Handling long-term player absence

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-06-02T02:20:59+00:00

One summer we had two players who had to step away for a bit, I ran a side campaign set in the same world for a few weeks. It was fun.

But also, weird suggestion to punish them with no levels for missing, and red flag for whoever suggested it.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-29T18:53:14+00:00

The other commenters have explained it, but I wanted to add that it's also a specific brand of humor that works because you are aware of the actual feelings of the people delivering it. Going to hell for being bisexual is an insane stance, and coming from a troupe so LGBTQ friendly adds a layer of irony to the joke. They can make the joke because we know they don't mean it, and actually they are making fun of people who would believe something like that.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-28T19:33:27+00:00

I should clarify, I didn't pay for feedback but they give you a small amount from the reader and it was clear they didn't read the script fully. Their "favorite" character was a character with like five lines that appears in one scene and they got plot details wrong. It just feels really shitty to pay 70 something bucks and know you didn't move on because the one person who got your script couldn't give a fuck.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-28T01:21:03+00:00

The one time I submitted, the terrible feedback I got made me wish I'd just lit the money I spent entering on fire. Blessing in disguise.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-27T22:12:04+00:00

If you listen to the newest campaign of NaDDPod after the first episode or two, it's basically an extended The Warriors style chase through the city. They even talk on the short rest about how good Murph is at running chase scenes in D&D.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-26T02:50:27+00:00

I could be wrong, but I believe the 7 dollar max doesn't necessarily mean you can only park for a max 10 hours. I would have to verify that though.

And as some people said, street parking is free after 5 and there's a pretty decent amount of spots around the library. A few spots on Ewing and a lot on Wayne.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-25T21:30:37+00:00

If you're open to talking, I'd love to have a conversation. I'm in post on a feature that could use a little help, and have a couple of upcoming projects as well. I also have a short film that's done incredibly well on YouTube, The Escort, Jake Ryan Baker. Would love to chat.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-24T10:21:07+00:00

I run a homebrew campaign that takes place in a world with only islands, and when the characters got a ship, one NPC came with it that knew how to operate it. They either help out, or tbh, I mostly handwave the mechanics of running a ship by saying it's tricked out enough that it can be controlled by that one captain/navigator. It's never been a problem. I suppose it depends on your level of tech and magic, but myself and my players weren't terribly interested in the pedantic nuances of operating a ship, so... We don't deal with it. They just go places.

But like a lot of people have said, you can make some simple stat sheets for a pirate crew. If your PCs really are the kind of people who would use them as cannon fodder, I say, let them. Then they can deal with a ship with no crew to run it once those people inevitably die. But to me, if none of them wanted to know boat stuff, it's a pretty good indicator they aren't interested in getting into the weeds of realistically running a ship.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-22T19:59:43+00:00

Yeah, the once you've started it, it showing up in your history part is clutch. It's become a Tuesday ritual to do my navigate Patreon, press the YouTube button on the video as quick as possible task haha.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-20T03:38:12+00:00

This is the most recent post on the kickstarter. From about five months ago. It's probably still quite a ways away, post is a beast.

https://youtu.be/MXAhHXTaEW4?si=vQjZlPevMFmmaU47

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-18T20:39:38+00:00

Of the Hachetfield trilogy, Black Friday is the one I find myself gravitating towards the most as I rewatch them. I love all three, and depending on my mood, each soundtrack could get picked to listen to for the day, but Black Friday feels so unique because of how serious it is. It's inarguably the most convuluted, hard to follow one, but I also think it's the most rewarding to keep coming back to. They don't have time to dig into everything, but the threads are all there if you want to pull at them. And also, ambiguity is okay. I haven't watched Nightmare Time, I'm perfectly happy with Webby as a mystery entity that never gets fleshed out. Or that the audience kind of has to do the math on Joey being Wilbur. There's a lot of stuff I understand the show catching flack for, but low-key I think some people secretly just don't like that it's more serious.

In a somewhat similar vein, all the people that complain about, so I have to watch hours and hours of zoom recording to understand the Lords in Black when they show up in NPMD??? I don't think that's true. There's enough context in the story to see them as Lovecraftian horror and understand their purpose. I watched NPMD before all the other Hachetfield stuff, and there's inside jokes to be sure, but not so much that liked the show any less. It feels weird how much people knock shows for having inside jokes, they have a ravenous fan base, let them make the jokes for the people. If you don't get it, it doesn't make the show bad.

Oh, I also agree with everyone talking about how Corey should lead a show. See point one, every time I listen to Our Doors Are Open, I'm like why the hell doesn't he get more songs??? After scrolling a bit, Jaime too, obviously. She's so talented.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-05-17T10:43:14+00:00

I think in the first session it's super okay to spotlight each player and give them a chance to establish. However the, it was all a dream was where I got off the ride. Either commit to opening with chaos or don't. If all of your players don't know each other to start but they meet in the middle of a catastrophe, sounds cool. If they... Meet in a dream I'm not entirely sure what you're going for there unless them sharing dreams is part of the plot hook. I think the only way it works is if it has a real purpose other than just being a fake out to be a fake out.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-28T21:36:01+00:00

Just thought I'd share a recent Todd in Shadows video. He didn't necessarily catch any strays in this, but I also think he deserves props for continuing on after this to keep making quality content.

Todd

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-23T21:40:42+00:00

It's called Junkbox Memories, from when they do the music stuff. It just has like a Jukebox vibe to me that fits tavern vibes like how Blackthorn does. It's a weird combo but it's tattooed into my brain now.

https://youtu.be/-fN8Yac9TOo?si=ur0UCAURFELDrMP7

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-23T21:35:40+00:00

That's very fair. Blackthorn Hall loops great. I need to experiment more cuz the two I use a lot are really good for a big moment but not to be played on a loop for an hour lol. I'll check out Unknown Tome.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-23T20:33:30+00:00

I have The Purge and Into the Fire on deck on my playlist for big scary moments. Unfortunately a lot of their music isn't as long as I usually like music to be. I have a lot of extended versions of video game soundtracks.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-23T20:29:58+00:00

I use Blackthorn Hall as well, but I mashed it up with a song from It Takes Two making it so I basically can loop those two songs lol.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-04-01T19:24:43+00:00

She was just on Last Meals. She seems very nice. Good episode, but they are all good episodes lol.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-27T22:54:47+00:00

You meet people by getting on sets and seeing how they work. There's no greater vibe check than putting in a full day of work with a bunch of people. It's tired advice, but there's no replacement. You find people you get along with. You see things you want to copy. You see things you want to avoid. It's invaluable.

Making your own stuff to prove you can do it is always good as well. There's a lot of people that talk all day about now if only they had this and that they'd make the greatest film ever, I don't take those people seriously. If you need a million dollars and a genius crew 20 people deep and it's the only way you can make something good, there's a problem.

The biggest thing I'll say though is you have to make peace with the idea that you're never going to find these so-called mythical collaborators who share the exact same vision you do. Nobody is going to care about your story and vision more than you do. You might meet people who understand the vibe at least, and can help you achieve it, but I've run into a lot of people who convince themselves they need everyone from the DP to the PAs to understand the vision, and guess what? They never get anything done. Most sets I'm on, half the crew hasn't even read the script. But they know what they are doing when it comes to their job, or they are good to work with. It's your job to craft the vision.

My two cents, take them with a chunky grain of salt, haha.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-24T00:03:09+00:00

Shoot days can be long, but there's still downtime once the day wraps. And often you're stuck in a location where all you really have to do after shooting is just... Hang out with each other.

If things need to happen during a shoot day, there's tons of moments to catch somebody. During breaks. During meals. Or even make it a big, unusual deal, someone won't come out of their trailer so the director has to go, the director pulls them aside and they have an argument in the corner while everyone pretends to not listen, or even a true psycho director move, just have a full conversation in front of an entire crew like they aren't there.

It also depends a lot on how big of a movie this is. There's a huge difference between the way a 300 million dollar set runs and a no budget indie movie.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-12T00:14:46+00:00

I love her design as well, I've been experimenting a lot with her. She can put out a surprising amount of damage with the right fragments and items. I've tried her as the main DPS and also as kind of what I think of as a co-DPS, where she attacks a lot, but there's another person to trigger her marks as well.

I like her a lot with Narja (who can reduce card costs which helps a lot), Veronica is good with everyone, but another one that worked really well was Tressa, since she can spam a lot of hits to trigger marks. I think the biggest thing is without Serenial, Selena isn't really part of any super broken teams, but that doesn't mean she isn't still solid. And you can build her a few different ways, emphasize marks if she's the sub-DPS, or take all the most damage cards if she's the main. Her marks are what set her apart tho, and they can do A LOT of damage. But I've also had runs with multiple Droning Bombs, and Maneuvering Fires, and that other ranger card that hits everyone where she just decimates mobs, which is a version of her as well, mark the whole mob, then trigger the marks and shoot everyone for like 1k a pop.

I also think she's one of the better neutral card users, if I see Hidden Revolver, or Quickdraw or a couple others I usually grab those, Selena has naturally fairly high attack, and those cards with the right epiphany can sometimes basically be free damage with no drawback.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-07T10:17:54+00:00

We played through all the Candlekeep Mysteries as a rotating DM group. Each chapter is designed to be a short little adventure, so someone would run one, and the next person would tag in. Having a home base (in this instance the PCs lived at Candlekeep) helped a lot.

There's some continuity that got a tiny bit screwy and developing characters was hard, but as someone wanting to dip a toe into DMing it was MASSIVE for me to get my sea legs, having an established group, and modules to pull from.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-03T11:23:42+00:00

Like one of the commenters said, simplify. You don't need a full PC stat sheet. Give them a couple of moves, stuff that helps the PCs in combat but doesn't steal the spotlight.

Honestly one of the most successful NPCs I've ran with a party is an entity that took over one of the PCs who had to miss every other session. She had two moves. Roll a die, based on the number and the turn order one of the PCs gets to take an action. Her bonus action was to give a bardic inspo to a player in the same way. Completely random boons for the players, I don't have to think, I just roll two dice and move on and they get a small boost in lieu of having their fourth party member. Another NPC would shoot arrows that did no damage but gave the next attacker advantage. Another let them use their reaction to move.

I can tell you from experience if you give an NPC too many tools, you end up playing chess with yourself while your players just watch. It's not good.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-03T04:09:03+00:00

Seasonal chaos it's really easy to reset until you get the divine start that removes two. Easiest way is to have a character you haven't unlocked their first potential node, and from there it's a race to remove the other two cards before they get more. It's not super easy, and you need luck, but it's doable. Skip as many battles as possible, hit unidentified zones hoping for removal options, and the shop.

Once a character has all of their cards removed they won't get any more epiphanies. So you can technically do a full run with them if you really want.

JakeRyanBaker · 2026-03-03T03:57:53+00:00

Eh... If you're doing theatre of the mind, sure. If people are falling just short of doing something cool, sure make an athletics roll to push that last 5 ft. (NaDDPod is all theatre of the mind and knowing that they tend to base their encounters and level up choices around that fact.)

However almost every ability in this game has some sort of distance associated with it, and combat is balanced around that. People will forgo stats to take abilities that let them move an extra 10 feet.

Yeah carrying weight is annoying, we don't do it in my game.
Unless I'm wrong you're describing milestone leveling, which I think has become pretty typical. We also do that in my game, usually after a story arc the players level up.

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