D&D General Have you ever retired a character?

[sevenbastard]

Yes. I rolled mediocre stats, but i stuck with it for about 15 sessions then asked if I could retire that charachter and try again.

He was a bard with I think a high stat of 14. I played him as mid 50 career soldier who's bard powers were based on advice and stories. Recently widowed with lingering injuries explaining his low strength, dex, and con. Fun charachter but not effective in combat and was bringing down the party overall effectiveness.

 

[Muso]

Yes. In an old AD&D 2E Dark Sun campaign. My fighter/cleric dwarf fulfilled his personal quest and retired. I made another character and the campaign moved on. Pretty rare in my experience.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've had a character forced into retirement in an online V:tM game, something that still leaves a stale taste in my mouth- I'd been worried about their power level and had asked the staff if they were a problem, and was told they weren't repeatedly. Then I got busy IRL and had to take a month off from the game. When I came back, the entire game had been rebooted- some characters were allowed to stay with "rebalanced" (ie, nerfed) stats.

Mine was not. When I asked why, apparently my character was one of the reasons for the reboot. Like, I could see their logic, obviously, because I'd had concerns myself, but they first dismissed my concerns, then went ahead and booted me out the instant my back was turned.
: (

That checks out. I don’t know what it is about Vampire that attracts such toxic people, but it does. Particularly within the LARP space; I’ve had better experiences with tabletop WoD community, though the problems do still exist there to a lesser extent,

 

[Charlaquin]

My first 4e character. He was one of the pregens that came with the preview kit, and I had him retire as soon as the full rules were available so I could make my own character.

 

[James Gasik]

That checks out. I don’t know what it is about Vampire that attracts such toxic people, but it does. Particularly within the LARP space; I’ve had better experiences with tabletop WoD community, though the problems do still exist there to a lesser extent,

(Warning, details require knowledge of VtM): I think it had more to do with the fact that I personally resolved several storylines far quicker than desired. I was playing a Tremere for about a year, slowly amassing a library of rituals. It got to the point that no one really knew what I could do, and when I'd become the Prince of the city and was attacked by an NPC Assamite that was intended to escape (thus leading into a wider investigation), I obliterated them outright, and the Storyteller in charge quit on the spot. I wasn't aware of what the storyline was about, just that someone was trying to kill my character and I reacted...less than favorably to that, going all out.

For months, my coterie expressed their fears that I was a helpless cream puff and trained me in combat skills, and were quick to defend me when attacked. I think it surprised everyone that I was actually dangerous (apparently when I'd shared my concerns, they just laughed it off- surely I was no threat to a Brujah or a Gangrel in combat!).

(The house rules of the game used concepts from Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, one of which was that to target a spell, you needed to have some connection to the target, such as physical contact, something that belongs to them, knowledge of their True Name, etc. etc., and once you had that, range was no longer an issue. So during the fight I used Theft of Vitae to drain away the assassin's blood, and then once I had that, I was allowed to use another power on the target even though he'd escaped using his Obfuscate Discipline. Said power allowed me to boil the blood inside the target, which also inflicted aggravated damage to them. I got a lot of successes, which nobody expected, as it was a difficulty 8 Willpower roll. But in a previous storyline, I was awarded a truly busted Merit that I didn't often use because it was really silly, and I had bonus dice due to my Enchanted Talisman...tldr, Final Death to my attacker).

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Malocchio was my warlock character for the Curse of Strahd campaign. The warlock class drives characters toward high charisma, and this did not fit the character who was a mumbling idiot mentally scarred by what he had witnessed. So, I split the characters abilities into three different personalities. One personality, Malocchio, for his arcane abilities, one for his social skills, and one for his fighting abilities. Only one of these personalities was present at any one time which led to some really fun and a memorable role-playing moments.

His true personality was that of a scientist, an astronomer who inadvertently came in contact with the dark forces between the Stars which affected his mind and shattered it into pieces. All Malocchio wanted to do was to escape this influence and become a normal person again. HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE A WARLOCK. Eventually as the campaign progressed, we had determined that there was a way he could complete himself by coming into contact with one of the Amber psychophagi. This happened and I immediately retired the character. He became a normal man without powers. As the player I simply refused to use them and retired the character.

 

[SewerSquirrel]

Our party was playing a 3.5ed game as a bunch of (lukewarm) evil PCs. My PC was a Warlock. I wasn't happy with the build, so discussed options with the DM and we came up with a cinematic ending for this PC. We had entered a kobold warren. As we exited, a demon from the Abyss showed up and called out my PC as being unworthy of his status and weak as a warlock, then reached out and grappled him and ripped him apart, splattering viscera all over the remaining party members, then the demon bounced out. It was absolutely hilarious to see all the looks on the players' faces. In fact, it is still talked about today amongst our gaming group after 20 years.

 

[gnarlygninja]

It's happened a few times but I only really remember the reasoning for two.
One was in a World of Darkness game, where another character (whose characterization had been getting weirder and goofier and less concerned with the game for a while) murdered his brother in front of the group for no real reason. My character was very much a goodie two shoes and I couldn't come up with a way to justify her sticking with the group so she had to be replaced.

Much more recently I was playing an evil character, and despite getting the ok from the group/explaining she wasn't going to be kicking puppies and back stabbing the group, they just would not ever imagine her more complexly than that. I eventually realized I was never going to be able to play the character I'd imagine so I replaced her.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I had a couple retire because they didn’t jive with the party or I didn’t enjoy the character.

I have a friend who has an awesome story.

1st edition Wizard: His character’s backstory was his village was getting attacked and was doomed when a powerful wizard appeared and saved the town. After that, he wanted to be a wizard and started studying magic.

Fast forward to 20th level, he goes back in time pursuing some evil baddy only to save his younger self in his home village. He was the wizard he always aspired to be. After that, he goes back to his own time and retires.

 

[Azzy]

As the title says.
I'm not talking about writing an ending for your character when the campaign is over.
Have you ever retired a character and made a new one instead to continue playing?

If so, why?

I've only ever retired a character once, (that I can recall) he fell in love with an NPC and retired from the adventuring life.

I've put this in a DnD thread, but feel free to mention other systems as well.

Yes. My character, Kalanar (an elf mage), got married and settled down.