Hey all, my friend is starting a new game. We have some newbies joining and their attendance maybe hit and miss, with work schedules and life. What are some creative ways your groups have managed missing players outside of someone paying for them one session?
If you’re looking for a narrative reason, a few come to mind, depending on setting.
The players are bound to a god who can summon them at will. Their gods are fickle and don’t care about the PCs plans when they get summoned.
The world has a phenomenon occurring where people become ethereal at random. They can not interact or be seen, but they can still see what’s happening.
Several dimensions are overlapping and occasionally PCs will be pulled into the wrong one for periods.
My table doesn’t mind too much and accepts that people can’t make it sometimes, and not stress too much about an in game reason.