Retirement and the Dnd Character

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

I was wondering how layers and Dms handle "Retirement" of their characters. Do they just walk of into the sunset never to be heard from again. Or do they stay a part of the world, start schools, keeps, run for governor? With ELH their is no need to not continue but at some point you have to "hang it up". so what does a group of 25-30 lvl characters do when the world is threatened again?

 

[the Jester]

It depends on the character, but generally they go somewhere rather than just vanishing.

 

[Tonguez]

They become the leaders of their communities and turn their attentions to important worries like what am I going to do about this blight which has attacked this years Sweet potato crop...

 

[Quickbeam]

They become legendary figures who frequently retire to large castle estates IMC. Of course, they also establish schools and academies, find promising young adventurers to mentor personally, and may even make cameo appearances from time to time.

 

[Clain MacFaileas]

Mine has retired and become a lich who runs a private finishing school for girls in Gorsend. He takes care to appear as a harmless old man, and due to his high Charisma and Leadership feat, he keeps tabs on the city aristocracy and "helps" the local Viscount...

What could be better?

 

[La Bete]

Depends. theyve gotta go somewhere - either taking up back-room npc positions - that way they can cameo in new campaigns. or they can move on to other planes/worlds. (so they stay out of the way).




OTOH if the player is retiring a character mid-game because he's "the character isnt working out" or "I want to play some thing less one-dimensional" - read: "not powerful enough", wait till new character is created, then terminate old with extreme prejudice......

 

[Emiricol]

I like to give mine the chance to go out in a blaze of glory (sacrificing themselves to save the party, etc).

Most, however, choose to go out in a whimper, and go NPC (and sometimes show up for cameos in the ongoing campaigns

 

[Crothian]

Depends what the player wants to have happen to the character. They may start a church, build a school, get married and raise a family, or go back and work on the farm.

 

[perivas]

In our longest campaign--spanning 4 years in real life--I played an elf bladesinger. After many close calls to death, he tried to constantly retire, only to be dragged out by his friends in their hour of need. It was interesting in that I no longer sought out magic items and treasure on our missions (unlike my fellow adventurers) and was almost always goal-oriented. He just wanted to get it over with and then go back to a peaceful, normal life. In the end, when the final threat was over, he did just that...although that also happened to be the end of our gaming with those characters!

 

[Warmaster_Horus]

Well as someone said earlier, it really depends on each individual character but here are some of the things that my characters did after stopping "adventuring"

A fighter of mine in FR got married, settled down had kids and opened up a brewery. In time wife died because of the flu, and kids grew up and went their ways, except for the oldest girl running his tavern and his younger tomboy daughter. He is very bored and misses his old life most of the time. He is coming out of retirement (he's 60 now) for one last time, as his wizards friend(another retired PC) calls him up for one last quest. We'll play this game in the summer.

A wizard of mine was very talented but succumbed to the lure of the dark side and committed terrible atrocities to gain more and more power. In the end, he was stopped by his son, and reclaimed to the good side (kinda Vaderish). He spends his days in his tower far to the North these days, doing mostly research and other stuff. He is repentant, but he still bears the burden of causing all that trouble and all those deaths. In time, he will be played once more as a mentor and an advisor when his grandson(or some other younger relative) chooses the path of the mage.

Got a rogue that hit the jackpot. But he blew away all his money on drinks, gambling and women. So he might make a comeback too..

Well I guess characters never really retire when I am playing them... Kinda like a long mexican soap opera...