Can you still play D&D with a player missing?

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Had a player that missed a session and we decided that the character's absence was because his pet cat had laid down on top of him and he didn't want to move and disturb them.

In one if my partner's old dnd games, there was one guy who often missed the game. They all decided that this guy's character had narcolepsy, but not in a convenient way... The group had to actively figure out what to do with this guy's limp, unconscious body, dragging it with them while they continued the campaign from wherever they left off when he's absent - like throwing his body at the guards that just showed up at the end of the previous game, lol

In our last campaign, one of my character's biggest elements was that he was replaced by the fay with a changeling as child, so in the modern time, said changeling became one of our most heinous enemies. One time I had to miss a session, so since I couldn't make it, the Changeling secretly kidnapped me, and took my place. When I came back the next session, I returned not as my character....but as the Changeling taking on the guise of my character. Then, as the Changeling, I led them to a secret location, where they discovered my character, tied to a post, and one of the biggest battles of their lives upon them, at which point I took back my character, the DM took back control of the Changeling, and we all rolled for initiative.

I died at “Jury Duty.” It’s so wonderfully mundane I LOVE IT.

In my campaign, I introduced a magical location called The Midnight Library, which is basically just "big ol' interdimensional labyrinth of books run by a friendly owlbear". Door only opens at midnight, so the missing player typically leaves a note behind for the party to find after a long rest. Whoever's missing then gets to make rolls for learning info on literally any aspect of the world, since they're surrounded by HEAPS of lore. Makes for a good absence AND they get to dig deeper into the story and find out key info on the sly!

I gave my players an empty genie's lamp that's made of wild magic. It's lonely without it's genie (who was freed by it's previous master), so occasionally will scoop one of the party members inside for company. In character, the party has done everything they can think of to get their friends out, stop the effect from happening, or ditch the lamp, but it has gotten attached <3

In my online game, the reason the DM gives for missing players is they have a tummy ache. Sure, we can fight drow matriarchs, take on the Xanathar's Guild, and even survive death itself! But gotta take some time for self care when that roast disagrees with your tum-tum.

So in my party's first session we did Mines of Phandelver and one of our players was late. She was a sorcerer with a noble background. So we had some fun with it and said that as a noble she's not used to getting up early and was still sleeping. The party set her in the wagon still sleeping and it was great because we had just finished the first combat when she arrived so her character woke up in a wagon surrounded by dead goblins. We all had a good chuckle about that.

I DMed for a party with a Zealot barbarian. The one time he knew he was going to miss session, we just had him die at the end of the previous session, since Zealots can come back at no cost.

We did the summon thing for our table when a member had a serious health condition and would be gone for a while (possibly indefinitely); his character was summoned to deal with a court case associated with a backstory conflict. When he came back, the changes with the conflict were ones we could bring into the game, so it didn't feel quite so excuse-y.

In my first campaign, one of my players was absent so we just pretended she had wondered into the woods, got blackout drunk and then the party just tied her to the horse and there she stayed for 2 sessions cause she got really sick, I still laugh about it to this day 😂

Before starting DnD I didn’t know this was a common problem, I just knew it would be one with my friends. So I built this into the campaign. Their whole goal is to resurrect an npc who died in the first session, but in order to keep his soul from moving to the afterlife, they have to let him share their body through a tether. So they tethered him to a magic amulet and whoever is wearing the amulet acts like they are in a trance. Whenever someone is missing, they are wearing the amulet, and when they come back, I let them role play conversations they had with their friend’s soul inside their mind.

My missing party members are protected by magical plot bubbles. They’re present with the party, they travel together and experience all the same adventures, in combat they’re fighting a minion off to the side (no actual monster stat block or hit points are tracked here, it’s narrative background combat), and they’re perfectly fine as long as the party isn’t all taken down somehow. This all depends on the DM/players filling in the missing player on what happened, but that would need to happen regardless.

i play in a campaign at a local game shop, and our running gag whenever someone is absent is that their character is hanging out in the bag of holding. the bag of holding has also been a convenient place for new player characters to spawn from 😂

I’m lucky to have players that are perfectly willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to player absence. If I need to come up with an excuse I just say the party member stayed behind to manage/guard the excess treasure the group has collected. But further than that, if the session is a BIG one, we just reschedule. Even for last minute emergencies. It’s only happened twice and the delay was 100% worth it to have everyone there. Besides, we got to play Minecraft.

All the way back in sophomore year high school my friends and I had our first player absence, and the GM said "idk he's in the shadow realm or something." This has spread to every other group we play in or DM for and its absolutely hilarious. Player's absent? oh their character's in the shadow realm. The shadow realm doesnt even exist within any game we play. what being shadow realmed actually means is that that character basically ceased existing for that one session, and next time theyre back, no one even acts like they were ever gone to begin with.

I designed my Eberron game to play as a series of one-shots like a television show. If players couldn't come, their characters weren't in that "episode". There were the major episodes that needed the full cast to play out but a minor episode would always be available if anyone dropped out last minute. More planning required for this tactic but since I was very into this idea it was more fun for me. Major episode: casino heist. Minor episode: investigating a murder. Too bad I couldn't keep the group together at all. I had big plans for that campaign.

We had a player who missed a great many sessions when it was not her fault. She came up with "my character is a raging alcoholic. So when I can't be here, Mitara is drunk."

Considering the character I'm about to play on next campaign, I have a list of options on why she's absent in game "Ugh! Wake me up tomorrow! I drank too much last night!" (Heavy drinker) "Sorry guys, I have to make a quick stop at that village over there. Have to fill up this months quota." (Patron related)