So my group had our session last night and I've had something happen that I'm new to as a DM. I'm going to give a bit of backstory so you all are aware of the situation.
My players started out in the city of Bassone hired by a wealthy merchant to recover an artifact stolen from him, through trying to find/collect this artifact they learned of it's connection to a cult trying to bring back a long dead king. Before it could be recovered the artifacts power was unleashed by the cultists causing a mass rising of the cities dead throwing the city into chaos.
After days of battling undead and looters the group decided to have a friendly duel in an empty street in front of a foreign embassy, when the Civil Guard arrived after hearing the commotion of battle the ordered the group to leave the area. The group complied but not before the groups mystic telepathically provoked the captain of the guard who then ordered 2 of his men to follow the group.
When the groups Tiefling Fighter realized they where being followed he used minor illusion to try and draw the guards down a side alley, the situation escalated and one of the guards ended up dead. The Tiefling fled and the rest of the party where arrested.
While the party was released (they themselves weren't apart of the fight) the Tiefling had a fairly large bounty placed on him. Eventually the group left Bassone and made their way south to try and destroy the artifact, the whole time being tracked by a bounty hunter.
Now I was going to have the group get attacked by amateur bounty hunters first and then when a good opportunity came to go after just the Tiefling the professional bounty hunter would make his move. Well the first thing the party did was split with the Tiefling going off on his own, and so the bounty hunter made his move.
Now the Tiefling was captured and being taken to collect the bounty and a few hours later the rest of the party found out what happened and set out to get their companion back. Here's where it took a turn.
They traveled for about a day to n the direction they thought the bounty would go (didn't try to track him, ask people which way he went or anything) and eventually found out that the bounty hunter was actually traveling in a completely different direction. They choose to give up and not go after him, effectively abandoning their Tiefling companion to his fate (something the player running the Tiefling fully supported).
Now I have my players make 2 characters so that way if one dies (or apparently is abandoned by the party/player) there's already a new character that can be introduced so that's covered.
So my question is has anyone had something like this happen before? How did you handle the character, did you effectively "out of sight, out of mind" them or did you make that character a NPC and weave them back into the game at some point under your control?
That is completely up to you and the player. Ask the player if they are done with the character and is fine with it being an NPC that you do what you will to. If You want to bring the character back as an enemy, they may be happy to continue to play the character in that role.
If the player is cool with it and it sounds like they are just handwave them out for now and keep it in mind for later to use as a potential hook or just general flavor at some point. Like if they return to Bassone they run into the former PC as a slave/prisoner or his corpse/head is on display as a warning depending on what fits the story at the time.
I've given it a bit of thought since I posted and I'm leaning towards a couple options. I'm not really a fan of just dropping PCs off, even if a player quits I tend to keep their PC around as an NPC.
What I'm thinking is either having it so that the cult the group is facing uses it's influence to get ahold of the PC and gather information about the party.
OR
The PC actually has a criminal background (he was an enforcer for a criminal organization called The Dagger Mark) and so I may incorporate something from that but I'm still working on that one. Maybe the organization gets him out and learns about the artifact and sends him to get it, or the organization is hired by the cult and he's the one they send.
If the player is cool with me turning his PC into a NPC would it be too much for me to alter his stats? This player is the opposite of a min/maxer and determines his characters progression at random making his stats less than functional
According to my campaign's No Evil Characters rule, since the Tiefling Fighter committed murder, as soon as the session ends he becomes an NPC under the DM's control.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey guys,
So my group had our session last night and I've had something happen that I'm new to as a DM. I'm going to give a bit of backstory so you all are aware of the situation.
My players started out in the city of Bassone hired by a wealthy merchant to recover an artifact stolen from him, through trying to find/collect this artifact they learned of it's connection to a cult trying to bring back a long dead king. Before it could be recovered the artifacts power was unleashed by the cultists causing a mass rising of the cities dead throwing the city into chaos.
After days of battling undead and looters the group decided to have a friendly duel in an empty street in front of a foreign embassy, when the Civil Guard arrived after hearing the commotion of battle the ordered the group to leave the area. The group complied but not before the groups mystic telepathically provoked the captain of the guard who then ordered 2 of his men to follow the group.
When the groups Tiefling Fighter realized they where being followed he used minor illusion to try and draw the guards down a side alley, the situation escalated and one of the guards ended up dead. The Tiefling fled and the rest of the party where arrested.
While the party was released (they themselves weren't apart of the fight) the Tiefling had a fairly large bounty placed on him. Eventually the group left Bassone and made their way south to try and destroy the artifact, the whole time being tracked by a bounty hunter.
Now I was going to have the group get attacked by amateur bounty hunters first and then when a good opportunity came to go after just the Tiefling the professional bounty hunter would make his move. Well the first thing the party did was split with the Tiefling going off on his own, and so the bounty hunter made his move.
Now the Tiefling was captured and being taken to collect the bounty and a few hours later the rest of the party found out what happened and set out to get their companion back. Here's where it took a turn.
They traveled for about a day to n the direction they thought the bounty would go (didn't try to track him, ask people which way he went or anything) and eventually found out that the bounty hunter was actually traveling in a completely different direction. They choose to give up and not go after him, effectively abandoning their Tiefling companion to his fate (something the player running the Tiefling fully supported).
Now I have my players make 2 characters so that way if one dies (or apparently is abandoned by the party/player) there's already a new character that can be introduced so that's covered.
So my question is has anyone had something like this happen before? How did you handle the character, did you effectively "out of sight, out of mind" them or did you make that character a NPC and weave them back into the game at some point under your control?
That is completely up to you and the player. Ask the player if they are done with the character and is fine with it being an NPC that you do what you will to. If You want to bring the character back as an enemy, they may be happy to continue to play the character in that role.
If the player is cool with it and it sounds like they are just handwave them out for now and keep it in mind for later to use as a potential hook or just general flavor at some point. Like if they return to Bassone they run into the former PC as a slave/prisoner or his corpse/head is on display as a warning depending on what fits the story at the time.
I often just drop the former PC. Often the players don't really care about what happens after they leave the party.
I've given it a bit of thought since I posted and I'm leaning towards a couple options. I'm not really a fan of just dropping PCs off, even if a player quits I tend to keep their PC around as an NPC.
What I'm thinking is either having it so that the cult the group is facing uses it's influence to get ahold of the PC and gather information about the party.
OR
The PC actually has a criminal background (he was an enforcer for a criminal organization called The Dagger Mark) and so I may incorporate something from that but I'm still working on that one. Maybe the organization gets him out and learns about the artifact and sends him to get it, or the organization is hired by the cult and he's the one they send.
If the player is cool with me turning his PC into a NPC would it be too much for me to alter his stats? This player is the opposite of a min/maxer and determines his characters progression at random making his stats less than functional
I'd try to avoid messing with the stats too much. You can the character a few extra ASIs to help if needed. Ultimately up to you though.
According to my campaign's No Evil Characters rule, since the Tiefling Fighter committed murder, as soon as the session ends he becomes an NPC under the DM's control.