Characters coming and going (your opinion)

[S'mon]

For the record everyone in the group discussed this last night and all agreed that having the character finish the adventure prior to departing was the fair and appropriate solution.

Hurray! I'm very glad you listened to the other players, rather than screw them over in favour of the selfish ex-player's preference.

 

[S'mon]

Interesting. I think everyone that I've ever gamed with has considered that 'their' PC belongs to 'them'. It would be considered incredibly bad form to use someone's PC against their wishes in any circumstances; none of the other players would consider that acceptable either.

Many ex PCs IMC are now in positions of rulership in the game world. I'm supposed to have them vanish when the player leaves the game? :\

 

[Shadeydm]

Update

Everyone made it out the BotFK alive. The party returned to town and the stealthy guy went awol and was replaced by an NPC bard from the adventure. No harm no foul.

Next up the Sinister Spire...

 

[Ze]

Should the player have such absolute authority over his PC that he simply fades into nonexistance in the middle of a dungeon because he changed his mind at the last minute on a whim with no warning?

To put it simply, yes.
Edit: I can see now how late I am on this...

 

[rgard]

Hello Players and DMs,

I am soliciting opinions on a difficult decision being forced upon my players and myself as the DM.

About a month ago one of the five players in my campaign informed us that he would be moving overseas for a year or so for work and would therefore be unavailable to play his character. I communicated with him via email and gave him the following options on how to handle this in game. The options were 1: have the PC leave the party, 2: have him stay with the party and be run by his fellow players and policed by me for fairness and accuracy, 3: have him die a heroic death, 4: have turn on the party and become a villan.

He chose to have him remain with the party and be run by all the players with me overseeing this group effort. So we kept on playing and everything was going great. Finally time passed and his final play session before his departure has come and gone.

So the day before his departure I recieve an email from him that he has changed his mind and wants his character to up and leave the party in the middle of a difficult adventure in a situation that would be totally out of character and in an adventure where the way the group entered the complex they are exploring has apparently shut them in. His explaination is that if his chatacter dies he wants it to be on his watch and nobody elses.

So I wrote back to him explaining how the party was in the middle of this adventure and that at the moment they are unaware of any way to depart the dungeon. Furthermore I wrote that such an act would be completely out of character and unfair to the rest of the party. I go on to remind him that given the modified action point rules we use which allow for the expenditure of action points to stabilize a dying character his character was unlikely to die unless a TPK happened. I told him that as soon as the adventure was over I would have his character leave the party and let them recruit a replacement.

He seemed upset and generally unstaisfied with my reply. This has gotten me to thinking which is why I have posted this here.

Am I out of line with my thinking and reasoning? Should the player have such absolute authority over his PC that he simply fades into nonexistance in the middle of a dungeon because he changed his mind at the last minute on a whim with no warning?

What do you folks think?

Your game, so it's hard for you to be completely out of line whatever you decide.

Anyway, I'm more forgiving. I'd just let his character not be there and not penalize him. Switch in a communal pc that everybody takes turns running.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If he's no longer a player he has no rights over his PC anyway.

With all due respect, S'mon, I'd have to disagree with you here- the GM creates the world in which the PC operates, but the player creates the PC.

Unless you're the kind of GM who actually takes posession of character sheets after each session, made players sign employee contracts or started the campaign entirely with his own pregens, that player is free to walk out with his PC at any time.

AFAIK, the closest analog to the DM/Player relationship that's seen any kind of true contractual IP agreement would be those that shape "shared universe" fictions- Thieves' World, Wildcards, and so forth. In each of those (of which I'm aware), the characters were freely used by all the authors in the shared universe, but major character changes required clearance with the author who first created the character- creative control was retained by the originating author.

Of course, there is nothing I can think of that would prevent a creative GM from having the PC disappear mysteriously and replacing him with a capable NPC, or (as has been suggested numerous times above) duping the PC and running it as an evil twin/doppelganger/changeling, etc. The Player retains creative control over the true PC, after all, and the story marches on.

Heck- the return of the true PC could be just as dramatic as anything else in the campaign. Imagine the other PCs encountering their lost buddy and boisterously recounting how they uncovered his doppelganger...only to be met with a bewildered stare and "Excuse me, do I know you?"

At any rate, all legal issues aside, respecting the wishes of the player who is leaving will probably minimize any hard feelings that may otherwise be engendered. That could mean a lot if and when that player returns.

It could even make the difference between "if" and "when."

 

[Stockdale]

Having recently been the departing and returning player (dude, law school is Faaar to long), I'm not sure how the story decided the fate of my character. If your guy plans on rejoining your group at some later point, I'd go with the evil twin/doppelganger--magic mirror story since your player seems touchy. Otherwise just have him -- oops, retire/die/run off with the tavern maid/whore, or whatever. If s/he's your friend, then be nice and invite him back when he's done with his real life. If he's some jerk you play with, then who gives two CP.

Stockdale