playing Baron Banhammer and simply punting them from the club is the last resort. Aside from playing them as just NPCs, how else can I and the other club DMs deal with this? And how do I handle leveling up characters when the kids are gone?”
During the episode, I made a distinction between the experience of missing sessions in your home games and this type of organized play in a club setting. We have all experienced players missing sessions, games being pushed because of scheduling, and the various other obstacles to sitting down at the table. What separates Greg’s question from this inevitable and unfortunate reality of running a game is that he already knows that it’s going to happen, and happen often.
This led to a completely in-real-time brainstorm about how to build a campaign infrastructure that turns this apparent weakness into a strength. Starting from the basic idea surrounding a West Marches-style campaign, I offered up the idea of a campaign called “The Cannonball Run.”
The West Marches
If you’re not familiar with a “West Marches”-style campaign, I urge you to check out this video by Matt Colville, explaining the general concept (as well as the website of the founder of the idea, Ben Robbins).
Simply put, this style of campaign creates a player-driven game. The players decide what they want to do, when they want to do it, and who they would like to team up with for said adventure. Then they inform the DM as to their plans, allowing the adventure to be developed.
While there are multiple facets to this innovative concept, the one that struck me as the most useful for groups with A LOT of players, as well as players having to miss sessions often, is the idea of teams.
We know that the gaming club has a certain number of members and a certain number of DMs. My idea started by having all of the players create 2-3 separate characters at character creation.
The Amazing Race
I’m not sure how many of our listeners are aware that one of the highest-grossing films in 1981 was a film called, The Cannonball Run. This film took an old concept, a cross-country race, and added a colorful cast of characters that ended up in various hi-jinks along the way (let the hilarity ensue). It also served to continue the strange popularity of the duo of Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise … don’t ask us, it was the ’80s.
But how does this fit into our campaign idea, you ask? Simple. Break the separate characters into multiple teams. One caveat to this is that you can’t have all the same players on all the same teams. Mix it up.
You can then take the idea from The Cannonball Run and add a simple trope that was used quite well in the D&D Next adventure, Dead in Thay: Hunt for the McGuffin(s). DM David wrote a great piece on how this adventure could be played by competing groups, which you can read here. We can use this same concept in our giant race/scavenger hunt.
Breaking the characters into teams and starting them all from the same, or even different, locales can allow a team to continue on the quest at any given game session regardless of who might be missing that session. No more issue with wondering how to handle missing characters, award XP or push sessions because of schedules.
FOMO
A useful side effect of this mixture of teams, especially in a club setting, is FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. We’ve discussed that one of the more promising features of TTRPGs is the focus on cooperative, rather than competitive, play. With this Cannonball Run-style campaign, DM’s can gain the best of both worlds by creating an environment where both competition and cooperation are required for success.
By having the same players creating characters for multiple teams, their investment in the game should increase exponentially. Through the mechanic of the Amazing Race or Scavenger Hunt, the fear that they will miss important quest details, items to assist in the hunt or miles logged, the impetus to be at as many sessions as possible increases as well.
As we discussed in the episode, the ability to create a healthy competitive atmosphere can be used, most effectively, in this specific type of club setting. This could take the form of a leaderboard reflecting where the teams stand or additional XP/items/quest details for “team spirit”-type activities (since the club in question is a school-based club). The possibilities of this style of campaign are a great fit for large groups or Adventurer’s League-style organized play.
Final Thoughts
So many of the issues that arise for us as DMs can be understood, and hopefully avoided, by knowing your table and playing to your strengths. We illustrate this on the show through the three distinctly different styles of DM’ing between Thorin, Tony and myself. Run games that shine a light on what you do best. Lean into your strengths.
One part of knowing your table and playing to your strengths is understanding what is possible, and not just preferable, for you and your players. This is best dealt with with a Session Zero, which we have expounded on regularly. A great tool for this that I use is Matt Colville’s concept of “Pitching your Campaign.” Realizing what you would enjoy running and giving your players options goes a long way in building consensus and investment in the upcoming campaign. If part of this is the make-up of the group itself (a lot of people wanting to play, the certainty of players having to miss sessions, etc.) can solve a problem even before it starts.
Until next time, heroes … LIVE THE ADVENTURE!