u/Expert-Law-5520

In the most recent session I ran my party entered a dungeon, but one of my players, who'll well call John, chose to not go, John had no in character reason for it he said "I climb a tree and take a nap". I think he did this because he didn't feel like playing as he proceeded to scroll on his phone for the rest of the session giving minimal interaction even when I tried to include him (he just said he went back to sleep). Next session the other players will probably finish the dungeon and I was going to have them level up as a result, and the players assume this much. One of my other players said he feels it is unfair for John to level up too since he refused to help and the other players have suffered from it (I scaled back the encounters a bit when it became clear they'd be down a man but I got the impression he assumed I didnt). I don't want to just not give John a level up when everyone else gets one since then he'll be much weaker the whole campaign, and he normally participates so it doesn't seem right to handicap him for having one bad day. But at the same time I don't want to upset my other players who feel that it's unfair. What would yall do. Right now I'm leaning towards just letting John level up and addressing it out of game if he continues to not participate.