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View Full Version : DM Help And was never seen again...



Yora
2018-01-22, 02:56 PM
I really like the image of characters falling into a pit or getting pulled into the darkness and the players never learning what became of that person. I think it's fun and works great for setting atmosphere.
However, you can't really do that if that character is a PC. I imagine it would be endlessly frustrating for a player to play another character without really knowing if the original character is gone for good or might be rediscovered at some point in the future. The player would want to have confirmation one way or another pretty quickly. And getting told about it by the end of the session or the adventure during wrapup would feel rather lame.

Regarding that player, I think keeping it open until the end of the scene after the other players have stopped their attempts to climb down the abyss or search the bottom of the pool is okay. But is there perhaps a way to get still more doubt and rescue attempts out of the other players without being unfair to the player of that character?
A note card is always an option, but I think in that situation all but the most dedicated players would make the true fate of that character obvious to the others, even if it's unintentional.

Any ideas how to get a bit more excitement (and fun) out of such scenarios?

Koo Rehtorb
2018-01-22, 03:08 PM
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong at all with a PC's fate being ambiguous. But then I'm the sort of person who enjoys playing fast and loose with my characters.

hymer
2018-01-22, 03:56 PM
You could pull the player aside for a moment and inform them, or write a quick note.

Yora
2018-01-22, 04:19 PM
But what to write on the note? I think in most actual play situations the other players will know what happened before the player in question can say a word.

Koo Rehtorb
2018-01-22, 04:28 PM
I say don't tell the player anything unless they specifically ask. If they ask, tell them the truth after the session in private and leave it on them if they reveal it to the others or not.

Darth Ultron
2018-01-22, 05:28 PM
Well, it is not all that much different then killing a character.

In most games character death is not a final and forever type thing. A character can die, and come back. And that is really no different then falling in a hole and coming back. And it is no different then having a character be left behind.

It simply comes down to telling the player they can't play the character any more (for now). Good players can just accept this and move on.

Also in a more general sense I do try to keep each player having at least a couple back up characters. But not have the characters in Limbo, but having them doing non-adventure like things nearby. This works out great for downtime for a character to do things. It also lets the player rotate characters every once in a while.

I do the bring back a 'lost' character often enough. It's fun to have a lost character return...even more fun to add mystery to it. Often the character does not remember (and the player does not know) what happened to them....but now they have a red sword, a hook for a left hand, a strange tattoo or my favorite of a weird unknown power. Of course this works best with players that like to role play such things and with players that don't demand to solve the mystery in five minutes.

Squiddish
2018-01-22, 09:13 PM
One of the players in my current group decided to retire his player a few sessions before, and went to become a woodcutter. Unfortunately he forgot that the woodcutter's shop was previously run as a tax scam and had a pit for disposing of documents.

Ninjadeadbeard
2018-01-23, 03:25 AM
In my first game as a DM, one of the party members was being aided by an NPC to escape an evil Wizard's clutches. While walking a tightrope over a "Pit of Eternal Darkness", the NPC lost his balance and fell over. The PC had a chance to save him, and it wasn't even a difficult check. She, being new to RPGs, chose to cast Feather Fall. This ensured that the NPC would fall forever, now not able to even pass out from reaching terminal velocity. He would float until he died of starvation.

Zombimode
2018-01-23, 04:17 AM
In my first game as a DM, one of the party members was being aided by an NPC to escape an evil Wizard's clutches. While walking a tightrope over a "Pit of Eternal Darkness", the NPC lost his balance and fell over. The PC had a chance to save him, and it wasn't even a difficult check. She, being new to RPGs, chose to cast Feather Fall. This ensured that the NPC would fall forever, now not able to even pass out from reaching terminal velocity. He would float until he died of starvation.

Well, until the spell expires of course. That is after 1 round per caster level.

Honest Tiefling
2018-01-23, 01:28 PM
1) Warn the players of this behavior ahead of time. If you are told at session 0 it might happen, you get more of an idea that MAYBE you could rescue them because the DM said so a few weeks ago. They also get an idea that rescue isn't guaranteed either. If they're not cool with it, assume they're adult enough to bow out politely, or to ask for it to not happen to them. Don't target those guys and come up with an alternative. Fire is always good.

2) Encourage temporary characters. Okay, that minotaur race might not be balanced at higher levels, but that doesn't mean the player can't take it out for a spin for a few sessions.

3) What about if the body goes missing, but the mind doesn't? Depending on how souls work, it could mean that the soul will eventually pass on at some point, giving the part a bit of a time crunch. But until then, you literally have the player helping the party find themselves.

4) Time it right. If people go on vacation or have jobs with a sudden increase in work, try to time it so they might go missing right before real life rears its ugly head.

5) Bribery! Rescuing a party member to retrieve their loot and getting more experience than usual for the encounters will likely result in players always trying to rescue their party members. Hold on, we're coming for you!

hymer
2018-01-23, 03:06 PM
But what to write on the note? I think in most actual play situations the other players will know what happened before the player in question can say a word.

If your eally don't know how it happened, or don't want to tell, I suppose something along the lines of "I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly what happened. Maybe you will find out with a later character. Let's start thinking of a way to introduce your backup PC. Don't hint at any possiility to the other players, please."

Casimir-Ivanova
2018-01-24, 07:51 AM
I really like the image of characters falling into a pit or getting pulled into the darkness and the players never learning what became of that person. I think it's fun and works great for setting atmosphere.
However, you can't really do that if that character is a PC. I imagine it would be endlessly frustrating for a player to play another character without really knowing if the original character is gone for good or might be rediscovered at some point in the future. The player would want to have confirmation one way or another pretty quickly. And getting told about it by the end of the session or the adventure during wrapup would feel rather lame.

Regarding that player, I think keeping it open until the end of the scene after the other players have stopped their attempts to climb down the abyss or search the bottom of the pool is okay. But is there perhaps a way to get still more doubt and rescue attempts out of the other players without being unfair to the player of that character?
A note card is always an option, but I think in that situation all but the most dedicated players would make the true fate of that character obvious to the others, even if it's unintentional.

Any ideas how to get a bit more excitement (and fun) out of such scenarios?

In one of my pathfinder games that happened to one of my characters. She got blindsided by the big bad, and I never found out what happened to her... *sigh*
R.I.P Princess, she with 91 strength and who killed two pirates by accident...

Jay R
2018-01-25, 06:02 PM
I had a character disappear once. The GM handled it well, and it's one of my favorite gaming moments.

In a game of Champions, I had designed a watered-down Superman character named Hyperion, with a Bouncing Boy type sidekick named Pinball.

In the course of the game, Hyperion was believed killed in a way in which his body was not recovered, and Pinball was promoted to the main character.

Sometime later, the DM talked to me privately about the fact that dead superheroes often do come back in the comics, and did I want to do something like that? It seemed like fun, so we set up how he had been revived.

A few adventures later, our group was fighting a powerful giant robot. It had become clear that we didn't have the sheer strength to defeat it. We've just decided that with all the innocent people around we can't flee, and we'll probably all die, when the GM said, "You hear a loud sound of wind behind you." I looked at him, he smiled at me, and so Pinball said the only memorable thing he ever said in his life:

"Look! Up in the sky!"

Thrudd
2018-01-26, 12:10 PM
There is nothing wrong with this. You are completely justified to say that once the character is gone from the group, the player isn't playing them anymore and you don't need to tell them what happened.

"He falls into the bottomless pit. You can play the henchman for the rest of the expedition, and roll up a new character later."