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

[Beckoncall]

My best advice is to have an built-in mechanic for dealing with this problem at the start of the OP.

In my D&D games I give every party a special magic item called "The Kolifax" I jokingly refer to it as "a plot device!" -- and players that can't play or drop off are sucked into the Kolifax until the players return and they pop back out again. Sure it's strange but it's at least explained.

In different RPs a different mechanic can be made for accounting for ghosted/away players. If you come up with some game examples or genres I can help you with ideas for "Built in" mechanics to pop them in/out of the game.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

My best advice is to have an built-in mechanic for dealing with this problem at the start of the OP.

In my D&D games I give every party a special magic item called "The Kolifax" I jokingly refer to it as "a plot device!" -- and players that can't play or drop off are sucked into the Kolifax until the players return and they pop back out again. Sure it's strange but it's at least explained.

In different RPs a different mechanic can be made for accounting for ghosted/away players. If you come up with some game examples or genres I can help you with ideas for "Built in" mechanics to pop them in/out of the game.

Yeah, I mean it's easier in Fandom Roleplays with Canon characters but in an RP with OCs I think that would be a good option to take.

 

[LuckycoolHawk9]

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.

Oh, I knew I forgot to dd something. Generally if I can get in contact with the player, I ask if they want that character to be killed, disappear or NPCed and let them decide. If I have no way of knowing, I tend to let them fade into the background.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

Oh, I knew I forgot to dd something. Generally if I can get in contact with the player, I ask if they want that character to be killed, disappear or NPCed and let them decide. If I have no way of knowing, I tend to let them fade into the background.

I honestly wish more people on this site just respectfully make the characters fade into the background... I've seen too many times characters getting killed off out of spite.

 

[Kaihaku]

I really dislike it when player characters simply disappear after their player goes inactive. There's not much I can do about that as a player, except to reference their existence occasionally, but as a Game Master I usually put a disclaimer in the sign-up around activity. Here's an example.

What happens when players go inactive?
If you’re going to be inactive for a longer period of time, let me know and we’ll work out an in character reason for your character to disappear indefinitely. Maybe they came down with an illness, needed to take care of a family member, were blackmailed into leaving, etc. If a player goes inactive for more than one battle without letting me know their character will become a NPC that leaves the party permanently. That NPC may simply die or retire. Alternatively, they may become an enemy, rival, or hostage.

Basically, if a player talks to me then we work out a reasonable exit for their character that, if desired, leaves an option for return. But if the player ghosts the RP then their characters become NPCs that leave the party but are still present in the world. Sometimes I'll take the simple way out by just having them die/retire but, if the character was engaged with the others, I'll have them show back up - often as an ally, enemy, rival, or hostage. I think it is very important to make this 'policy' known during sign-up so that prospective players are aware that it could happen.

 

[Simon_Hawk]

In DnD we used to dig a hole and place said character in the hole and put a bucket over their head. It was quite comical at the time and worked because we could go back to the spot and pull the bucket off their head and dig the character out if the player returned. XD XD

 

[Lone Star II]

Kill them off. It gets so annoying to have someone's character around, but not an active player. Well, if they just are inactive for a day or so, then that's a different story. But weeks inactive? Kill off the character. Take the items to benefit the others.