The story is done.

[Immortal Sun]

Due to some time-traveling shenanigans in one of my games, the party (or the ones that survived the time travel) have been sent back to a time when a different group of characters (played by some of the current table members) existed, actually, slightly before the actual game they were involved in. As part of this, those of us with existing characters in this time period were given the option to just play those characters. And frankly, that character is one of my all time favorites. Played it for years, achieved incredible heights, destroyed incredible things, hell they even ascended to god-hood at the end of the game.

But it got me thinking about the story those experiences wrote and the lore that character became part of and here I am about 4 days later and 2 days before the next session thinking: You know, I think that story is done.

I do a lot of cooking so that is perhaps my best comparison, sometimes a meal is just done. You can't add anything to it, you can't un-cook it, and if you keep cooking, keep adding, you're likely to just end up with a burnt, nasty mess.

So now I'm back into arguably my favorite part of D&D: creating a new character! (seriously D&D is the only game I actually enjoy re-rolling in).

So what about ya'll? Ever been in a spot where you've been given a chance to do more with a character and their story and just decided not to?

 

[Ricochet]

Quite a few times, yeah. It's a very satisfying thing to experience! Like seeing a story come to a great conclusion (whether good or bad for my character, the story works!).
It can also help drive the plot forward for other peoples' characters, if mixed in right.

 

[ccs]

Yes, a number of times.
In fact here in a few weeks it'll be time to retire two of my favorite characters in years.
Their current story will have simply reached a good stopping point.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think it’s important to know when the story is done, absolutely. Relatively recently, the GM wanted to keep going. But I knew that our tale was over, and that whatever would happen next would just end up damaging what we had spent months working towards.

Saying goodbye to favorite character can be sad, but as you said, there’s always the joy of meeting your next character. And I’d rather my old character go out on an epic note (happy or sad), rather than just puttering along further.