I need help. I have a player that will be able exiting our group, but she is doing so at a difficult point in relation to where the PC's are (location). I'm usually not bad at coming up with ideas that make sense. However, I'm struggling with this one. Below is the scenario / location.
She is a half orc barbarian... She is the mayor of phandalin.. The party is currently enroute back to phandalin, but they are 6 days out. They are coming from the Evermoors, which is north east from phandalin. The party is currently being approached by 5 trolls. I was thinking she could draw two of them away, but that is all I can think of... One player has a sending spell, so GETTING her lost doesn't really work as I suspect they will go search for her. I need it done in a way for her to either get back to phandalin before everyone else or have a member of the Lords alliance find her, as they want her for an assignment on her own (the entire party are members of the lords alliance) ... Or I'm open to other ideas, but I just don't want to kill her off.
Do the rest of the group know that the player is exiting the group? If so the players will probably understand and not search for her too hard.
One thing you could do is have her not return and when they search for her they find two dead trolls but no sign of her. They might find the residue of some chalk infused with gem dust.
A member of the Lord's alliance was sent to find her to bring back so she could do the assignment they have for her (presuamably so secret the rest of the group shouldn't know about it). When she was seperate from the group he took the opportunity to teleport her away.
Have the trolls going to attack Phandalin and she, decides to run ahead and warn the town. After that she decides to become mayor full time and stops adventuring and becomes a NPC. Done :)
Not sure I fully understand why the character needs to reach phandalin before the party?
That said if a player is leaving the campaign at such an inopportune moment I would run the character as a npc for the fight against the trolls then have her travel with the group to phandalin and then have the character bid the party a teary farewell
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Do the rest of the group know that the player is exiting the group? If so the players will probably understand and not search for her too hard.
One thing you could do is have her not return and when they search for her they find two dead trolls but no sign of her. They might find the residue of some chalk infused with gem dust.
A member of the Lord's alliance was sent to find her to bring back so she could do the assignment they have for her (presuamably so secret the rest of the group shouldn't know about it). When she was seperate from the group he took the opportunity to teleport her away.
Yes, the rest of the group knows she is leaving.
I had those exact same thoughts, but wasn't sure if it made sense. Ty
Have the trolls going to attack Phandalin and she, decides to run ahead and warn the town. After that she decides to become mayor full time and stops adventuring and becomes a NPC. Done :)
Not sure I fully understand why the character needs to reach phandalin before the party?
That said if a player is leaving the campaign at such an inopportune moment I would run the character as a npc for the fight against the trolls then have her travel with the group to phandalin and then have the character bid the party a teary farewell
It just seemed an easy way to have her be away from the party and made sense for her character to go back "home"
Not sure I fully understand why the character needs to reach phandalin before the party?
That said if a player is leaving the campaign at such an inopportune moment I would run the character as a npc for the fight against the trolls then have her travel with the group to phandalin and then have the character bid the party a teary farewell
It just seemed an easy way to have her be away from the party and made sense for her character to go back "home"
ah ok that's cool then, so no problem then just running the character as an NPC for the troll fight and then parting ways once they all reach Phandalin.
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Yeah, I think there's a lot of consideration being made to a character belonging to a player who is no longer part of the game. I mean, of course, there's no need to Tasha Yar the character, but at the same time sort of giving the character some sort of elevated status and role privileged to the story does mild unintentional disservice to the players actually playing the game. The simplest resolution is to keep the party member as an NPC member till they all return, that way you can run at least the trip home scaled to the party as designed.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The realms are lousy with retired adventurers. There is at least one living in Phandalin. If the player isn't continuing with the character in another group, just have her retire and decide to stay and protect her home. When I moved abroad and couldn't continue with my then group, I had my character retire to her house in Waterdeep and I said that she was busy managing her assets that she acquired through adventuring. She could still return to adventuring, but it gives her something to do in the meantime. Also, it lets me use her as an NPC when I run Dragonheist.
It's actually where a lot of famous NPCs came from-- retired player characters. You might, in honour of the player, make the character an NPC in your adventurers moving forward. Even if you run a game for a completely different set of players, you can include those characters to help you make that world your own.
I need help. I have a player that will be able exiting our group, but she is doing so at a difficult point in relation to where the PC's are (location). I'm usually not bad at coming up with ideas that make sense. However, I'm struggling with this one. Below is the scenario / location.
She is a half orc barbarian... She is the mayor of phandalin.. The party is currently enroute back to phandalin, but they are 6 days out. They are coming from the Evermoors, which is north east from phandalin. The party is currently being approached by 5 trolls. I was thinking she could draw two of them away, but that is all I can think of... One player has a sending spell, so GETTING her lost doesn't really work as I suspect they will go search for her. I need it done in a way for her to either get back to phandalin before everyone else or have a member of the Lords alliance find her, as they want her for an assignment on her own (the entire party are members of the lords alliance) ... Or I'm open to other ideas, but I just don't want to kill her off.
Do the rest of the group know that the player is exiting the group? If so the players will probably understand and not search for her too hard.
One thing you could do is have her not return and when they search for her they find two dead trolls but no sign of her. They might find the residue of some chalk infused with gem dust.
A member of the Lord's alliance was sent to find her to bring back so she could do the assignment they have for her (presuamably so secret the rest of the group shouldn't know about it). When she was seperate from the group he took the opportunity to teleport her away.
Have the trolls going to attack Phandalin and she, decides to run ahead and warn the town. After that she decides to become mayor full time and stops adventuring and becomes a NPC. Done :)
Her tribe's leader (father) died and they need her to act as chief to avoid a war, bye bye, easy peasy.
Not sure I fully understand why the character needs to reach phandalin before the party?
That said if a player is leaving the campaign at such an inopportune moment I would run the character as a npc for the fight against the trolls then have her travel with the group to phandalin and then have the character bid the party a teary farewell
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Yes, the rest of the group knows she is leaving.
I had those exact same thoughts, but wasn't sure if it made sense. Ty
Ok. Nice idea thanks
Not bad.. Unfortunately she does not have a tribe, but this guves me another idea. Ty
It just seemed an easy way to have her be away from the party and made sense for her character to go back "home"
ah ok that's cool then, so no problem then just running the character as an NPC for the troll fight and then parting ways once they all reach Phandalin.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Yeah, I think there's a lot of consideration being made to a character belonging to a player who is no longer part of the game. I mean, of course, there's no need to Tasha Yar the character, but at the same time sort of giving the character some sort of elevated status and role privileged to the story does mild unintentional disservice to the players actually playing the game. The simplest resolution is to keep the party member as an NPC member till they all return, that way you can run at least the trip home scaled to the party as designed.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The realms are lousy with retired adventurers. There is at least one living in Phandalin. If the player isn't continuing with the character in another group, just have her retire and decide to stay and protect her home. When I moved abroad and couldn't continue with my then group, I had my character retire to her house in Waterdeep and I said that she was busy managing her assets that she acquired through adventuring. She could still return to adventuring, but it gives her something to do in the meantime. Also, it lets me use her as an NPC when I run Dragonheist.
It's actually where a lot of famous NPCs came from-- retired player characters. You might, in honour of the player, make the character an NPC in your adventurers moving forward. Even if you run a game for a completely different set of players, you can include those characters to help you make that world your own.
Thank you all