D&D General Characters With Unfinished Business

[Dragonhelm]

If you have the contact info for the DM, send them email and see if you can get a write up of what happened after you left, or what happened to your character. Sometimes, usually for post end of campaign, we'd just sit down DM and player and work out the character's ending. I still have a college DM who I contact occasionally that still has one of my characters (an elf noble) running around in his game world after 30 RL years..

Otherwise, just writing up your own ending works well enough for some people.

The problem there is that the campaign I left is still going. Nobody knows yet how it will end. I had various reasons for leaving, but the most important is it didn't work well with my work schedule.

I like the idea of writing my own ending.

However, I have sort of a rare thing here. Vecna: Eve of Ruin is, in effect, the same bare-bones plot: Assemble the Rod of Seven Parts and defeat Vecna.

Also, I overthink.

 

[aco175]

I never bothered and just moved on to a new PC, but I would tell people that he work up and the whole campaign turned out to be a dream.

 

[GrimCo]

In 20+ years of playing, i can count campaigns that i actually finished on the fingers of my hands. Most of campaigns fizzle out for one reason or another. So i don't bother with it. Roll up new character and off to new adventures.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

In another thread, I questioned whether or not to leave my friend's Spelljammer game. I decided to do the smart thing and leave. While I don't regret that decision, I am a bit sad because I loved my character and he will not see the story to fruition.

The story revolved around assembling the Rod of Seven Parts and defeating Vecna. This is a homebrew story that has nothing to do with Vecna: Eve of Ruin.

So my beloved character has seen five pieces gathered, with two to go. And now I won't see the end.

It occurs to me that this situation is common enough. So I'm wondering, how do you all handle having a character with an unfinished story?

Having left the game, you now have a legitimate reason to read the rest of the adventure that was being run.

If your character is still in the game as an NPC, you could ask your friend for occasional updates.

You invested time and energy in your PC, so frustration is understandable.

 

[Clint_L]

Yeah, it sucks to be developing a cool character story only for the campaign to fall apart. I grow really attached to some of my characters and want to see where their story goes.

OP, I'm not sure if it is viable in your case, but I have reused characters from campaigns that fell apart. The plot points of the dead campaign are no longer canon for them, but the character ideas can be transplanted and you can continue to develop them.

Back in the day (1e), characters routinely moved between campaigns, so this was less of an issue. But now that characters are are typically attached firmly to one campaign and DM, this problem happens a lot.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

Yeah, it sucks to be developing a cool character story only for the campaign to fall apart. I grow really attached to some of my characters and want to see where their story goes.

I can relate.

OP, I'm not sure if it is viable in your case, but I have reused characters from campaigns that fell apart. The plot points of the dead campaign are no longer canon for them, but the character ideas can be transplanted and you can continue to develop them.

This is when having good records can come to the rescue. (Level drain, ya know)

You can dial the character back to the whatever level you need to enter a new game, and call it an alternate timeline for the character.

Think of it as putting a character on hold, prepped, and waiting for a future game.

Back in the day (1e), characters routinely moved between campaigns, so this was less of an issue. But now that characters are are typically attached firmly to one campaign and DM, this problem happens a lot.

Spoiler: Tangent

< tangent >
Back in the day (3e) I got word that a former DM was angry with me. Apparently, the character I generated for former DM’s game meant that I was forbidden from using it at any other table. LOL.
< /tangent >