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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jenale" data-source="post: 914399" data-attributes="member: 10811">It really depends on the situation for me.  I've been running on-line games (play by post), so I may take any of the following actions:1)  re-cast the character.  If the player leaves on good terms (i.e., tells me that RL considerations have made it impossible to continue playing), I'll ask if it's ok, and won't re-cast if they say no.  If the player doesn't leave on good terms (simply stops posting and doesn't respond to emails), I may re-cast after a month of silence (NPCing the character minimally in the meantime).2) send the character on his/her way away from the party.  If the player indicates that they may be able to return at some future point, I'll NPC the character until they return to civilization, and find something to occupy the character which takes said character away from the party.  I may also do this if I think the character has good potential for a future NPC--as an example here, I have a bard whose player just up and quit posting, and after some email, concluded that he wasn't returning to the game.  However, the potential for a bard NPC who used to travel with the party as a conduit for future rumors just seemed like a nice opportunity to use.3) character death.  If the player isn't going to return and objects to re-casting, I may well engineer a character death, or simply let it happen during the course of NPCing the character back to civilization.4) mystery.  Somehow or another, the character gets separated from the rest of the party.  While he is out of sight, the character is killed/made to vanish.  I actually did this with the character of a player who I booted from my game (after having been far too long-suffering--he criticized judgments I made, insulted me when I told him that his paladin's behavior put him at risk of alignment change [to CN, no less!], and circumstances finally put him in a room alone (filled with sand), so I vaporized him with a lightning bolt which left a glass symbol of his deity atop the sand as the only trace.  The others in the party, only hearing the rumble of thunder and finding the glass, isn't quite sure what to make of his departure yet.5) who?  This works best with someone who has had very little impact on the game, and I wouldn't recommend it if the character has had much impact.  I reserve this for the characters of players who make an appearance, and just sort of vanish into thin air (posting wise) afterwards.  It's much easier to simply ignore the brief appearance than it is to worry about smoothing the exit.  However, if the character has been a major participant prior to the player's departure, this seems very unsatisfactory.</blockquote>

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