DM swap dilemma

[Aerlock]

I am currently in a game as a player. I and the DM are going to swap DM responsibilities for a session or two. I am unsure what to do to both introduce his character and write mine out for a session or two. What can I do to swap out my char for his without using handwavium?

- Aerlock

[Barsoom]

I am currently in a game as a player. I and the DM are going to swap DM responsibilities for a session or two. I am unsure what to do to both introduce his character and write mine out for a session or two. What can I do to swap out my char for his without using handwavium?

- Aerlock

Does your character have a personality outside race/class/level? Does he have a place he comes from? A family, loved ones? Does he own property, does he pray to a god? Does he owe allegiance to a lord? Depending on the answers to those questions, he may:

- be summoned to his lord's court
- retire to celebrate or fast during a religious holy day
- ride away for a few days to tend to his ailing mother
- take care of a sudden emergency in his village
- etc

[RFLS]

What can I do to swap out my char for his without using handwavium?

Providing details on characters, setting, and plot would be a good start.

[kreenlover]

What I often do is have the character to be swapped out be hit by some debilitating spell. They discover that they must journey inside his mind to save him. when they arrive in his mind they find someone waiting to guide them (a representation of the hosts subconscious) which happens to be payed by the former DM.

If that won't fly, have him have to go off on some errand based on his backstory as those two suggested. An old acquaintance, a sudden illness, an inheritance, a deceased family member, any of those are valid reasons.

As for how the new guy arrives? well, maybe the group puts out a general request for assistance from competent adventurers to fill in the sudden hole in the party during his absence. Or, maybe he just happens to show up on the same quest, or your character introduces his longtime friends Mr. DM's character to the group and says 'to pay a debt he owes me, he will help you guys out with this while I am busy with whatever it is I am busy with

[rot42]

A local bucolic village is experiencing some manner of danger and require adventurers to clean it out. The villagers beg the PCs to set up camp and provide protection. Presumably they will prefer to go seek the source of the danger, perhaps after a nocturnal encounter or two to see what they are up against; apply urging from a local braggart if required. The fearful villagers persuade one of your number to remain behind while the others seek out the menace with the help of a local guide. Set out into the swamp/wilderness/cavern to get some adventuring on. Cue a few sessions worth of whatever you feel like running, building camaraderie and trust with the new character, who continually tries to persuade the PCs to set up shop in the village in case they are menaced again. Return to village - character who remained behind states desire (via Dominate Person) to retire to this pleasant little place with suspiciously little contact with the outside world. Swap back when the stay-behind escapes the nightly dosing or the other PCs notice the mind controlling egg sack or whatever the real problem is in the area.

[Deathra13]

Well off the top of my head I can think of a couple ways.

1. Have the character teleported somewhere, or have him falsely accused of a crime and let the players know ooc he will be fine.

2. Have something hit the character with a custom spell that transforms the character into the new one.

3. Have a deity take the character saying he is needed for work elsewhere but the deity will leave one of his minions/souls with the group so they do not feel he is weakening them.

4. If the characters are similar enough have it be solely a mental transfer. Some kind of altered mental state that brings out this altered personality.

[Sylthia]

Knowing the plot would help. For instance, in my campaign, the party recently rescued a bunch of Aasimir from enslavement from a cult. When the Paladin wasn't able to make it this week, we just said that she was taking the orphans back the monastery where she grew up to drop them off.

[Aerlock]

Does your character have a personality outside race/class/level? Does he have a place he comes from? A family, loved ones? Does he own property, does he pray to a god? Does he owe allegiance to a lord? Depending on the answers to those questions, he may:

- be summoned to his lord's court
- retire to celebrate or fast during a religious holy day
- ride away for a few days to tend to his ailing mother
- take care of a sudden emergency in his village
- etc


Providing details on characters, setting, and plot would be a good start.


Knowing the plot would help. For instance, in my campaign, the party recently rescued a bunch of Aasimir from enslavement from a cult. When the Paladin wasn't able to make it this week, we just said that she was taking the orphans back the monastery where she grew up to drop them off.

Background, Schmackground! The fact that you are all not internet enabled telepathetics isn't my fault. :tongue:

In all seriousness, big d'oh on my part. Here's the rundown:

Pathfinder game in a homebrew world
Level 2 party
6 players
1 DM
My character: Half-elf Summoner (Broodmaster and Evolutionist archetypes)
He has no close ties to family in his background. Elves in this world are varying degrees of xenophobic and racist. The city he's from barely tolerated his existence. His father was human mage and hasn't been seen by the elves in about 10 years (and good riddance too in their mind).
DMs character: ?? He's still trying to come up with a character
My first encounter as DM is planned to be a forest encounter.
Currently we're galivanting around the countryside searching for one of the party members adoptive father.

What I've thought of so far (since posting this) to get my character out of the picture is either have my characters father return out of the blue and snag my guy off for his own purposes or get the big bad of my encounters to kidnap my guy at the beginning of the session.

I can work either one of those into the story fairly easily (I think!) but I'm not sure exactly how I could introduce another character into the campaign in either situation.

I also need to think of some way to gracefully reverse the process once my DMing is done.

Thanks in advance,
- Aerlock

[Sylthia]

Background, Schmackground! The fact that you are all not internet enabled telepathetics isn't my fault. :tongue:

In all seriousness, big d'oh on my part. Here's the rundown:

Pathfinder game in a homebrew world
Level 2 party
6 players
1 DM
My character: Half-elf Summoner (Broodmaster and Evolutionist archetypes)
He has no close ties to family in his background. Elves in this world are varying degrees of xenophobic and racist. The city he's from barely tolerated his existence. His father was human mage and hasn't been seen by the elves in about 10 years (and good riddance too in their mind).
DMs character: ?? He's still trying to come up with a character
My first encounter as DM is planned to be a forest encounter.
Currently we're galivanting around the countryside searching for one of the party members adoptive father.

What I've thought of so far (since posting this) to get my character out of the picture is either have my characters father return out of the blue and snag my guy off for his own purposes or get the big bad of my encounters to kidnap my guy at the beginning of the session.

I can work either one of those into the story fairly easily (I think!) but I'm not sure exactly how I could introduce another character into the campaign in either situation.

I also need to think of some way to gracefully reverse the process once my DMing is done.

Thanks in advance,
- Aerlock

Your idea to have your character go do something with his father could work, I'd be hesitant to have the big bad kidnap him, because then you have to figure out how to unkidnap him later, but being kidnapped by a lesser villain could work. The new character could just be some wandering adventurer you run into, maybe he's waylaid by brigands and your party jumps in to help him, then in gratitude, he joins up with you. Without knowing more about the character's background, it's hard to tailor something to him.

You could also not have the characters leave depending on who's DMing. You could run him as an NPC while you are DMing, or let one of the other PCs control him during combat, as well as you follow some ground rules for not favoring your character. I understand that some people are not comfortable with that and that's okay, too.

[Krobar]

...

You could also not have the characters leave depending on who's DMing. You could run him as an NPC while you are DMing, or let one of the other PCs control him during combat, as well as you follow some ground rules for not favoring your character. I understand that some people are not comfortable with that and that's okay, too.


This is what we do. My group switches off DM'ing every few adventures, so everyone gets to play and everyone has to DM. Each person just keeps their character in the game as we do so, and they take more of a support and backup role rather than leading things. And when I'm DM, my character never seems to get any magic items. :smallmad:

[nedz]

Your character :-

gets drunk and wakes up with a hang over.
goes on holiday.
has a tryst which lasts a few days, and then ends.
goes shopping.


Really, it's not hard to come up with a reason why your character isn't available for a few days, and since you know your character better than anyone — you can make a much better job of this than we can.

Ed: whatever you do don't run your character as a DMPC. There is an argument that if you really know what you are doing you can get away with this, but the truth is: if you really know what you are doing then you know better than to try this.

[Deathra13]

Got to second Nedz on the dmpc front but add the exception of unless absolutely neccessary. If your party is hopelessly lacking in a particular role and useless without it do so, but make sure its a support and not a spotlight role.

[JusticeZero]

Currently we're galivanting around the countryside searching for one of the party members adoptive father.
"I have a lead on finding your dad, a merchant said he had worked with him. But we need to talk to him right away before he leaves, and the trip is safe as houses. You have other important things to do... i'm going to go chase this lead down on my own, we'll meet up as soon as i'm done."