gnunn
Hey all,
I am looking to put some problem-solving minds on a challenge I am facing at the moment.
One of my players, who has been on hiatus during a particularly busy quarter of grad school has announced that she may need to bow out of the game entirely because it looks like her time is just going to get more scarce as school goes on.
I have put it to my group to figure out how to appropriately retire her character and have run into a pretty unique problem. The uber-plot arc my players began over a year ago started when this particular character (a paladin) was charged by her order to find and stop the cause of a blight spreading across the land. Well, the party is just about to enter act III of the adventure with the paladin currently being rolled as an NPC. I raised the option of having the paladin leave the group to either a. train the guards for their keep and look after their new valley, or b. go off on a tangentially related side mission.
The player then voiced her opposition to her character doing anything other than pursuing the "cure the blight" mission. Here's the problem. Some of my other PCs now have a slightly less pressing investment in the blight story. One has realized that a cult to which his hated father belonged is somehow involved. Another is a completionist by nature and a third is about to get a reveal that could fully pull her in as well. Besides, they ALL have just inherited a keep and sworn allegiance to the kingdom affected by the blight. Point is, they have a lot of buy-in for this mission too. The trouble is, my group is currently at 7pcs if you count the paladin. I see the opportunity for her to leave the group as a chance to focus more on the players who are there and to address one of the biggest challenges for keeping my game moving along -group size. If she stays on as an NPC, I feel like it provides an extra roll/role that must be attended to, but that nobody at the table has a direct investment in.
Any recommendations on how to handle this without alienating the player who is bowing out or the rest of my group? We are all close friends in real life as well.
Comments
1. There is a blight spreading across the kingdom of Cydon. It's source must be found and stopped.
2. Cydon is currently divided by civil war which started with the murder of the king. The more powerful side currently has its focus divided between holding back the blightspawn while simultaneously trying to unify the kingdom under the prince regent. The weaker side, who the PCs currently work for has been awaiting the return of the other prince (who the PCs rescued and are currently traveling with) to come and defend his good name.
Though these two threads are very-much interwoven, I think I can use them to quickly push towards a solution without railroading my players. If the group goes with the prince to face his brother, the paladin could say, "We're wasting time!" and charge off on her own to potentially reappear as an NPC or even *gasp* an adversary. If the group decides to go for the source of the Blight first, I could either run a divided mission with the paladin heading one contingent and the rest of the group the other, or at the very least, I could potentially wrap up the blight thread in a single adventure.
As far as having her shift to the front lines... the group is currently 1 or 2 sessions away from getting the mcguffin, so I wasn't planning on altering anything prior to that. They are, after-all in mid dungeon. Per the post I was writing when you suggested having her go to the front lines... I may have her do just that once the current adventure wraps up.
Oddly enough, I decided to give the DA2 demo a try and I have found it to be actually enjoyable.
As for Dragon Age: Origins, you never got past Ostagar?! Morrigan's attire aside, you should reconsider giving that game another chance.
I was in a similar situation when two of my four players in the Ilumnos Series took a road trip which ended up with them moving out of state, and for the final chapter of the game! I had them "disappear", and the chapter turned into a search for their characters, so I had to rewrite the story so that the major plot could exist alongside this new search for their PCs.
Whatever you do, good luck!
I gotta lean towards Dusk's suggestion, though. Partially because I like the divine intervention aspect of it all on it's own, but it could also make a good link to a later adventure. "Hey....you guys remember when our Paladin just up and disappeared? Maybe now that this blight is taken care of we should look into what happened there." And then you can incorporate whatever that diety (or whatever was possessing the character) was trying to accomplish...or actually affected.
The other important thing is that my players have expressly mentioned an interest in continuing the current campaign thread through to completion, largely thanks to the personal hooks I set in other PCs through their backstories and in the group as a whole through the bestowing of land and a keep.
One advantage to this is it's a convenient excuse to info-dump once in a while - the other PCs can get a missive from the paladin with discoveries she's made. It also gives you good reason to advance her character level as the rest of the party levels too - she's not merely absent and sitting idly.
If there are other members of the order in the party, then maybe talk with their players ahead of time to explain why this pally would be called away and they wouldn't, so the characters are already amenable with it when the point arises in the game.
1 - Stalemate her. She find her self in some mythological position where she can't stop what shes doing, but can't adventure with everyone else. The Greek's put Atlas in this place, doomed to forever hold the world. Your Paladin would have to stay in constant prayer or be doomed to forever martyr herself at the Blight's door, only to resurrect again at dawn. This make the character accessable, and accountable, but still a vicitm and a hook for your players who've been with her for sometime.
2 - Martyr her. I once introduced a Deck of Many Things in a game. Some players got lucky, one didn't. To spice up his impending doom I had the player sglimpse his fate as he was puleld into it, suspended in cure light would potion in the lair of their enemy, perpetually drowning. Later saved, the player(s) were very motivated to finish their former ally's goal.
Or my favorite, the third option...
3 - Turn her. I love two things. Turning bad guys good and good guys bad. Blight can take her, she becomes a champion of the evil she campaigned against. This new villain can also be a powerful motivator for your players to finish that mission. If the player returns to the table she can return as an echo of her former self, the innocent reflection of what was left of her cast out by the Blightadin, a future/past version of her sent through time. Or leave it a hanging question and really get your player's thinking.
I hope that you find these ideas inspirational, and good luck.
-Jace
Kill them: this can go many ways, from the heroic (Gandolf) sacrefice, to the dieing in battle (Boromir). To do this, you have to make it complete, and different enough that you are not copying a book death, it is the least effective but most decsicive.
Promote them: Is this paladin decently high level? if they are, then you can have the untimly blight death of the current head of the order which means that it would be this ones duty to go and lead the order. this would alow you to still use her as an npc, and as a friend of the party provide aid sometimes, clues or even show back up at the climactic battle.
Disgrace them: leverage an old action, or make one up, that will imprison or cause the charictor to be banished. This leaves a side quest the party can do to help clear the name of their old friend, but even if her name is cleared it takes time before the punishment or shame has been absolved or forgotten.
Turn them: like jacesummers said, with your blight, undead evil paladin, always a great bad guy.
hope it helps,
Falchen
Although they often travel in adventuring parties, paladins are true to one thing above anything else - their deity. Her order or her god could easily redefine her role in the campaign by simply ordering her somewhere else. Perhaps the order must act as one to rid the land of the blight, and the paladin is called back to fight a new battle. Perhaps her deity has other plans for her. Whatever the case, you can make the details of her leaving as descriptive or vague as you wish.
It certainly is not a decision you ever want to make, but you're the GM and the rest of your players who have committed to the game schedule should be your concern moving forward.
If a player isn't there for a session or two it's one thing, But long term NPCing of the character make the Paladin *your* character, not hers. What if you make some decision that she, as a player, would never make?
The best thing to do is have the character disappear if you think the player will come back some day. Asking your GM to do anything else is completely inconsiderate to everyone else in your group. It also makes it easier for you if they never come back at all.
Good luck!