We usually had the rule that the character dies, if a player leaves the group. Also if the player dies... Luckily we never had to apply the second one...

Ouh, I've been waiting for a Goth-comic like this... Adding it to my list. Thank you for pointing it out. Although I must admit, I'm not sure, whether it can be as good as this one...

I go with whatever fits the story at the time; they might leave, die, mysteriously disappear, get taken captive...

In my group, if someone leaves or is gone for a week, I get to do WHAAAAAATEVER I want with the character. I don't know why my group is so afraid of missing a session...

Sometimes, we just have them do absolutely nothing.

"Oh, you guys are having trouble fighting hordes of goblins? Sure wish I could help."

"You're leaving now? 'Kay. Bye. I'll just stand here in the middle of nowhere."

I once had to leave a campaign due to real life reasons, so my DM just decided to retcon it so that my character never actually existed. But he was a bad DM anyways so in my mind what happened was the rest of the party ditched me in the woods (which was pretty much in character when you have a group of CN psychopaths playing with the one person who actually wants to be a hero). So I got lost and ended up having a better adventure. With blackjack. And hookers. Neither of which I could partake of since I was a paladin but I like to think that I made the world a better place than the murderer hobos who sent me on a snipe hunt.

Default when I GM depends on how well liked they are. If they were making as ass of themselves, they contracted ballrot herpes from a dung snake being forced into their backside that they paid a nighthag prostitute to peg them with. They died of scrotal necrosis, but was resurrected as a living, feeling zombie to be the personal sex toy of a vampire serial killer who likes to amuse himself by... poking holes in things with a knife and then... doing things. Forever.

If they were really cool, their character was killed in an epic clash with an army of titans, then fought the legions of heaven to force his way into Valhalla, where he kicked ass, dined well, and had his own personal squad of valkyrie groupie maidens to deflower whenever he feels like it, in between being a total badass, and feasting on anything his heart desires, up to and including the hearts of the dudes he whoops. After all, once they're totally dead, they just reappear back at the feasting hall, so he can eat Hercules's heart every day!

There's a sliding scale in there, kinda. Depends on how nice they were.

The scary part is I believe every single word you just said.

I also have an old standby that a dude fought his way out of valhalla in order to train up a new generation into great warriors so he can have equal rivals to fight forever.

This was for a dude who we thought was gone, but there was a last minute change of plans. Thus, he started a school for warriors, and instructs young warriors, teaching them everything he can.

The way my character's tend to go, if they had the latter happen they would request the former.

If we aren't at a clean breakpoint, we tend to Robo-NPC them. They're still there, will do the absolute minimum in combat (and are total crap out of combat). Generally speaking, your odds of *not* having something bad happen tend to go up when you're out for a week. A PC without a player is far less likely to start poking at things Man was Not Meant to Poke.

We're a good bunch (both of them), so we don't have the jerkass factor.

A player leaving permanently has their character die or retire. Leaving temporarily means they went on some little sidequest, like traveling to town for some magical topical cream to destroy a swarm of crabs that began following them since they slept with that mermaid.

Yes, the crabs are Jamaican. Yes, they sing. They also cause itching, burning, and mild swelling.

The flakiest player in my gaming group is playing a necromancer. Whenever he can't make it, we just assume his character is off doing unsettling research.

I prefer more subtlety. If a player leaves I write them out in the most efficient manner possible that leaves the least loose ends. If that means killing them then I will do so, if it means they got a letter from their sick grandma then that instead.

As for missing sessions, I don't have any penalty for players missing sessions so long as they don't miss an arbitrarily determined too many sessions in a row. Since I prefer longterm campaigns rather than short term adventures, if one of my players can't make it I usually just have the rule that their character was there but wasn't doing anything of note and so wasn't mentioned. It is meta but meh, whatever works.

I mostly just run one-player games so this doesn't come up that often (on occasions when it does, I just tend to DMPC the missing player's character until I can have them leave at a convenient point). If the player can return, I'll just insert them back into the party as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the shout out. I hadn't seen your comic until one of your fans linked it to me.I'm not a huge Anime fan but I'll give it a read.

If it's ok by you I'd like to add you to the list of similar comics on my website. It probably won't do anything considering our respective popularities but it's nice to keep a list.

Gasp! Another comic creator! You two should totally make out!

Oh! Better idea! We should all make out together! Man, I am gonna have so many internet hotties!

Raxon, I have this theory that you're basically pokerus but for campaign comics.

Buneary never would have caught that if she hadn't been catting around for those machoke boys.

Hey, thanks for dropping by, Fleak. Like what you've done with your webcomic so far. Go ahead and add me to the list of similar comics on your website. I've already done the same with yours to my own list.

Dragontrainer really needs to update the cast list its getting hard to keep track of everyone

And he needs to use the colored speech bubbles everytime a PC speaks

And he needs to enable background colors for comment text. THESE BOXES OUGHT TO BE YELLOW, DAMN IT!

I'm not exactly urging to start story time, but we have a topic about what happens to a character when their player is absent, so...

One time I didn't make it to the session and they played it like my barbarian simply wasn't there. The party was treveling through the forest that time. Next session has started like this.

GM: You all see some moving in the brushes, and the barbarian is appearing from the forest and aproaching you.
Some player: Where have you been?
Me: I got lost.

And the topic was closed and forgoten.

it isnt my story but...
my friend often misses sessions, when that happens someone else would take over. in one game, he was playing a paladin and was the parties only REAL melee combatant. in one of his missed session, they had him charge enemies and he ended up being flanked and he was killed. he was really upset about it too...

If someone miss a session, we just say they character is busy doing something else. and then the character rejoin the group next session (with or without having to play the fact that the PC was separated from the other depending of the context).
If someone have to leave for a while but can potentially return, we don't kill the character and just say he separated from the others and go somewhere else. at which point the PC can come back later, with a bit of backstory of what happened when he was'nt part of the group. Probably what we'd do for a guest player like Emily in this case.
we don't often kill the character. even if the player is'nt to come back, the GM could use the char later in some plot twist.