A player in my campain left rather suddenly. It wasn't her fault, family health issues cropped up and she wants to spend time with her family. The thing is we were right in the middle of a story, and I need to know how to gracefully exit her character out. We just finished interrogating a con man outside a market in a costal town (where the campain is taking place) and the character is a cleric with a sailor background with his crew on an adventure elsewhere.
Is your player every coming back, or taking a break for a while?
If she's coming back, you could simply have her on a mission from her deity for however many sessions she's away. She could receive a dream, or a vision, or a local priest could ask her aid. That way, when she returns, she doesn't necessarily have to be behind the party in terms of experience and what-not.
If she's gone for good, perhaps consider her Sailor background instead. Her old crew sail into town, returning from their adventures to speak of a great evil / great treasure / great *something* in far off lands - the cleric, drawn by loyalties to his old crew, agrees to aid them in discovering its nature.
It could be left open, in case she comes back and wants to pick up her cleric again. Alternatively, he could perish in a storm that sinks the ship. He could settle in the new land, building a temple to his deity. Plenty of possibilities.
I suggest keeping the character in the game until a reasonable and logical point of exit, and then have them leave the party for completely believable reasons that leave the possibility for return, e.g. the character receives news that a family member is experiencing health issues and the character must return to the family.
When I had this happen to me, I had the character be kidnapped. I was really lucky in that this fit perfectly into the current narrative - and gave the party a new rescue goal.
When that player came back, she had decided that they wanted to swap characters and try something different.
So, we're currently drawing near to the end of that arc where her new character may rescue her old character :)
---
Alternatively, I had a player depart permanently, just after a ship-to-ship combat scene, so we just "ret-conned" them being lost overboard in the combat.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
She's taking a month long vacation for her family, I'm not sure if she will return. I think I'll have her character depeart to assist their old crew, and if she wants to return to the game she should be able to
My group just assumes that the character fell between a fold in time and space, erasing all memory of the character from existence. If the player comes back, we assume that the character emerged from the fold in space/time and nobody has any memory of the character ever being absent. It's a bit cheeky, but it's easier than trying to come up with a story for every missing character.
yeah, there is nothing wrong with a character taking a long vacation. In this case, the two could overlap. The character is taking time off from adventuring to help her family.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
A player in my campain left rather suddenly. It wasn't her fault, family health issues cropped up and she wants to spend time with her family. The thing is we were right in the middle of a story, and I need to know how to gracefully exit her character out. We just finished interrogating a con man outside a market in a costal town (where the campain is taking place) and the character is a cleric with a sailor background with his crew on an adventure elsewhere.
Is your player every coming back, or taking a break for a while?
If she's coming back, you could simply have her on a mission from her deity for however many sessions she's away. She could receive a dream, or a vision, or a local priest could ask her aid. That way, when she returns, she doesn't necessarily have to be behind the party in terms of experience and what-not.
If she's gone for good, perhaps consider her Sailor background instead. Her old crew sail into town, returning from their adventures to speak of a great evil / great treasure / great *something* in far off lands - the cleric, drawn by loyalties to his old crew, agrees to aid them in discovering its nature.
It could be left open, in case she comes back and wants to pick up her cleric again. Alternatively, he could perish in a storm that sinks the ship. He could settle in the new land, building a temple to his deity. Plenty of possibilities.
I suggest keeping the character in the game until a reasonable and logical point of exit, and then have them leave the party for completely believable reasons that leave the possibility for return, e.g. the character receives news that a family member is experiencing health issues and the character must return to the family.
When I had this happen to me, I had the character be kidnapped. I was really lucky in that this fit perfectly into the current narrative - and gave the party a new rescue goal.
When that player came back, she had decided that they wanted to swap characters and try something different.
So, we're currently drawing near to the end of that arc where her new character may rescue her old character :)
---
Alternatively, I had a player depart permanently, just after a ship-to-ship combat scene, so we just "ret-conned" them being lost overboard in the combat.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
She's taking a month long vacation for her family, I'm not sure if she will return. I think I'll have her character depeart to assist their old crew, and if she wants to return to the game she should be able to
My group just assumes that the character fell between a fold in time and space, erasing all memory of the character from existence. If the player comes back, we assume that the character emerged from the fold in space/time and nobody has any memory of the character ever being absent. It's a bit cheeky, but it's easier than trying to come up with a story for every missing character.
yeah, there is nothing wrong with a character taking a long vacation. In this case, the two could overlap. The character is taking time off from adventuring to help her family.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale