• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

What do your Heroes do when they Retire?

If characters survive long enough to tell their full story and retire, the story ends, and we go on to tell a new story. I don't specify what they do any more than a novelist specifies what happens to his characters after the last page of the book.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Yes, but part of the fun is imagining what happens to the characters after the novelist leaves of.

I've only had one character that actually reached a point where there would be a "retirement." And she decided to continue on as the Laird of her clan, despite having given up 15 of her 18 levels to destroy the BBEG. She had enough loyal and high level people (cohorts and such) around to help her until she relearns.
 

In our Wheel of Time game, after the end of the Prophecies of the Dragon adventure, we came to the conclusion that adventuring in Randland just was plain stupid, and bought an inn.

When our Birthright game ended, my ninja-like rogue was going to found his monastery to pass along his Kewl Prestige Class. And do occasional odd jobs for the new Emperor.

Brad
 

One of my Wizards discovered Odin, became a priest, and he semi-retired to service of the church.

One of my Rangers became a demi-god and he retired to an extradimensional plane.

And one of my Star Wars characters became a Dark Jedi, and she ended up in command of a fleet sent to counterattack the Vong home galaxy. :D
 

An end-game of convalesce is not in the cards for my heros. They go out in a blaze of glory, not out to pasture.

Fritz Leiber wrote something to this effect in one of his Fafhrd and Mouser yarns.
 

only one i've had retire recently has settled down as the court wizard for the local kingdom. this of course occurs after the group saved the royal family's lives, so the party cleric also retired to the position of court priest.

... OOC, the cleric's player was sick of playing a lawful good cleric of heronious, and since we had finished in the perfect spot to pull something like this, the DM let both characters retire in this manner. I picked up as the new cleric, and the old cleric picked up as a rogue, helping fill in party-caused fatalities. (long story, but find merakspielman 's post about players accidentally killing eachother.. ;) )
 


The last time we had characters leave 'The Life', they went their seperate ways, much like the Heroes of the Lance, unless their services were needed again. My guy was a bard with one level of sorcerer and one level of herald (a Dragon PrC): he went back to serve his old patron, the duke of an island duchy, as a spymaster - he trained the new crop of information gatherers and networkers.
 

In 2nd Edition I had a character that retired and decided to start a brothel. My 16th level fighter made a clean safe environment, and quickly the courtesans were flocking in to work for him. He became quite rich and well known. Unfortunately the fantasy stops there, as he died in his early 40's due to STDs... and no, I'm not joking, that was the DM determined fate.
 


Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top