Characters coming and going (your opinion)

[the Jester]

Well, it sucks to have to be the hard ass, but if it were my game, I'd tell him that he was stuck, since he already acted on his choice to enter the dungeon (or whatever) with the party when he knew what his options were. I'd let him leave the party at the first opportunity, but I wouldn't insert a teleport trap into the dungeon unless it's realistic that the trap might be there.

I know that a lot of people are going to argue that friendship trumps gaming. Yeah, it does. But I won't let a friend into my game if he's not compatible with my group and our style, and this falls into the same kind of category imho: in-game stuff that shouldn't effect your friendship. So what if he dies? Pcs die, right? Just start a new campaign when he's next around, and everyone will have to make new characters anyhow.

I understand his feelings- I really do- but to reverse his decision at this point seems to be very inconsiderate on his part. He should have thought it out ahead of time. I'd try to come to an agreement with him, but if the party is in an Unescapable Fortress or something, he shouldn't be able to just POOF! escape.

 

[Strife]

just takeover his character.

in our games if a person cannot be there or in this case is gone indefenately, the dm plays the character until a suitable time to remove them from the party. Said character is immune to death and participates marginally at best because the party is the spotlight not npcs. We always ruled that a character could not die unless their player was in attendence.
If you TPK the party the games essentially over anyway so then it is ok to kill that character as well

 

[jmucchiello]

If they need an NPC stealth skill guy, just retcon replacing him before they entered the dungeon. The replacement did everything he did up till now. Ironically, the replacement has all the same characteristics and equipment as the player's character and his name even similar except for the strange '2' symbol at the end. It's a game, don't sweat it.

 

[theemrys]

For me, I'd have him become an NPC. If you wanted to you could have him "slip off" from the rest of the group, abandoning them and leaving for the surface on his own.. (to which you figure out if he'd make it or not...) but leave the other players a person sort. In similar situations I usually find the player either wants their character to die in a cool way, or be NPCed.

Personally, I put more emphasis on the story so having him just "disappear" would be out for me... if he really wants to leave the party, he'd have to struggle his way out on his own.. and not likely make it.

 

[Old Drew Id]

I would use the teleport trap, but replace it with a "plane shift" type of trap - the character gets replaced with his "alternate dimension equivalent." Take the basic character and reverse everything that can be reversed, but leave him as a stealthy scout guy so that he is still what the party needs. But now his name is spelled backwards, he has the opposite alignment, he's left-handed, he has a goatee, etc. If he used to have a flaming weapon, it is now a frost weapon...you get the idea.

This seems more fitting than just replacing him with some random guy off the street who conveniently happens to also be stealthy.

 

[Oryan77]

Would you guys really put in a one time only teleport trap that replaces the stealthy skill guy with another stealthy skill guy? I don't think I could do that to my game.

What about this....

Tell him his PC leaves the group while inside the dungeon (he gets his way).

Tell the group that their characters notice his PC is missing.

Behind the scenes, you know that he roamed off on his own for whatever reason and found a hidden room. Do the ol' "magic mirror" routine where he sees a blanket covering a large object. He pulls the blanket off and is left glaring into a large mirror. The mirror traps his soul inside of it and a chaotic neutral spirit takes over his body.

Then the possessed character wanders back to the group in the middle of a fight and he rescues the other PCs; saving the day. When they ask him where he went, he just tells them that he tried looking for a way out of the dungeon but was unsuccessful.

Every so often the NPC might do something strange, like look into random mirrors and talk to himself. This could get the PCs wondering what's wrong with him. A year later, they learn that he is talking to the original PC (the PC can view out of any mirror that the NPC looks in to and they can communicate).

This way, the player got to have his PC leave the group, you can still have someone run his PC as you planned, and you still get your stealthy character without having to throw in a brand new character.

As far as freeing the PC from this trap when the player is back in town, I have no idea But if you like this idea then I'm sure other people could give suggestions.

 

[Set]

Email him back and say that his character was not in the party -- that he was replaced by his evil twin/a doppleganger/a Slider from another plane of existance... and let him come up with an explanation of how that happened.

I like this idea.

Some sort of formless entity from the other side of a magical mirror switches places with the character, assuming his form, abilities and personality, leaving him trapped in the mirror. The doppleganger suggests that the mirror might be worth something, and they stow it in a bag of holding or something and forget about it.

If the player returns, the doppleganger is outed and tricked into switching places with the PC.

Why didn't the doppleganger destroy the mirror to avoid this fate? It's not a real creature, it's a magical contruct created by the mirror. If the mirror was broken, the original PC may or may not get out (it's not sure about that), but it would definitely cease to exist!

Until the player returns, the mirror-doppleganger will live it up, enjoying even the less fun aspects of a life that it would never have gotten to experience otherwise. Basically a sort of Mirror of Opposition / Mirror of Life Trapping mash-up.

 

[Darkwolf71]

-- that he was replaced by his evil twin/a doppleganger/a Slider from another plane of existance...

That's what I would do. If you're lucky enough to be playing in Eberron, your party finds out he was replaced by a changling.

 

[haakon1]

Turned to stone would work, assuming the party can't fix it.

Or some sort of magically incurable disease contracted just after the party finds an exit.

Personally, as a player, I hate the "you're all locked in the rec center until morning" type adventures, so I'd allow an exit.

 

[kenobi65]

I would use the teleport trap, but replace it with a "plane shift" type of trap - the character gets replaced with his "alternate dimension equivalent."

{snip}

...he has a goatee...

I think this last bit goes without saying.