Advice/Help What to do with the Characters of Inactive players?

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

From my experience, I've noticed that people would either retcon them out of existence or just kill them off... But I wonder what happens if the players every come back? So now I ask you all, "What would be the best way to handle the characters of players that suddenly go inactive?"

 

[Grey]

Depends on the RP and character.

If they haven't had time to make much of an impact and aren't plot critical, just pretend they were never there. Or kill them off.
If they're plot critical or have had an impact, turn them into NPCs until you can find a space to gracefully write them out.
If you think the player might come back, write them out in such a way it leaves room for them to return later.
I've currently got an inactive player whom I'm going to write out as going to handle a personal matter, so if the player comes back they can return, and if they can't neither will he. in the meantime I'm treating them as an NPC and, conveniently, the character isn't the very talkative type.

 

[Onmyoji]

In the group that I quit recently because screw time zones we had a Guild that had representation in any major city. And if a player was inactive, their character was considered staying at the Guild lounge. So that it doesn't have to participate in the story and there was no need to kill the character or make up another excuse. The character just went to the Guild lounge and has their own errands to attend so is no longer in the party. But if the player comes back they can have the character join the main party again, because all characters were members of that Guild and it was logical they could meet again, even in another city.

It won't work for every setting but I thought it was a neat idea to have some sort of plot-explained repository for inactive characters in case their players come back.
Well, killing them or completely ignoring and forgetting about them works too, especially in a fast-paced rp.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

If you think the player might come back, write them out in such a way it leaves room for them to return later.

It won't work for every setting but I thought it was a neat idea to have some sort of plot-explained repository for inactive characters in case their players come back.

I'm just lucky that someone who went inactive actually did that for me lol. Hooray for plot reasons for being inactive.

 

[Idea]

When I GM a roleplay I always make sure to bold and underline the rule stating that every single character whose player leaves for an extended period whether willingly or otherwise is subject to becoming an NPC for the RP. The character is this controller by me (if the player reaches that point) and I will do with it as I find adequate. I will avoid anything that would prevent them from participating further as a player character for a while though, in case the player comes back in time before being actually kicked from the roleplay. Even then if they do decide to try to come back after being kicked I might consider it, though at that stage I don’t guarantee the character will necessarily still be available in the same way and the player better have a damn good explanation for the prolonged and unexplained absence.

 

[Chordling]

I imagine with most groups that I would pretend that the inactive player character is off doing something else unless the player expresses certain wishes.

 

[Zer0]

Somebody gave me the advice of stating in your Rp rules that when a player doesn't post after a specific number of days, you as the GM can write them off from the scene, but they are welcome to write themselves back in once they're ready to return to the story.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

I think there's also something I neglected to add, and that's if the players were inactive for Personal issues or IRL issues... I wanna know how you guys handle that also.

 

[Zer0]

It depends. If they just suddenly disappeared and they're not the type to tell me if they can't reply and stuff, I will craft the rp to not have important decisions and the pace of the story hang on them. But if they told me beforehand and were good on their word, I just treat them as normal.

 

[Idea]

I think there's also something I neglected to add, and that's if the players were inactive for Personal issues or IRL issues... I wanna know how you guys handle that also.

like I mentioned, that’s an issue I deal with afterwards when the player wants to come back. The other players need to be taken into account, regardless of the circumstances of the absent player.

If the player is only shortly gone not much needs to be done.

In the more medium-short term the character is taken over as an NPC but I try to be careful that a player can still come back to it.

As things progress into long-term absences here though, which in my case likely means several weeks of no IC post OR OOC communication in any form, you start to get into the territory where a truly exceptional excuse would be needed- after all if they truly are under such terrible circumstances they can’t even afford to shoot out a quick “hey, I’m gonna be gone for a while, got some IRL issue to deal with”, then that problem Kenny likely to be one which will be solved anytime soon. And even when they do solve it, I’ve had numerous experiences of partners who lost all motivation for their current RPs as a direct result of such experiences.

 

[Crow]

Control the character if you are capable of doing so. Usually I leave them as they are and treat them like background characters, nameless characters even.

It really depends on what type of RP. In some cases, killing them off to drive home a plot point does wonders.

 

[Crayons]

If you haven't established a rule when you set up the RP, the best thing to do is to try to write them out of the plot in such a way that they have the option of coming back.

However, if they are gone for long enough and/or at a crucial point (I once had a player disappear whose character was in the middle of magically healing mine) then NPC them or timeskip that scene.

Only once have I killed off a character of a person who disappeared, and it was after we had him be "ill" for ... well over a year of RP time. He came back once during that time and made a grand total of one post, so we had a nice bit of drama where he was recovering! Oh but no, he relapsed. So sad! Then much later, we killed him. I say "we" as it was more of a group decision although one I ultimately was responsible for and enacted. This was probably the most problematic disappearance I've experienced because this guy's character was the lord, and he was supposedly leading the plot. (There was no GM as such, but if there was, it would have been him.) Luckily for me my character happened to be his close relative so we said he was named as the heir and got on with things. It actually led to some really good character development and plot for everyone else aside from the dead guy. RIP.

 

[Jannah]

Probably depends on the RP and the importance of the character.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

If you haven't established a rule when you set up the RP, the best thing to do is to try to write them out of the plot in such a way that they have the option of coming back.

However, if they are gone for long enough and/or at a crucial point (I once had a player disappear whose character was in the middle of magically healing mine) then NPC them or timeskip that scene.

Only once have I killed off a character of a person who disappeared, and it was after we had him be "ill" for ... well over a year of RP time. He came back once during that time and made a grand total of one post, so we had a nice bit of drama where he was recovering! Oh but no, he relapsed. So sad! Then much later, we killed him. I say "we" as it was more of a group decision although one I ultimately was responsible for and enacted. This was probably the most problematic disappearance I've experienced because this guy's character was the lord, and he was supposedly leading the plot. (There was no GM as such, but if there was, it would have been him.) Luckily for me my character happened to be his close relative so we said he was named as the heir and got on with things. It actually led to some really good character development and plot for everyone else aside from the dead guy. RIP.

ah yes, the classic "Disney Vague Illness" works every time.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So when I had to leave groups in the past (or just wanted to play someone new) they were just written out.

Like oh my character left to visit relatives or got sick or whatever.

That way if I ever needed to come back I could but no one was waiting around for me.

As a GM I would also make sure to give an exact time table and description of what I will do.

So “If you don’t post for a week your character will be written out of the action. You are welcome to take them up again at a later date if you like.”

 

[Crayons]

ah yes, the classic "Disney Vague Illness" works every time.

In our bitchier moments we said it was syphilis. XD

IC the most likely culprit was tuberculosis.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

In our bitchier moments we said it was syphilis. XD

IC the most likely culprit was tuberculosis.

LOL

At least it's not food poisoning.

 

[Crayons]

LOL

At least it's not food poisoning.

We did contemplate going down the route that he was poisoned by his enemies but we had a lot of other things to do. However, if we had needed that plot point, that might also be something fun to do when killing off inactive characters.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

We did contemplate going down the route that he was poisoned by his enemies but we had a lot of other things to do. However, if we had needed that plot point, that might also be something fun to do when killing off inactive characters.

Oh that's still more dignified than death by poorly cooked food.

 

[Crayons]

Oh that's still more dignified than death by poorly cooked food.

Food poisoning just didn't have the long, drawn out, will-he won't-he survive that we needed for this situation. I'm pretty sure that's mainly over one way or another within a few days.

 

[Onmyoji]

If another character in the team has super bad cooking skills I wouldn't write that off as an option XD That IC info can be put to good use lol

 

[Crayons]

If another character in the team has super bad cooking skills I wouldn't write that off as an option XD That IC info can be put to good use lol

"For some reason he keeps relapsing!"
"Are you letting Shoujo Heroine cook his gruel?"
"ah ha ha ha! Yes it's me, oops I'm so clumsy I accidentally put a dead rat in it! Whoopsie!"

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

If another character in the team has super bad cooking skills I wouldn't write that off as an option XD That IC info can be put to good use lol

Otherwise known as Chekhov's Gun. Honestly my personal favorite bit is just remembering things established really early on in an RP and using it as an important plot point late in when everyone else forgot about it.

 

[LuckycoolHawk9]

My personal advice as someone who DMS a lot offsite, Very first thing before anything else: DM the player. Sometimes inactive players aren't inactive because they don't care about the roleplay or the plot or their characters, sometimes, the alerts don't go through and they didn't even realized you updated/posted.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

My personal advice as someone who DMS a lot offsite, Very first thing before anything else: DM the player. Sometimes inactive players aren't inactive because they don't care about the roleplay or the plot or their characters, sometimes, the alerts don't go through and they didn't even realized you updated/posted.

Oh yeah, that's something I've noticed some times... I'd personally would have liked it if they tell us ahead of time and not make us jump through hoops to find out.

But that doesn't answer the question of what to do with the characters of those players who suddenly just go inactive.