Have you had a character (Not the player) leave the group mid campaign on bad terms?
How did you approach this and what do to help the player gain closure?
In my instance, this character was CN so the decision made by the player did make complete sense even though the player had been with this character every week for about a year.
Yes, in a prior campaign one of the characters left prior to the culminating events. He had developed as a GOOlock (blade) and shortly after questing for and receiving the weapons that were deemed instrumental to defeating a Netherese Lichqueen, abandoned his party. The party had been explicitly stating that they were undoing his eldritch carvings before they would leave an area, and were role playing that he was no longer the man they grew up with. These actions, coupled with his own parents and town rejecting him, led him to a dark and conflicted place. He was not an evil character, but held a lot of personal darkness in addition to actions he took to fulfill his Pact. Anyway one evening as the party was making their way south from the Spine of the World heading back to Daggerford, he mounted his pegasus steed and flew off into the darkness.
We discussed plans on bringing the character back as an antagonist later, still might as the world I run is persistent (since 3.0).
Like hawksmoor says, turn them into a villain, it will be fun for everyone. If the player’s given them up, they are officially an NPC, and you can do whatever you want with them. Villain is the most fun/interesting since the character presumably has personal relationships with the other characters, and knows how to exploit them. If the old character betrays the party on their way out, it will be really fun for the players to get some payback. It can be among the most interesting, well-developed villains you create
Or you can have them still just floating around, maybe they dip in as a guest star from time to time, helping out on specific quests. Or they strike it rich and actually get to a place where they can hire the party for some job or other.
I DMed a 4e campaign that had a player who was very excited by new content, especially exotic races and classes. Every time a new thing was released he wanted to play it, and I think most of his enjoyment of D&D came from trying out all the most outrageous combos he could think of. Consequently he often played characters that were less than ideal, either because mechanics didn't work or they didn't work well with the rest of the party who were happy sticking with the same characters. So on a regular basis we had to work out ways to change his character to something else. It was a bit disruptive, but everyone understood this was part of his fun, and he was willing to roll with any changes/suggestions we asked for to help make it work.
Of course a longer term character leaving has a much greater impact than what I was just describing. But what I learned from that experience is that it's more important to work with the players all together to make the fun happen the way you want it to happen, rather than trying to do it in game all by yourself. Spending the few minutes out of character to find out what everyone WANTS to have happen can help ease the transition, as well as helping the other players in the party feel like they're really helping craft the story.
I'm DMing a campain right now where we just transitioned from LMoP to OotA. I don't think I could have planned transition any better, it was all just winging it on the spot. Basically, there were a Lizardfolk rogue and a Tabaxi wild magic sorc that weren't meshing too well with the rest of the "good" characters. The two players and I came up with an idea to remove them from the campaign somehow and they would start OotA with different characters.
The group reached the point where they fought against the main antagonist, The Black Spider, but he managed to get away. The group took a long rest in the room where the corpse of Gundren's brother was being held (how he became a corpse is another story...basically wild magic surge on a random creature lol). After the long rest, the group is making their way back to the entrance of the mines when they finally open the room with all the bugbears. In the middle of the fight, "something" casts Darkness on the group. I look at the two players and nod "It's time". The two characters step out of the way as a lot of Drow line up a firing squad and proceed to shoot the group with their poisoned bolts. One by one, the characters drop and go unconscious with no idea what just happened. You know the beginning of Skyrim where the character is being hauled in the cart...like that but in the Underdark. The characters wake up, the Lizardfolk and Tabaxi aren't there and the party now finds themselves prisoners of the Drow.
Now I've just gotta figure out how to set the stage for the party realizing they've been betrayed.
Have you had a character (Not the player) leave the group mid campaign on bad terms?
How did you approach this and what do to help the player gain closure?
In my instance, this character was CN so the decision made by the player did make complete sense even though the player had been with this character every week for about a year.
You could try to use the character's backstory and bond "against" its alignment, and make it come back in the party.
Yes, in a prior campaign one of the characters left prior to the culminating events. He had developed as a GOOlock (blade) and shortly after questing for and receiving the weapons that were deemed instrumental to defeating a Netherese Lichqueen, abandoned his party. The party had been explicitly stating that they were undoing his eldritch carvings before they would leave an area, and were role playing that he was no longer the man they grew up with. These actions, coupled with his own parents and town rejecting him, led him to a dark and conflicted place. He was not an evil character, but held a lot of personal darkness in addition to actions he took to fulfill his Pact. Anyway one evening as the party was making their way south from the Spine of the World heading back to Daggerford, he mounted his pegasus steed and flew off into the darkness.
We discussed plans on bringing the character back as an antagonist later, still might as the world I run is persistent (since 3.0).
Like hawksmoor says, turn them into a villain, it will be fun for everyone. If the player’s given them up, they are officially an NPC, and you can do whatever you want with them. Villain is the most fun/interesting since the character presumably has personal relationships with the other characters, and knows how to exploit them. If the old character betrays the party on their way out, it will be really fun for the players to get some payback. It can be among the most interesting, well-developed villains you create
Or you can have them still just floating around, maybe they dip in as a guest star from time to time, helping out on specific quests. Or they strike it rich and actually get to a place where they can hire the party for some job or other.
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InsiderI DMed a 4e campaign that had a player who was very excited by new content, especially exotic races and classes. Every time a new thing was released he wanted to play it, and I think most of his enjoyment of D&D came from trying out all the most outrageous combos he could think of. Consequently he often played characters that were less than ideal, either because mechanics didn't work or they didn't work well with the rest of the party who were happy sticking with the same characters. So on a regular basis we had to work out ways to change his character to something else. It was a bit disruptive, but everyone understood this was part of his fun, and he was willing to roll with any changes/suggestions we asked for to help make it work.
Of course a longer term character leaving has a much greater impact than what I was just describing. But what I learned from that experience is that it's more important to work with the players all together to make the fun happen the way you want it to happen, rather than trying to do it in game all by yourself. Spending the few minutes out of character to find out what everyone WANTS to have happen can help ease the transition, as well as helping the other players in the party feel like they're really helping craft the story.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
I'm DMing a campain right now where we just transitioned from LMoP to OotA. I don't think I could have planned transition any better, it was all just winging it on the spot. Basically, there were a Lizardfolk rogue and a Tabaxi wild magic sorc that weren't meshing too well with the rest of the "good" characters. The two players and I came up with an idea to remove them from the campaign somehow and they would start OotA with different characters.
The group reached the point where they fought against the main antagonist, The Black Spider, but he managed to get away. The group took a long rest in the room where the corpse of Gundren's brother was being held (how he became a corpse is another story...basically wild magic surge on a random creature lol). After the long rest, the group is making their way back to the entrance of the mines when they finally open the room with all the bugbears. In the middle of the fight, "something" casts Darkness on the group. I look at the two players and nod "It's time". The two characters step out of the way as a lot of Drow line up a firing squad and proceed to shoot the group with their poisoned bolts. One by one, the characters drop and go unconscious with no idea what just happened. You know the beginning of Skyrim where the character is being hauled in the cart...like that but in the Underdark. The characters wake up, the Lizardfolk and Tabaxi aren't there and the party now finds themselves prisoners of the Drow.
Now I've just gotta figure out how to set the stage for the party realizing they've been betrayed.