I am new to DM'ing (about 6 months in) and just had one of our players leave a d&d group (online on Roll20) and they wont be coming back. What are some ways I can deal with their character that is left behind?
Unless the character is particularly important to the storyline for some reason then it is usually best just to write them out of the story.
The easiest way is to have them make a difficult decision to retire from adventuring or have them called away to deal with a personal or family concern (something tied to their backstory ideally). This would tend not to happen in the midst of a dungeon or other inaccessible location. You can also have them mention that if the party needs them they can probably be reached by leaving a message with a particular inn or innkeeper.
If the party is now a bit weak (i.e. only 2 characters), then I would tend to introduce an NPC at some point that would fill the needed gap rather than using a former PC in that role.
I always like the idea of having the player vanish to never be seen before during a rest.
This way I can later bring them back as an encounter seeking vengeance because they left the player to a band of bandits (What do you call a group of bandits? Band seems not right)? Or a similar situation.
It is just a fun way to make the world feel alive and remind the players that things happen in the world even when they are not involved.
I have a player who's going to be missing for an extended period of time, potentially not coming back. I spoke with him and I'm going to have his character wander off, he is a rogue, and somehow make his way back to the first city the party adventured from. He'll end up with a house and if/when the player returns, a potential location the players can use. In the mean time he'll just be one of the named NPCs of the town.
I had a Player have to be away for an extended period of time.
Their Character ended up being kidnapped by the bad guys ( it was fortuitous that it happened to make good plot sense for that to happen ), and the Party found themselves focused suddenly on rescuing their former comrade. It was a rather lengthy and interesting plot arc :)
As it turned out in my campaign, that Character never did rejoin the party ( retired to spend more time with her family and take up part of the family smuggling business ) although the Player did come back with a different Character.
You might adopt something like that - leverage the Character's disappearance, make it part of the adventure.
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Your players will help with this as well. Everyone understands the reality behind gaming, and sometimes life happens and people have to leave a game. Have a brief chat with your players beforehand and see if anyone has any specific issues or objections to how to remove the character from the game. I suggest this ESPECIALLY if you are planning on killing off the character, as if the players don't know what's going some might be upset having that character get killed and not being able to do anything about it.
Having the buy in with your players will help move the story along past the removal of the PC.
I suggest turning them into a NPC and gradually have them shift to settle down or carry on with the character's personal goals. That way its more realistic and falls in line with what could really happen. That way there isnt a death of the character and if you wanted to down the line have the party meet with the charater again for a possible information trove to make a adventure hook to follow up into later. I'm battling the same issue and plan to have them separate after my group finishes exploring and have the character be used as an extra for later.
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Hey y'all,
I am new to DM'ing (about 6 months in) and just had one of our players leave a d&d group (online on Roll20) and they wont be coming back. What are some ways I can deal with their character that is left behind?
Thanks in advance!
You can:
Unless the character is particularly important to the storyline for some reason then it is usually best just to write them out of the story.
The easiest way is to have them make a difficult decision to retire from adventuring or have them called away to deal with a personal or family concern (something tied to their backstory ideally). This would tend not to happen in the midst of a dungeon or other inaccessible location. You can also have them mention that if the party needs them they can probably be reached by leaving a message with a particular inn or innkeeper.
If the party is now a bit weak (i.e. only 2 characters), then I would tend to introduce an NPC at some point that would fill the needed gap rather than using a former PC in that role.
I always like the idea of having the player vanish to never be seen before during a rest.
This way I can later bring them back as an encounter seeking vengeance because they left the player to a band of bandits (What do you call a group of bandits? Band seems not right)? Or a similar situation.
It is just a fun way to make the world feel alive and remind the players that things happen in the world even when they are not involved.
Thanks Everyone for all of the great ideas! I will definitely be writing all this down for future reference.
I have a player who's going to be missing for an extended period of time, potentially not coming back. I spoke with him and I'm going to have his character wander off, he is a rogue, and somehow make his way back to the first city the party adventured from. He'll end up with a house and if/when the player returns, a potential location the players can use. In the mean time he'll just be one of the named NPCs of the town.
I had a Player have to be away for an extended period of time.
Their Character ended up being kidnapped by the bad guys ( it was fortuitous that it happened to make good plot sense for that to happen ), and the Party found themselves focused suddenly on rescuing their former comrade. It was a rather lengthy and interesting plot arc :)
As it turned out in my campaign, that Character never did rejoin the party ( retired to spend more time with her family and take up part of the family smuggling business ) although the Player did come back with a different Character.
You might adopt something like that - leverage the Character's disappearance, make it part of the adventure.
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.
Three words: spontaneous human combustion.
(Or elf. Or dwarf. Etc.)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
I love all the ideas people have given, in this case this person just up, left, and quit the discord server and the Roll20 Campaign xD
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InsiderYour players will help with this as well. Everyone understands the reality behind gaming, and sometimes life happens and people have to leave a game. Have a brief chat with your players beforehand and see if anyone has any specific issues or objections to how to remove the character from the game. I suggest this ESPECIALLY if you are planning on killing off the character, as if the players don't know what's going some might be upset having that character get killed and not being able to do anything about it.
Having the buy in with your players will help move the story along past the removal of the PC.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
I suggest turning them into a NPC and gradually have them shift to settle down or carry on with the character's personal goals. That way its more realistic and falls in line with what could really happen. That way there isnt a death of the character and if you wanted to down the line have the party meet with the charater again for a possible information trove to make a adventure hook to follow up into later. I'm battling the same issue and plan to have them separate after my group finishes exploring and have the character be used as an extra for later.