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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 2413365" data-attributes="member: 32740">When a player leaves a gaming group or a group breaks up (such as if the DM moves away) then the DM should return any character sheets and related stuff to the players of those characters.  There's no reason the DM cannot or should not keep a copy of that character sheet, however, and many good reasons he should. Using "abandoned" characters as _N_PC's:It would be COURTEOUS, of the DM to ASK the player for permission to continue to use the character as an NPC if he so desires, but there's nothing preventing the DM from simply copying the character sheet and continuing to use the character as he wants to.  Yet even if he does he ought to inform the player that whether he likes it or not the character will continue to be used as an NPC in that campaign.  When it comes down to it a player character can become an integral part of campaign events and a player has few reasons to actually OBJECT to a DM using his PC as an NPC because of that.  A player could ask that the DM RETIRE the PC or kill it off for that game world instead and if it's not overly disruptive to the campaign the DM ought to be willing to do that as an alternative. Using "abandoned" characters as _P_C's:In other words handing the character sheet copy over to a new player.  This should definitely be something the DM gets permission to do before the player leaves and of course you can't FORCE a player to play a character unless it's agreed well beforehand. Of course, neither player or DM should be obliged to ask for or make promises regarding the CONDUCT of that character or his fate from that point on.  In other words you can't tell the DM "I'll only give you permission to use my character if you agree to never have him do anything I wouldn't want or to kill him off, or otherwise have anything happen to him I wouldn't like."  Permission is simple YES/NO, not a contract with clauses and conditions.  Once given, the permission to use a character should mean to use a character AS THE NEW "USER" DESIRES.  The entire point of maintaining the character as either PC or NPC is generally that the character IS important to the ongoing game and that means that the former "user" is simply not going to be around to control that character any more. If a character ISN'T particularly important to the campaign it should not be an issue what happens to the character regardless. If a player says nothing to a DM about an "abandoned" character then it would still be polite for the DM, if possible or practical, to obtain permission (or at least inform the former player) but really all bets are off and the player ought not expect anything.  And unless necessary the DM should simply have the character retire, get killed, or otherwise simply go completely "off-camera". And finally, there's no reason a character can't be used over and over in any number of campaigns.  In other words, the same character can be "imported" into someone elses game (with permission of the DM) even as another DM continues to develop that character as an NPC in an entirely unrelated way in another campaign.</blockquote>

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