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Bromley20
2017-01-13, 05:27 PM
I have used the same world for 5 groups now and after every campaign I add the now retired PCs to the world. Whatever the player wants their character to do, I have them do (become a politician, start a shop/university, start a family, etc). Some players will recognize the names of a few former characters and they seem to enjoy interacting with them from time to time. Once they die, they become legends and part of the lore.

I enjoy having the world change over time and each campaign having a lasting effect on the world. Does anyone else set all their campaigns in the same world or use former PCs as NPCs?

Malimar
2017-01-13, 05:36 PM
I do, I do!

In one group, we have a persistent Golarion, and PCs from our first campaign (Rise of the Runelords) have shown up in various forms as NPCs in subsequent campaigns (frequently as the parents of new PCs, after a time skip).

In my home setting, the surviving PCs of the first party I DMed for have become major NPCs in the current campaign (again, a time skip is involved).

BWR
2017-01-13, 06:26 PM
Happens all the time. Particularly in one game where the line between PC and NPC isn't very sharp (it's more like active vs. inactive/mostly-retired PC).

RazorChain
2017-01-13, 11:38 PM
I use this too......sometimes a morally ambiguous former PC's will show up as villains......and once the PC's even joined a former PC villain because he was such a lovable rascal.

Remmirath
2017-01-14, 12:25 AM
All the time. Due to the nature of the way my main group plays (all three of us take turns running campaigns, and we keep the same setting in each system until something truly catastrophic happens to cause that to no longer be an option), old PCs do tend to stick around if they make it, and sometimes end up coming back out of retirement.

I think this is fairly common when people keep the same setting and group for a long time.

VincentTakeda
2017-01-14, 12:45 AM
By all means yes. Its almost impossible for my campaigns to not contain cameos of previous player characters.

Bromley20
2017-01-14, 04:07 AM
I personally don't use former PCs as the parents to new characters. My players don't always know about the former characters I have included. If the players know about them and want to include them in their backstory, they can. Like one that I'm currently using is the head of the local church. He isn't a major role but can tell a few stories of his adventuring days and can come out of retirement to fight or can provide spellcasting services if needed. That player created a new character who was the retired character's apprentice. He was pretty happy to see his old character and tries to find any excuse to stop in town and say hello. It is nice when stuff like that happens.

hymer
2017-01-14, 04:47 AM
I don't have all my campaigns in the same world, but one world certainly saw three campaigns. The PCs of the first one ended in a TPK against a marilith, but they managed to do not a few heroic and mportant things in the mean time. They helped shape a city state's constitution after helping a successful rebellion (and dealing with the two fiends having their own little Blood War in the midst of it, using the people as pawns), and conducted many famous expeditions and slew many dangerous monsters. This was all reflected in the following two campaigns, with PCs being held up as archetypes of their chosen professions fifty years after their deaths, and the various places they influenced still showing that influence - including the odd statue.

Inevitability
2017-01-14, 09:56 AM
I've done a thing like this several times.

In a pact magic-heavy game, I had plans for a vestige based on one player's previous character to be available, but the game ended before I could introduce them.

I've also had a situation where a player's character died and they started playing some new PC. After a few sessions the original character got raised, and the new PC became a NPC again. I decided to make him a plot-central character who ended up having ties to the BBEG, and the fight against him was something quite memorable.

Squiddish
2017-01-14, 11:13 AM
We haven't stuck with one campaign long enough to have retired characters, but I have a donation pot going for abandoned character concepts for use as NPCs.

Jay R
2017-01-14, 12:21 PM
First, no, I don't re-use old worlds.

Second, no, I don't use other players' PCs in my new worlds. First, I don't necessarily know how they would react to a situation, unless I saw the player in a similar situation. Secondly, they aren't mine.

But I certainly do use my own old PCs as NPCs. It helps to know an NPC's character extremely well, and that's the easiest way to do it.

Typhon
2017-01-14, 03:35 PM
I don't care to play the characters of my friends, just not me and I can't think like they would for their characters.

I do like to use older characters of my own as jumping off points for campaigns or as important figureheads. I try not to have them become overly involved though.

Bromley20
2017-01-14, 03:48 PM
Sorry if i made it seem like I only use friends characters. I don't just use the characters of friends as NPCs, I do use my own retired characters too. I will put characters who are not currently being played in there and pull them out when I end up playing them. Other characters who I don't plan on playing in any other campaigns stay in the world.

Lortime
2017-01-14, 10:26 PM
Yes i love almost overlapping groups and see the interaction with each other. soon my two of my groups will have to team up to kill a nasty green dragon..but when push comes shove they be killing each other over the loot soon after they actual enemy is slain.

Asha Leu
2017-01-15, 04:36 AM
Once, during an evil-aligned campaign I was DMing back in high school, the party ran, fought and killed a group comprised of their characters in our main, traditionally heroic game. That was fun.

Otherwise, I don't do it much - for one thing, I'm pretty bad at maintaining consistent settings from campaign to campaign - but sometimes its cool to throw in a little cameo from old PCs.

digiman619
2017-01-15, 05:13 PM
As long as they don't get involved in the action, you'll be fine, "Susan's old character is now the Mother Superior at Longfellows Cathedral" is nice and interesting; "Susan's old character casts miracle to summon the McGuffin" is not. Also, be wary of making an old character your new PC's boss; it can come off as "back in my day" condescension/power tripping.

Velaryon
2017-01-15, 08:19 PM
As long as they don't get involved in the action, you'll be fine, "Susan's old character is now the Mother Superior at Longfellows Cathedral" is nice and interesting; "Susan's old character casts miracle to summon the McGuffin" is not. Also, be wary of making an old character your new PC's boss; it can come off as "back in my day" condescension/power tripping.

I agree with this. I was going to say that it's a great thing to do as long as you remember that they are now NPCs and are not the PC's, thus shouldn't be solving the PC problems or acting in their stead. This is a perfect example of exactly what I was going to say. :)

Anyway, I've done it. I feature my own characters more heavily than friends' characters, just because I'm more comfortable RPing them, but if the player is alright with it I will sometimes let them RP the old character for a couple minutes (with notes from me about what they would know/how they can or can't help as needed).

I repurposed an old ninja PC of mine and had him as a member of a thieves' guild that the PCs briefly allied with against another thieves' guild once.

We had one campaign run by a friend (who is also one of my PCs) in which the characters all obtained divine rank and gained followers. So I've had NPCs show up who are followers of one of those characters.

Also, many years ago I did this in the Star Wars RPG, having an old character of mine show up as an ally and occasional questgiver. Then I killed him off in a space battle, which the players were totally not expecting. :smallcool:

Bromley20
2017-01-15, 08:54 PM
As long as they don't get involved in the action, you'll be fine, "Susan's old character is now the Mother Superior at Longfellows Cathedral" is nice and interesting; "Susan's old character casts miracle to summon the McGuffin" is not. Also, be wary of making an old character your new PC's boss; it can come off as "back in my day" condescension/power tripping.

I try don't have them get involved in the action or act as the party's boss. I try my best to keep them as just background characters. Every once in a while I'll use them to provide information if the party is looking for certain information but never a "this is how we did it back in my day" kind of way. Its usually "oh you are looking for x? I know someone you may want to talk to about that". The local cleric I mentioned before can provide services to heal or remove curses, diseases, blindness, etc. Other characters have become various craftsmen and sell items to the party.

I have only had one character come back to actually fight. The party decided the npc would be a better leader after a revolution than they would and put him in charge. The party moved on to have more adventures and left her in charge.

jscape2000
2017-01-15, 09:46 PM
I had a very successful pair of campaigns that did this, played in quick succession. First group of characters beat the lich, saved the kingdom, won the gold and retired. Never found the phylactery though, which gave me the idea for the sequel.
Second group of characters came along to find the lich stirring, and had to delve back into the abandoned crypt. Of course, the second group found the secret door the first group had missed, and the extra-planar extension to the tomb. Doubly satisfying and memorable for us, I think, because a couple of the PCs died in heroic fashion.

Quertus
2017-01-15, 10:15 PM
Also, many years ago I did this in the Star Wars RPG, having an old character of mine show up as an ally and occasional questgiver. Then I killed him off in a space battle, which the players were totally not expecting. :smallcool:

Kudos. Was it an epic death, completely random, or somewhere in between?

Being an NPC in my games is murder on my characters - especially ones who were accustomed to more... "lax" GMs. So I almost never have anyone else's PC show up, even for a cameo.

Stealth Marmot
2017-01-16, 12:39 PM
Also, many years ago I did this in the Star Wars RPG, having an old character of mine show up as an ally and occasional questgiver. Then I killed him off in a space battle, which the players were totally not expecting. :smallcool:

Joss Whedon, is that you?

Cut that out!

Cluedrew
2017-01-16, 09:01 PM
We don't re-use settings, but I once said that this world version of my character from a previous campaign was a parent to my current character. The old character never appeared and was not supposed to, it was more to communicate part of the concept than for an actual tie in. I've also seen a GM write up a parody version of the party he was going to throw at them (I wasn't playing, I was just the guy he would bounce ideas off of).

Although my favourite story about this was a bit like Asha Leu's story.
Campaign Premise: We are playing a high level villain campaign, your character must be interested in immortality.
Next Campaign Premise: Long term heroic campaign starting from level 1. The villains are the party from last time.

vasilidor
2017-01-16, 10:30 PM
I have seen this work both wonderfully in my dads persistant campaign world. that he has had going longer than I have been alive. though he doesn't play much anymore.

hifidelity2
2017-01-18, 08:26 AM
I have used this

current campaign - Original PCs saved the world - but not perfectly
New PCs (same players) are now out to do the job properly - 30 + years later. Their old characters are now major npc's and help / hinder them according to their personality. The PCs are more than happy to scupper their own PC party if they think that I am making the (old) NPC to helpful

JeenLeen
2017-01-18, 11:05 AM
Generally no, but we rarely have games where it'd be applicable (persistent worlds, etc.)

We did have one game (oWoD Mage) where a dead PC of mine showed up as a wraith NPC when we were in the underworld. The guy was a manipulative prick (both played as such by me and the new DM), and ended up blackmailing the party. I think the DM enjoyed using his manipulativeness against me. That was fun.
Was also funny when he learned how he died. Party was him, a Chorister, and a Jhor-crazed Euthanatos named Eric. When we told him that the Chorister killed him in his sleep (team dynamics were not healthy), his response was, "Huh. I always thought Eric killed me. Good to know."

I liked that use of my old PC as NPC, but I think in general I would frown on it in practice since a player might think the DM is misusing their character. Could lead to unnecessary OOC irking.