Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 188 - Character Replacement

Episode Date: August 20, 2023

Many moons ago I gave tips on character death but as The Mummy said, death is only the beginning.  How do you let your player gracefully replace their character in your game?     #dmtips #dnd #Pathfinder #CharacterDeath   Resources: Pathfinder 2e:  Wealth by Level:  https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=587

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Once you decide how departing characters will leave your game, you need to decide how to bring the new character in. I'm going to give you one thing not to do, and then some possibilities that you could do from least to most realistic. Thank you so much for listening to the Taking20 Podcast, episode 188, tips on smooth character replacement in your games.

I want to thank this week's sponsor, Salad. Did you know that only the green leafy part of a salad believes in an almighty deity? That's why before eating a salad, you often hear the words, let us pray. If you like this podcast, please consider telling a friend or your gaming group about it. It would help the podcast grow and maybe, just maybe, make them forever indebted to you because they like the podcast. So please, help me spread the word. Also, I'd love to hear your feedback on whether you enjoyed the short episode last week. I needed a short episode because it cut out a lot of the filler of traditional episodes,

and honestly, I needed the break and it was much faster for me to produce. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. Feedback at taking20podcast.com or message me on Facebook or Instagram. Way back in episode 33, I talked about character death, but that redates my YouTube stream by about 20 episodes. I'd love for you to go back and listen, but in redates my YouTube stream by about 20 episodes. I'd love for you to go back and listen, but in case you don't have time to recap that episode, DMs you need to decide if character death is even a thing at your table. Don't be careless with character death. Treat it as an important moment of the campaign. Don't punish a player for a character's death. Bring in a replacement character at the same level as the other characters.

Give the other players an opportunity to let their characters grieve appropriately. Let them have final words, maybe even a funeral scene. Show the impact of that character's life, whether it's through a series of vignettes or that the living characters can discover on down the line. And then also, decide how available resurrection magic is in your world. There you go. 20 minutes, some down to about one and a half, but with a lot fewer fart jokes and fewer stories to reinforce the points.

This episode can be considered a follow-on to that episode 33. How do you bring in a new character that will replace the departing one in a way that makes sense for your story? First off, it does depend on how the departing character left the story. If the previous character died, there's no real legwork that needs to be done here. They died. Their soul is at its final resting place and the other characters can't or won't resurrect them. No drama there. End of character. If the player wants to change the character they're playing, though, my beloved GMs, you have a little more heavy lifting to do. You need to find an appropriate time and a place for the changeover to happen.

If you're in a role-playing light kind of campaign, you can hand wave much of it. If the outgoing PC is a member of an organization, for example, that organization sent a replacement character with a note saying you're needed back at headquarters. It's a semi-annual goat catapult competition or whatever it is. Another option is to have the outgoing character get kidnapped or orknapped or gnome-napped or whatever the right word before it would be. The party wakes up and that character's just gone. Sometimes the next session they'll find someone else to replace them, and it's amazing how life works sometimes. The orc barbarian went missing,

and this session we're lucky to find a dwarf fighter who's looking to make a name for herself. How lucky are we as a party, aren't we? Let's go find that orc as our first adventure together. If I were running a roleplay-heavy campaign, though, I'd give the outgoing character an opportunity to say their goodbyes, explain why they're leaving, make their way back home to Sandpoint or the village of Flambe

where all the buildings are made of paper and wood. You know, that arson isn't going to commit itself. What? I'm sorry, everyone. Sometimes he gets like this. Leaving the burning town of Flambe behind, and let's face it, it's their fault for naming their town Flambe. It's like naming your character Listeria and getting surprised when they get sick eating contaminated food. Anyway, back to the topic. Once you decide how departing characters will leave your game,

you need to decide how to bring the new character in. I'm going to give you one thing not to do, and then some possibilities that you could do from least to most realistic. First off, don't just have your old character disappear and have the new character appear right in their place. and have the new character appear right in their place. Round six of combat. Tefer the Bard disappears to the pop and is replaced by Deidre the Sorcerer. Deidre, it's your turn. And the players act like their characters

don't even notice a difference. Look, run your game how you want, but for me, that breaks any and all realism in the world. What the hell happened to Tefer? Are they okay? Did they really just wink out of existence and no one cares? Will they really not try to find Tefer at all who's been adventuring with them for weeks? That makes no sense. And honestly, I think that's a lazy way to do it.

Okay, Jeremy, Mr. High and Mighty GM who has a podcast and burps advice all the time, what should I do? I'm glad you asked, smartass in my head, because there are some options. First off, if you want to change the character that you're playing, coordinate this with your DM well ahead of time. Tell them you'd like to play a different character, no matter the reason for the character switch. Listen to the DM's ideas for how to change out your character. The DM knows the story that's coming and can likely give you the best advice for a good character change-out time and place.

The least realistic way? The character just wanders off without a word to the other characters. I can hear some of you now. That's what my character would do. Also, they would steal some of the treasure. Sure, that's what your character would do. That also means your character's an asshole. Unless your DM wants to turn getting revenge against your former character into part of the upcoming adventure, please just don't do that. That being said, beloved GMs out there, an interesting side quest could be chasing down the former character, now NPC, that wronged the party. If you want inspiration, just watch the 2003 movie The Italian Job. Also, watch that movie for Seth Green's impersonation of Jason Statham

playing a character named Handsome Rob. That scene never fails to get a laugh out of me. The next best way, and at varying levels of realistic, is for the character to receive a message that they're needed elsewhere. This obviously works best when they're part of an organization of some kind. They're a soldier, a member of a church, part of the thieves guild, they work for the umbrella corporation. Any organization that you can think of will do. That organization could even be their family, or friends, or community they grew up in. The reason it's varying levels of realistic would depend on where the party is,

where the adventure is set, and the type of organization. If the party are in their well-known tavern of choice in a small town with representatives of the organization present, it stands to reason that they could probably track the character down to replace them. Absalom Station, for example, in Starfinder is big, but unless the character down to replace them. Absalom Station, for example, in Starfinder is big, but unless the character is extraordinarily stealthy and leave almost no footprint behind themselves, friends or acquaintances or people who know them, anyone can be found given enough resources. However, imagine the party's in the middle of a desert or a forest near no roads or settlements.

They haven't seen another living humanoid in two weeks. They're up to their neck in scorpion carcasses. And the replacement character just so happens to walk up out of the blue. Hi, you're needed back at the monastery. That kind of seems weird, improbable even, absent some sort of tracking mechanism the characters are hauling around. The person coming to retrieve the character could be that character's replacement, or not, if it would make sense. Why would a church of Callistria send a paladin to collect

their cleric that they need? For those who don't play Pathfinder, by the way, Callistria is the chaotic neutral goddess of lust, trickery, and greed. Probably not a lot of paladins eager to help, unless they have certain... proclivities? You know what, never mind about that, let's just move on. Of course, if your game has cell phones or similar communication technology, chances are the character could be reached anywhere there's cell service. In those situations, character replacement is very easy, since any prominent NPC could reach out to that character and ask them to step out of the adventure for a particular reason. As a DM, you not only need to consider the needs of the

character that's leaving, but also those that are remaining in the party. It would be best to have the departing character leave in a way that facilitates their replacement. One of the easiest and best ways for a character to leave would be for the departing character to announce to the party they're leaving and find a convenient time to do so when they're back in civilization. For example, the next time the adventurers are in town, the characters can make their goodbyes, and then that character leaves to whatever life they want to lead. This can lead to great role-playing opportunities at your table.

Why are they leaving now? Maybe they've finally earned enough of that replacement spleen for their father, or they realize the adventuring life isn't for them because they're tired of getting stabbed by traps. The party arrives at Easting or Casimir or Absalom Station and depart there to use the convenient travel infrastructure to return home or wherever they want to start their new life. As a bonus, the party will already be in a settlement where there just so happens to be a character who's looking for a party. Hmm. Convenient, as I mentioned earlier.

One of our party members just left to become a beet farmer. Would you like to join us? However, my favorite way to bring in a new character is when it's tied to the story in some way. You as the DM have the advantage of knowing what's coming. Let's say your group is playing through Curse of Strahd and one of the characters dies. It would make a ton of sense for the replacement character to be Vistani or an NPC in Barovia or other locations that are present within the adventure. Consider working with the player to tie their character into an area or an event that's coming soon to the adventure. That way the character has a built-in reason to meet the party, and you and the player can come up with a motivation for why they will join the campaign against the evil vampire. Two last tips for you.

If a player expresses desire for their character to depart the group, Two last tips for you. If a player expresses desire for their character to depart the group, ask the player if they would mind if the departing character show back up as an NPC a little bit later, if it makes sense for the adventure. It can make your world feel alive and that there's more going on than just what the characters see directly in front of them.

Tempest fugit, time flies, and the world does not sit still while the characters fret. As for my last tip, do not let players cheese the starting equipment mechanic to get more stuff than they've earned. Jeremy, what do you mean by that? I'm glad you asked. Let's say Alan the Ranger dies. Tragic, but that happens sometimes when you wade into a big group of goblins with just a bow. The player wants to bring in Barbara the Barbarian. I kind of like that.

That was just kind of off the cuff. Barbara the Barbarian. That rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Later on, ask me about my NPC Fluid the Druid. Alan the Ranger died, and they had some equipment on them. Maybe magical armor, a weapon, a ring, that kind of thing. If Alan's body wasn't completely destroyed by the goblins or carried off with all their stuff, then the party is still technically in possession of a lot of gold pieces worth of gear. Most game systems have a suggested wealth or equipment by level mechanic that allows players

to bring in replacement characters with appropriate wealth and levels of gear so they won't be completely useless to the rest of the party. If you allow the party to keep Alan's gear and bring in Barbara's gear by level as well, the party just became a lot richer. I'm talking in generality, so let's do something concrete. The Pathfinder 2e party consists of four characters and is currently level six. That means according to the wealth by level chart that I'll include as a link in the resources, each character should have about 450 gold pieces worth of stuff. Four times 450 gold pieces is 1,800 gold pieces worth of equipment, loot, etc. total amongst the party counting coins and equipment. Now imagine Alan dies, leaves behind

all their stuff. Barbara joins the party. The party is still four people, and each should have 450 gold pieces of stuff, so their total value of equipment and coins should still be about 1,800 gold pieces. But if Alan is, sorry, was, tracking along with the rest of the party, then Alan's body has about 450 gold pieces worth of stuff on their rapidly chilling corpse. That brings party wealth up to 1,800 gold pieces plus Alan's 450 gold pieces of stuff, 2,250 gold pieces. The party became richer because Alan died. While cheesing a mechanic like this is rare, I did have a group try to do this to me about 8-10 years ago. Cheesing a mechanic like this is rare.

I did have a group try to do this to me about 8-10 years ago. I put a rapid stop to it and insisted the party keep equipment total value about where it should be in the book, plus or minus a few percentage points. My solution to this was a simple one. Suppose Barbara wants to join the party. She should probably show up with 450 gold pieces with a stuff. However, Alan had some great plus one armor with 160 gold pieces that maybe Alan's player wants Barbara to have instead of Alan. Assuming Barbara strips it off of Alan's cold steel corpse, Barbara would show up with 450 minus 160 or 290 gold pieces worth of stuff and could take the plus one armor when she arrived. That still keeps the balance of about 450 gold pieces, and

I think that keeps party level and party power pretty equal with the way most adventure paths are written. Alternatively, the party could be assumed to deliver all of Alan's stuff to their next of kin, and Barbara can show up with 450 gold pieces worth of stuff. Chances are this is not going to be a problem at your table, but be mindful of it should you have a PC die and the player wants to replace them with a new character. Replacing characters can be done realistically, but it requires some planning between the player and the DM. Players, be receptive to DM ideas about where and when to replace your character. And DMs, look for a convenient way to bring the new character into the fold.

Add just a dash of realism to it and look out for attempts to get extra equipment out of it, and I'll bet you and your players would have fun doing it. Please like, rate, and subscribe to the podcast wherever you happen to find it. I know times are tough and it's hard to find money to donate, but even free actions like spreading the word about it, reposting social media, and interacting with the podcast helps to get the word out there. Tune in next week when I'm going to give you some tips on how to use AI tools to make you a better DM or a better player. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Salad.

I had a pretty good joke to go here, but I got rid of it at the last minute. That salad joke was better tossed. I had a pretty good joke to go here, but I got rid of it at the last minute. That salad joke was better tossed. This has been episode 188 with tips on replacing characters in your world. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyrighted by their respective publishers.