How to handle a player who misses a session
Someone always misses a week. Handled well, it costs you two minutes; handled badly, it derails an evening or quietly loses you a player. Here is the whole playbook.
The short answer
Decide two things in advance and the rest is easy: what happens to the absent character during the game, and how you catch the player up when they return. Have a default for both, agreed with the table, so no single absence turns into a debate.
What to do with the character
- Fade to the background. The simplest option: the character is present but quiet, avoids spotlight and hard choices, and takes no risks that need the player’s consent. Best for story-heavy tables.
- Run them lightly, by committee or GM. Keep them in fights so the party is not down a sword, but never make a character-defining decision for someone who is not there. Loot and XP are held for the player, not spent.
- Write them out for the night. Called away, scouting, laid up with a fever. Cleanest when the session is a self-contained arc the character can plausibly sit out.
The two-minute catch-up
When the player comes back, do not narrate the whole missed session — you will lose the table for ten minutes and they will retain none of it. Give them a short catch-up note that answers three questions: what would your character know, what changed for the group, and what is waiting for you right now. The third is the important one: return a player to a decision, not a lecture.
A worked example
Maya misses the harbor session. Her catch-up note: "Your character stayed with the ship and heard the others come back at dawn, shaken. What you know: the fence is dead and the reliquary was smuggled out on a ship that left at first light. What changed: the party is now openly wanted by the harbormaster, and the rogue owes a witness fifty crowns. Waiting for you: the group is arguing about whether to chase the ship or go after the buyer in town — they have been waiting for your vote." Two minutes to read, and Maya is back in the game with a choice in front of her instead of a summary behind her.
Send the catch-up before the next session, not at the table. A player who reads it the night before walks in ready; a player who reads it during play holds everyone up.
Questions GMs actually ask
What should happen to a character when the player is absent?
Pick a default with your table: fade them into the background, run them lightly without making character-defining choices, or write them out for the night. The key rule is to never make a consequential decision for a player who is not there, and to hold their loot and XP rather than spend it.
How do I catch up a player who missed a session?
Give them a short note that answers three things: what their character would know, what changed for the group, and what decision is waiting for them right now. Return them to a choice, not a lecture, and send it before the next game so they arrive ready.
Should I replay the missed session for the returning player?
No. Narrating the whole missed session at the table loses everyone for ten minutes and the returning player retains little of it. A two-minute written catch-up they read beforehand works far better.
Where Storywright fits
Because Storywright already drafts a recap from your session notes, the absent-player catch-up is mostly written before you start — you trim it to what their character would know and send it as a briefing. Every player has their own journal and a "previously on…" before each game, so the person who missed a week is never the person who lost the plot. Free to start, free for your players.