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View Full Version : Putting a PC "On a Bus"



Angel Bob
2013-10-05, 09:29 AM
In my 6-player 4E group, we have two players who haven't been to D&D in close to six months and aren't expected to fit it into their schedule for some time. Nobody wants to be bothered to run their characters for all that time, and it takes some effort to write them out of each individual session with some errand; along with the players, I'd rather see the characters "put on a bus", as it were, and written out of the story for a considerable time.

Now, I can remove one PC pretty easily, but the other one is problematic. You see, our group is very casual, and most characters have little to no background/characterization. However, this PC (a dwarven cleric named Vistra Gravelore) has easily the most storyline weight than any of her teammates, and it's directly tied to the party's current quest; long story short, her tribe is kept in slavery by the King of Giants, and she escaped and joined the adventuring party to get help rescuing her people.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to write Vistra out of the story for the time being. It's already been established that she's loyal to her people and her party, meaning that I can't have her just strike off on her own. Having her kidnapped by a villain was done in the last dungeon, so methinks it'd be a little boring for it to happen again, but perhaps it could work. Or she could be placed in some form of temporal stasis for some reason or another?

So I'm asking for suggestions. How would the Playgrounders remove a loyal, plot-influential PC from the group for the foreseeable future?

Berenger
2013-10-05, 09:55 AM
Pregnancy (if it fits the character and the player is cool with that).

Prison term (trumped up charges if necessary), give the other players an unexpected possibility to arrange her release / escape a session before the player joins in again.

Some illness / "condition" (for example lycanthropy, again, I'd recommend to check if the player is cool with that) which can't be healed by a quick spell.

Jormengand
2013-10-05, 09:57 AM
Death, in D&D, can be a way of getting a player temporarily out of your story.

The Glyphstone
2013-10-05, 10:13 AM
That'd work. Kill her off, and the quest changes from 'free her tribe from slavery with her aid' to 'free her tribe from slavery in her memory'. When/if she comes back, one Raise Dead ritual later and it's like nothing happened.

Fallbot
2013-10-05, 12:55 PM
Have her recaptured by the giants enslaving her tribe. The party continue their quest to free her along with the other slaves. If you need her back, well she's already escaped once, she can do it again. If and when they succeed in freeing everyone (and if her player still can't make it), she no longer has a motivation to adventure and can stay behind to help her tribe rebuild.

Slipperychicken
2013-10-05, 01:07 PM
You could have an insurmountable pack of giants (or some other big nasty monster) try to attack the PCs, then she decides to stay back in a bottleneck (like a doorway or portal) and hold them off in self-sacrifice* while the PCs escape.

*The result of her confrontation with the giants makes for a lot of possibilities. If the player won't come back, then the PC died trying to save the party and might be rezzed later. If she does come back much later, then maybe she miraculously defeated/routed the giants (explaining how she got to the party's level), but found another lead to follow up on (like another community at risk of enslavement, who she tries to recruit as allies), and she's been working on that.

icefractal
2013-10-05, 01:11 PM
Maybe she goes back to her tribe to start forming a rebellion against the giants. Or travels the giant lands in disguise, searching for a weakness that can be used against them.

some guy
2013-10-05, 01:28 PM
The quest requires the party to split off for a long time, for one reason or another Vistra and the other PC have more reasons to split off.
this way they're still loyal to the party and the tribe, and they can get levels along with the rest of the players so they aren't behind in power when they join again.

JusticeZero
2013-10-05, 01:43 PM
A second objective comes up that is time sensitive and also needs to be done. Split the party! From time to time, they hear of things done to help them by a dwarf who is working hard to help them by dealing with other objectives.

Kol Korran
2013-10-05, 04:29 PM
Vista recieve3s some sort of vision, not quite clear, but it's a quest that can help her cause, but it's a spiritual quest that she needs to undergo alone. It also suggest that this quest may help the party some time down the road.

Cue off Vista, and have her join the party at a convenient time, after doing her quest (And getting enough levels to be on par with the party), and perhaps help them in an unexpected way.

You don't need to know the details of the quest yet, part of what sheneeds to find out. You fit the quest to fit the game.

Slipperychicken
2013-10-05, 05:01 PM
Vista

It's "Vistra". You gave flashbacks to when I tried to use that terrible operating system..

mucat
2013-10-05, 06:17 PM
What I'm trying to figure out is how to write Vistra out of the story for the time being. It's already been established that she's loyal to her people and her party, meaning that I can't have her just strike off on her own.

Actually, those loyalties sound like reasons why you can have her strike off on her own, and easily rejoin the plot when her player returns.

Simply make it so there is more than one important thing that needs to be done. Vistra is going to work on urgent task A, which she is uniquely suited for because <insert skill, knowledge, or social ties that she alone has.> The rest of the group is going to work on equally urgent task B. When her player comes back, they'll rejoin on common task C.

Have Vistra communicate with the party now and then, so they'll remember that she's involved in things. Let her send them aid or information. Another time, she can ask for aid or information, or show up as an NPC for one scenario. Through all of this, she can remain a close ally to the party, and can work tirelessly to free her people.

Rather than straining credibility, this should add more realism and versimiltude to the campaign. In real life, important tasks don't wait until everyone whose help you want is available. Your closest allies are not at your side all the time, but you know that they share common cause with you and will be there to help when they can.

The Oni
2013-10-06, 12:04 PM
My suggestion? Have her meet up with a group of technologically-savvy Dwarves who agree to help her build some sort of superior giant-busting siege engine. If she returns to D&D regularly, the party can help her confront the giants with the new contraption. If she doesn't, then she has at least reached the end of her quest, and it can be assumed that she and the other Dwarves freed her tribe.

Tyndmyr
2013-10-06, 12:12 PM
Bluntly, if they can't show even once in six months, they're not playing the game. Gleefully kill them off, and in the unlikely event of return, they can make new chars.

It's not like they'll know everything that happened in their absence, and their char will need much leveling, etc, so in many ways, it's actually easier to do this.

Reddish Mage
2013-10-06, 02:09 PM
Hmm if she wasn't so wrapped up in the current plot, I'd just have her disappear one day and divination is useless. When she's back you can write her back in.

Jay R
2013-10-07, 11:47 AM
You need her to separate from the party, and she can't abandon the quest.

Logically, then the others must abandon it.

Invent a side-quest that might provide some important artifact top aid teh main quest, which they will undertake while she is doing spying or other information-gathering for the main quest.

RochtheCrusher
2013-10-07, 12:06 PM
You could always have her step into a one-time use portal and have it send her to, say, Celestia before closing. It seemed a good idea at the time, that sorta thing.

Assuming she can't just teleport back, it takes her exactly as long to get back as it does her player, but she's safe. Ish. Simple.

Morgarion
2013-10-07, 12:10 PM
You could have an insurmountable pack of giants (or some other big nasty monster) try to attack the PCs, then she decides to stay back in a bottleneck (like a doorway or portal) and hold them off in self-sacrifice* while the PCs escape.

*The result of her confrontation with the giants makes for a lot of possibilities. If the player won't come back, then the PC died trying to save the party and might be rezzed later. If she does come back much later, then maybe she miraculously defeated/routed the giants (explaining how she got to the party's level), but found another lead to follow up on (like another community at risk of enslavement, who she tries to recruit as allies), and she's been working on that.

I second this. Gandalf her!