Emergency One Shots – What to do when a player can't make it to session

 I think we've all been in this situation – you're reaching a momentous story beat in your campaign, whether its an epic showdown with your BBEG, entering the final dungeon, storming the evil tyrant's castle, and then suddenly a text arrives. One of your player's can't make it.

It's an annoying situation, but as much as we love this game, we have to accept that sometimes life gets in the way. For a run of the mill session this might be fine. You can play it off in game that they slept in late that day, they had some solo business to take care of, or they were just far too drunk to put on their armour that day. Whatever it is, there are ways around it, using what I will refer to as the 'Ashley Johnson method'. This is absolutely fine to do and if the player's ok with it, they can rejoin next session.

But, there are those moments where you really need everyone to be there. For example, in my Curse of Strahd campaign, I wanted everyone to attend the dinner with Strahd, as I had specific plans for each character which could change the entire direction of the campaign. If one person decided to stay in the Blue Water Inn and drink the day away while this was going on, it wouldn't have made much sense to the story.

This leaves your with a choice: carry on without them, reschedule, or stall. This has happened a few times at my table, but rather than let the other players down, there are a few options I like to keep in my back pocket for times like this. These are what I call 'emergency one shots': a stalling tactic when you really need the whole party for an upcoming story beat. There are a few different options here, some simple, some less so, but all will give you a stalling tactic to make sure everyone is there for the important moments.

1. The Battle Royale.

This is probably the most classic emergency one shot – put everyone in an arena with one instruction: Kill!

It's a classic for a reason. It's by far the simplest to set up and can be done on a moment's notice. All you need is a battle map and you're ready to go. It's likely in the course of a long campaign, these characters have wanted this opportunity to smack around their fellow party members anyway, so it's a good way to let off steam and finally settle the arguments of who would win in a fight.

With the battle royale, there are still a few things to consider. The license to attack your friends should be incentive enough, but remember to keep combat interesting. If they're all fighting in a void space, this could put some of your utility characters at a disadvantage, while the paladin divine smites everything that moves. Be sure to add in varied terrain, interactive elements, and some opportunities for creative thinking so that combat doesn't become stale. You can find more tips on ways to do this here.

2. The Evil Twins.

This option is probably one of my favourites, and in fact the first emergency one shot I ran. How many times has your ranger forgotten hunters mark in battle, or your warlock asked to retcon because they 'totally would have hexed them before they attacked'. It gets to a point where you're ready to say 'just let me do it'. Well, now you can, with the evil twins one shot.

To set this up, you just need a copy of everyone's character sheets and a map. Then as the characters arrive, they realise they are fighting evil duplicates of themselves.

When I ran this, I set up a labyrinth map, so each character could only see a small portion. It wasn't until a few turns in that they started to run into their duplicates throughout the maze. Their objective was to reach the centre of the maze before their duplicates, or eliminate them all (whichever came first). The labyrinth turned out to be the best thing for this type of encounter, as it kept the premise from being revealed immediately, and led to great paranoia among the party.

I added in a few more lair actions to this map: on initiative count 20 I would roll a D6 and players could swap positions in the maze, some swapped with duplicates (so if anyone found each other teamed up, they ran the risk of an enemy appearing right beside them), or walls could change position. This turned out to be a great success and one of the most memorable one shots I've run, all because one person couldn't show up to session.

3. Flashbacks / Backstory Sessions.

This one takes a bit more work, but if you pull it off can really add to the canon of your campaign and characters. If you know in advance that someone won't be able to make next week, a good option is the backstory session. This is where you take an event in one player's past, or a major event in the world of your campaign, and build a one shot around that.

This may depend on the campaign, but during our Lost Labs of Kwalish campaign, we had a few weeks where one players wasn't able to make it due to a new job. We all agreed to put the story on pause and do a few of these one shots while he was away.

My character in Lost Labs is a changeling grave cleric named 'Us'. Us' order uses their changeling ability to capture the faces of the most evil people in history, believing that by keeping their form they will not be able to reincarnate into the cycle of life. They carry 6 faces and wear a different one each day to ensure they don't re-enter the cycle. So, my DM approached me and asked if we could run the one shots around each of these 6 people.

I was thrilled. I'd put a lot of work into each of the face's backstories and now had an opportunity to share it with the party. These turned into 2 one shots: 'The Alordran Academy for Exceptional Young Woman' – a boarding school run by Genevieve Alordran, who would syphon the youth and beauty from young women to stay eternally young. The players each created a level 1 student of the school and tried to survive, defeat Genevieve and escape. The second was 'The Waterdeep Affair'. This had the players play as a detective agency, investigating a number of strange statues that appeared throughout the city, all made from human remains at the hands of the artist Alisdair Leotan.

For these, as I knew the events for these characters, I co-DMed and guided the players through the stories of my character's past. It was incredibly rewarding for me as a player, and the party all got to try out new characters and classes in a short form story.

This did take some preparation, but was 100% worth it.

4. Monster Hunter

And of course, as the old saying goes: When all else fails, throw a tarrasque at them.

It may be a cliché at this point, but it's for a good reason. Who doesn't want to showdown against some of the most powerful creatures in the monster manual? It's easy to set up and lets the players flex their character's power at its full potential.

For these one shots, I usually ask the players to create a level 20 version of their current character and ask them to choose door number one, two or three. Behind each is a different creature that they will face, be it a tarrasque, Tiamat, Demogorgon. This can be great for campaigns where you know they won't run to level 20, as it gives the players a taste of the capstone abilities without you having to get there, and can really be an ego boost if they manage to defeat such a powerful creature.

Yes, it can be annoying when players cancel, but it's true that life can get in the way. There's no reason to worry as long as it's not a regular occurrence (in which case you may want to talk to your player) and in fact it can be a great opportunity to try something new.

I usually have a few of these planned out before I even start a campaign, so I can mix in some fun backstory one shots alongside the last minute battle royale maps. As a DM it's always good to be prepared and to keep something in your back pocket, even if that thing is a tarrasque.