Two of the PC's in my game have to leave temporarily (they're a couple and going away for a while) and I'm looking for some ideas on how to work that into the story. I could do the Matt Mercer and have the two PC's be kidnapped, but doesn't make too much sense in the campaign. Currently they are all going to some fireworks where they are all the guests of honour after saving the city from beasts and are about to find out that some of their NPC friends have had things stolen from them but narratively that doesn't work too well.
The big problem is they're not confident in when they'll be able to play again, they're both hoping for in a couple of weeks but it could be months.
In this scenario, I think it makes to just have the two PCs split from the party for a while, simple as that. One idea is that after revealing that some of their NPC friends had things stolen from them, you can give the party two separate leads, and have the two PCs follow one while the rest of your PCs follow the other. Maybe during this time, you can also have the two suddenly go missing, potentially having this branch out to another storyline. The active PCs find out that they're friends never actually found their quarry and are maybe held captive by whoever stole the items. If they it does take them a couple of months before they come back, you can even give the remaining PCs a red herring and imply that the missing PCs were killed during this whole ordeal (tell the absent PCs about this of course).
But yeah, that's just one of the lengthier suggestions in my mind. For simpler ones: you can just have the two PCs suddenly receive a letter from a relative about urgent matters they must attend to; or maybe they write their own letter to the party saying that they want to take a break after saving the city; or just have them leave without rhyme or reason.
Overall, it's better to just have them leave, and maybe have the rest of the party play out a couple of filler arcs before the main plot if the two PCs are going to be really important for the next few chapters. If they're going to be the focus though, like if the news few sessions will be their character arcs, then you'll have to do a few rewrites and insert a few more filler stories there.
It might be hard but I promise you can do it, and at the end of the day, you'll see it's worth it.
tl;dr there's lots of precedent in fantasy for characters going separate ways and reuniting later. Don't overthink it, keep it simple, and do the work of reintegrating the party when they return.
Keep it vague to be filled in later. As you put, you don't know when the players will be back. Best to come up with some reason for the two characters to deviate from the party's present course. When (and worse case scenario "if" which sometimes happens when players need to step from a table for "weeks to months") they return you can work a way to reintegrate them into the party. Simplest would be just hand wave the story of what happened, they rejoin and you adjust the characters accordingly experience wise (unless everyone's comfortable with the XP/level deficit). Another option would be to pause the main campaign and actually play out what the characters were doing during the absence with the rest of the players playing "new associates". I've done this and it's fun, giving the other players a chance to take more risks with their non "main" characters, although some may develop a stronger interest in playing the new ones, which requires some teasing out.
In the Dragonlance saga, it actually beings with the main characters meeting up after a five year absence. After the original trilogy, there were subsequent works which covered what the characters were up to during that five year absence, in one notable case one of the heroes has an extended adventure with a character who becomes one of the main trilogy's villains. That would be interesting to have your absent PC adventuring with these new filler PCs and then one of them takes a heel turn.
Or, maybe, if you play the absence, they don't make it back, but can assume the identifies of one of the new "B listers" introduced.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Like MidnightPlat said, keep it simple and say they have to go deal with a “personal issue.” When they get back run something special just for the two of them that would explain the absence and reunite the party. That will give you time to figure out where they went and what they were doing. It would also give you more information to use such as how much in-game time actually has to be accounted for. Finally, it will give the players an opportunity to RP their characters filling each other in on their separate adventures.
In addition to keeping it simple, I'd keep it vague. They are leaving to visit one of the character's mothers, or something else fairly boring and noncommittal about how long it might take. Whatever it is, don't make their leaving be necessary to the overall plot. Sometimes players being gone for weeks turns into months turns into they don't ever come back.
You can make their return matter to the overall plot, because then you know they'll be integrated into the group again. But keep the reasons why they leave vague and mundane, so if they never come back, you aren't left with a weird plot hole to fill.
Are they a couple in game? If so just have them say they need some time away from adventuring to spend together. As the players go traveling the characters stay at home. You don’t have to overthink it, everyone at the table knows what’s going on and that means that when they return and are ready to play again you can smoothly integrate them back at a relevant point. Maybe even have a session with them alone going through what their characters did during the downtime.
This approach also means you don’t have a story thread left hanging if the worst happens and when they return life means they can’t return. It feels like you at a good beat of the story to have them walk away and feel they have achieved something, if they do manage to return great but if they don’t then they can just be living semi retired in your main city.
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Looking for some advice.
Two of the PC's in my game have to leave temporarily (they're a couple and going away for a while) and I'm looking for some ideas on how to work that into the story. I could do the Matt Mercer and have the two PC's be kidnapped, but doesn't make too much sense in the campaign. Currently they are all going to some fireworks where they are all the guests of honour after saving the city from beasts and are about to find out that some of their NPC friends have had things stolen from them but narratively that doesn't work too well.
The big problem is they're not confident in when they'll be able to play again, they're both hoping for in a couple of weeks but it could be months.
Any ideas?
In this scenario, I think it makes to just have the two PCs split from the party for a while, simple as that. One idea is that after revealing that some of their NPC friends had things stolen from them, you can give the party two separate leads, and have the two PCs follow one while the rest of your PCs follow the other. Maybe during this time, you can also have the two suddenly go missing, potentially having this branch out to another storyline. The active PCs find out that they're friends never actually found their quarry and are maybe held captive by whoever stole the items. If they it does take them a couple of months before they come back, you can even give the remaining PCs a red herring and imply that the missing PCs were killed during this whole ordeal (tell the absent PCs about this of course).
But yeah, that's just one of the lengthier suggestions in my mind. For simpler ones: you can just have the two PCs suddenly receive a letter from a relative about urgent matters they must attend to; or maybe they write their own letter to the party saying that they want to take a break after saving the city; or just have them leave without rhyme or reason.
Overall, it's better to just have them leave, and maybe have the rest of the party play out a couple of filler arcs before the main plot if the two PCs are going to be really important for the next few chapters. If they're going to be the focus though, like if the news few sessions will be their character arcs, then you'll have to do a few rewrites and insert a few more filler stories there.
It might be hard but I promise you can do it, and at the end of the day, you'll see it's worth it.
tl;dr there's lots of precedent in fantasy for characters going separate ways and reuniting later. Don't overthink it, keep it simple, and do the work of reintegrating the party when they return.
Keep it vague to be filled in later. As you put, you don't know when the players will be back. Best to come up with some reason for the two characters to deviate from the party's present course. When (and worse case scenario "if" which sometimes happens when players need to step from a table for "weeks to months") they return you can work a way to reintegrate them into the party. Simplest would be just hand wave the story of what happened, they rejoin and you adjust the characters accordingly experience wise (unless everyone's comfortable with the XP/level deficit). Another option would be to pause the main campaign and actually play out what the characters were doing during the absence with the rest of the players playing "new associates". I've done this and it's fun, giving the other players a chance to take more risks with their non "main" characters, although some may develop a stronger interest in playing the new ones, which requires some teasing out.
In the Dragonlance saga, it actually beings with the main characters meeting up after a five year absence. After the original trilogy, there were subsequent works which covered what the characters were up to during that five year absence, in one notable case one of the heroes has an extended adventure with a character who becomes one of the main trilogy's villains. That would be interesting to have your absent PC adventuring with these new filler PCs and then one of them takes a heel turn.
Or, maybe, if you play the absence, they don't make it back, but can assume the identifies of one of the new "B listers" introduced.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Like MidnightPlat said, keep it simple and say they have to go deal with a “personal issue.” When they get back run something special just for the two of them that would explain the absence and reunite the party. That will give you time to figure out where they went and what they were doing. It would also give you more information to use such as how much in-game time actually has to be accounted for. Finally, it will give the players an opportunity to RP their characters filling each other in on their separate adventures.
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In addition to keeping it simple, I'd keep it vague. They are leaving to visit one of the character's mothers, or something else fairly boring and noncommittal about how long it might take. Whatever it is, don't make their leaving be necessary to the overall plot. Sometimes players being gone for weeks turns into months turns into they don't ever come back.
You can make their return matter to the overall plot, because then you know they'll be integrated into the group again. But keep the reasons why they leave vague and mundane, so if they never come back, you aren't left with a weird plot hole to fill.
Perhaps they could be petrified by a Medusa? And maybe you could work that into a mini-plot as the remaining characters work to find a cure?
Are they a couple in game? If so just have them say they need some time away from adventuring to spend together. As the players go traveling the characters stay at home. You don’t have to overthink it, everyone at the table knows what’s going on and that means that when they return and are ready to play again you can smoothly integrate them back at a relevant point. Maybe even have a session with them alone going through what their characters did during the downtime.
This approach also means you don’t have a story thread left hanging if the worst happens and when they return life means they can’t return. It feels like you at a good beat of the story to have them walk away and feel they have achieved something, if they do manage to return great but if they don’t then they can just be living semi retired in your main city.