D&D General Return of the Throw-Away Character

[Fauchard1520]

As a DM, I like to periodically trawl through my backlog of NPCs. That's because a sprawling cast of characters can serve your verisimilitude. When a few months or years of campaign time go by and you’re able to pull out a blast from the past, the world suddenly feels more real. These characters don’t disappear simply because they’ve gone off-screen, but have continued to grow and change while the PCs were away. The effect is actually more powerful when it’s a minor character: a quirky shopkeeper who now owns a franchise or a stray dog, saved by the party back at level 1, who’s since been adopted by a local nobleman. Verisimilitude comes in a lot of different flavors, but I find that minor characters growing, changing, and making return appearances is an easy trick to pull off.

What about the rest of you guys? Have you ever seen a throw-away character come back into the campaign months or years later?

Comic for illustrative purposes.

 

[iserith]

Early in my current Eberron campaign, the PCs were exploring an abandoned House Cannith forge deep under Sharn. During this delve, they came across an inoperable humanoid-shaped digging machine. The party's artificer got it back up and running with a montage repair scene and programmed it to follow the party around and carry their equipment on subsequent adventures. They named the machine "Dug."

On one such adventure, the PCs were being chased out of the monster-controlled city of Droaam after getting up to their usual shenanigans. In the chase scene, Dug fell behind the rest of the party and was captured. It did not dime on the party and was sentenced to hard labor breaking rocks which it greatly enjoyed.

As the campaign nears its end and a final confrontation with the villain approaches, they will soon learn that in order to achieve their goals, they will need to dig through the rear end of a warforged colossus. No doubt they will remember their old henchman Dug and try to spring it from the slammer. After years of breaking rocks in a Droaamite prison, Dug is going to be RIPPED.

 

[Nebulous]

As a DM, I like to periodically trawl through my backlog of NPCs. That's because a sprawling cast of characters can serve your verisimilitude. When a few months or years of campaign time go by and you’re able to pull out a blast from the past, the world suddenly feels more real. These characters don’t disappear simply because they’ve gone off-screen, but have continued to grow and change while the PCs were away. The effect is actually more powerful when it’s a minor character: a quirky shopkeeper who now owns a franchise or a stray dog, saved by the party back at level 1, who’s since been adopted by a local nobleman. Verisimilitude comes in a lot of different flavors, but I find that minor characters growing, changing, and making return appearances is an easy trick to pull off.

What about the rest of you guys? Have you ever seen a throw-away character come back into the campaign months or years later?

Comic for illustrative purposes.

Yes, and it's a great, great way to make a setting come to life as it gives the illusion of an evolving and changing scenario that's not waiting to "activate" until the PCs see it. But I have only used it in the short term of weeks or months as my campaigns have never stretched in-game to years. Although that would be cool to have someone the heroes have long forgotten about return in a totally different light.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Hawk Diesel]

I can't recall anything that I've had, but it reminds me of the cabbage vendor in Avatar: The Last Airbender who eventually grew from the ashes of his busted cabbage carts to eventually launch Cabbage Corps by Legend of Korra.

 

[Shiroiken]

My first 5E campaign I ran had the bandit captain in the moathouse at the beginning of the Temple of Elemental Evil (1E). I named him Edmund after they captured him, and eventually he betrayed the cultists after the group was captured (he was an honest bandit, and the cult was crazy) freeing the party after they were captured. I figured this was a simple tit-for-tat, Edmund goes free after saving the party and he's gone.

At the start of the 2nd act of the campaign, I needed a random mercenary to deliver information the PCs (one of which was commanding a fortress), so I decided it would be fun to bring back Edmund. The party was surprised, and was genuinely curious about what happened to him after his departure.

It very quickly became a running joke for the remainder of the campaign, that every time someone came to see the commanding PC that it was Edmund (unless I had a specific NPC in mind, in which I always made sure to name them when informing the PCs of their arrival). Eventually it was assumed that Edmund was cursed to be forever drawn back to the PCs, no matter how much he tried to escape!

 

[Fauchard1520]

I can't recall anything that I've had, but it reminds me of the cabbage vendor in Avatar: The Last Airbender who eventually grew from the ashes of his busted cabbage carts to eventually launch Cabbage Corps by Legend of Korra.

Nice! Cabbage dude becoming more than a running gag is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. It's a bit precious, but it's also good fun.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

It very quickly became a running joke for the remainder of the campaign, that every time someone came to see the commanding PC that it was Edmund (unless I had a specific NPC in mind, in which I always made sure to name them when informing the PCs of their arrival). Eventually it was assumed that Edmund was cursed to be forever drawn back to the PCs, no matter how much he tried to escape!

I had one of my characters become similarly "cursed." Whenever a significant number of our group are going to be away and we know about it well enough in advance we will do one shot sessions. Usually this occurs around the Christmas holidays or in the summer when people travel. While many people make brand new characters to experiment with something different, I created a character which I have since used in every one that I attended. At first my head canon was that she was forced to wander from place to place always getting chased out of town due to having Animate Dead on her spell list. But later the truth was revealed.

In our last one shot the DM decided to incorporate my character and thus we learned that Kia the sorceress was actually a clone of a celestial being and was destined to forever be forced through portals to wherever and whenever (the portals also travel through time) her aid was needed. At the end of the one shot she defeated her evil clone brother and freed the original being she was based on. She was then given the option to retire which she gladly accepted. And now I need a new one shot character...

 

[aco175]

I try to being some of the NPCs back especially if the PCs rescued them or they traveled with the party for a time. I have a NPC mage the PCs rescued in a castle at level 3 who just had his cantrips and only cast fire bolt for the next few encounters until they found his book and they all rested. He ended up being called Ray from his fire rays he shot. The PCs even gave him the bracers of armor they found along the way.

Ray is planning to make a come back and be a few levels higher. Not sure how he will fit in yet.