This one could really be for almost any RPG, though some of them might care more if you are adding and dropping, but sometimes in your Dungeons and Dragons game, you’ll have a player who wants to join. For you’ll have a player who leaves for some reason. There’s always a question about how you bring someone into your game and how you drop someone from your game.

Over the past year, I’ve had to do both of them. In my Tower of the Gods campaign we just had a player leave and a half a year ago, or so, we had a new player join. So it’s something that I’ve done recently, and I think it’s something that for a Dungeon Master it’s good think about how you want to do.

Dropping a Player

Dropping a player can be tricky to do because of how involved the player might be in the story line. If it focuses on that player, you now need to shift the focus or figure a way to wrap up that part of the story. But even that is doable.

You have a few ways to deal with a player focused storyline. You can either let it sit there, if that player comes back or another player takes over that character. Or you can shift how the story goes, you can make something happen to that character that takes them out of the picture, maybe permanently. That is a better idea if you are completely sure if that character will not return to the story.

If they aren’t involved in the story, just fade them into the background. For example, Thrain, while part of the main story, it wasn’t that he was the main player in it. All of the characters were playing levels of importance at different times. When it just became too tricky for the Thrain player to schedule and he was missing sessions he decided to drop. I could send Thrain off somewhere, if he wanted to guest play again, but it was easy enough to drop him from the story.

Adding a Player

Adding a player is a little bit different because it requires less on the Dungeon Masters behalf. When adding a player it more comes down to the other players at the table. They need to be willing to come up with a reason why this new party member immediately fits into the group.

Yes, the Dungeon Master still needs to do some work. You need to work with the player before they come in. They need to know a number of things about your game before they can really settle into the game thus far. I like to give the backstory blurb, and then work with the player on how their character would work with that.

One trick is that they don’t need to know everything when they get started. They need to know about the world. The story of what is going on in the campaign, with the exception of a few big moments, maybe, the players should be filling in for the new player. There are several reasons, one in character, that character wouldn’t know all the details. So they should get it from the people most invested in it.

The other reason is it gives you a chance as the Dungeon Master to see what the players remember, and what story points they are really highlighting. Adding a new character really gives you a chance to adjust your story in a way to lean into what the players are really liking.

Is It Beneficial For Either To Happen?

Yeah, there can be reasons why adding a player or losing a player from your Dungeons and Dragons story is useful. The more glaring would be if you have a toxic player at the table. Lose them if they aren’t willing to try to improve. My rule is give someone a chance if you can, but don’t feel like you need to keep that player or character around.

But I do think that there are times it makes sense to add players. I’ve been very fortunate with a bye-weekly Thursday night schedule. It works well for me and all the players. But with three players, if one person can’t make it, we’re now down a fairly large percentage of the group. With four players, there’s still more people for the players to play off of.

If you’ve been a Dungeon Master, have you had to add or remove players from a game before? And as a player have you come in part way through a game? Let me know in the comments below?

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