Meh, overloading is actually a fairly well practiced tactic most GM's, or at least I also use, due to the high number of in-actives that pretty much always crops up eventually. I usually did it with my D&D campaigns online and still ended up with 4 or 5 at most, out of eight or even on one occasion nine players having to start with. 

I imagine if people do leave mid-game due to RL or what have you, they're PC's wont be exiting peacefully... :K