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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rystefn" data-source="post: 9278917" data-attributes="member: 7043460">So this spun off partly from one of my comments, so I guess I should probably weigh in here. First, I very strongly believe that your character is your character. If you invented it, you retain ownership and control unless and until you choose to give it up. I will here note that there are explicitly times within the D&D rules (and many other ttRPG systems) when you will lose control of your character, either temporarily or permanently, and when you choose to participate in the game, you are agreeing to hand over control under those circumstances unless it's been otherwise specified that your group won't be using those rules. The most immediate examples of this are if your character becomes a vampire spawn or something of that nature.That said, the specific example this conversation spun off from was of a character choosing not to participate in the activity the game is explicitly about and thereby becoming an NPC. And this is a different beast entirely. Every player at the table has a responsibility to make a character that is going to participate in the game. This is a pretty non-controversial statement, in general. If you make a character that is antagonistic, antisocial, and decides to wander off away from the rest of the group to solo adventures, the DM is entirely within their rights to go "Congratulations, you're an NPC now. Now either make a character that will be a part of the group, or find another table" rather than running a separate solo adventure for you while the rest of the group sits around doing nothing. This applies equally to "I'm going to sail away to a new continent without the rest of the group," "I'm going to retire from adventuring to start a quaint little B&B," or any other form of choosing not to participate.Claiming ownership of that NPC and using them in ways contrary to the creator's vision or even in ways entirely in keeping with that vision but without permission is a dick move. But they aren't a player character anymore, since no one is playing that character, ego: NPC. If the former player is cool with it, then yes, it can be awesome to have them turn up here and there in game afterwards. Or to become a major recurring character. But that's a load-bearing "if" right there.</blockquote>

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