I haven't really started writing the campaign yet (it's a few months from now) but I'm starting to put together some ideas. I think I want to work this player (and character's) absence into the plot. The character keeps disappearing and appearing, and the party has no idea why. Maybe the character himself knows, maybe he doesn't. Anyone have any cool ideas for a 12-15 session campaign with this as a hook?
Fey? Shadowfell? He/she keeps going back to their "home realm" or "prison realm" as it were... whether controlled shifting or being "pulled" back to the other zone...
Certainly some other curse ... lycanthropy?.. not sure how long between sessions.. but your PC could have to escape the trappings of civilization to hide his or her nature from the rest of the party...
Coma/narcolepsy style issues.. does the PC actually "leave" or are you left with a shell of a PC that the rest of the party has to pull along, drag along, "pull along like one of the characters in the last Drizzt Do'urden novel who's floating but unconcious after the spellweave collapses"... then with periods of lucidity when the PC is around...
If the character has more options to leave, certainly some other obligation, like returning home to protect his/her liege's lands or take care of ailing sibling/family member, or even just other mercenary activity (especially if you want this PC to gain levels / XP at the same time as your other players)...
my first few thoughts...
best of luck...
Josh
Kirk got caught in a flexuation (ewww!) in time-space and kept fading in and out.
Maybe the PC got stuck in something like that. So the PC's is here and/or gone for Gametime periods of time.
Maybe he (PC) is even the reason the PCs party are getting together.
Then when the player is able to play fulltime, he (PC) gets a cure!
That's weird! So I may be running a short mini-campaign over the summer, maybe 3-4 months or so. I have one player who's only going to be available sporadically, maybe every other week. I tend to dislike running a campaign with different groups, but in this case I think it will be unavoidable.
I haven't really started writing the campaign yet (it's a few months from now) but I'm starting to put together some ideas. I think I want to work this player (and character's) absence into the plot. The character keeps disappearing and appearing, and the party has no idea why. Maybe the character himself knows, maybe he doesn't. Anyone have any cool ideas for a 12-15 session campaign with this as a hook?
If you can pull it off, then alternate between time periods. Something has happened to the PC in question, most likely he's gone missing (somehow).
Have the PCs do up characters at whatever the starting level is, and another version several levels higher. When the player is there, you play in the past, where they all got to know each other and started down the road to pissing off whomever has snatched him or set cosmic events in motion they now need to reunite to stop, or whatever.
On games he's not there, haul out the higher-level PCs and play out the quest to find him. Swap back and forth as he shows up or not. It's nice because it won't ever leave the regular game WITH him in the lurch if he needs to miss a session unexpectedly, and the players how show up every time get a little something special. If you want, you can work out some of the details of what's happened to his PC with him, since he won't be in on those 'present day' (or 'future' if you prefer) sessions, and it'll help him feel like he's not msising out when he's not there. It also gives the players a chacne to experince some of the fun of doing higher-level stuff despite the short time-frame of the campaign.
It sort of requires you to design for two games, but I think THAT is easier than trying to hit the group with the 'plot hammer' every time he shows up (or NOT). It'll feel much more seamless this way, and have a cool flash-back feel to different sessions as the past informs what happens later: Does that Orc Mercenary get away from the PCs in the past? Have him show up as Chief of his Tribe in the next future session you play; the PCs will very quickly WANT to see stuff they do at low-lvl affect the subsequent high-lvl sessions. Bring it all together in your final session or two, where the player who hasn't been present for the future battles gets to play in the big final Boos Battle with his own levelled-up version. It'll be something all of them can look forward to as a nice wrap-up.
I hope that all makes sense. It's a nice compromise, and particularly cool in that the PC who can't make it won't affect ongoing stories, and the regular players get a chance to play as starting AND levelled-up versions, despite the short time-frame.
-JC/MM
The character has been cursed by Avandra (or similar deity) after breaking into a sacred vault/stealing a sacred item/etc. At various, seemingly random times, the character is teleported 50-200 miles away (the curse is an enhanced sense of wanderlust brought on by staying in one place too long). It takes the character however long the adventure is and however long the player is out to get back. At first, you could introduce this by having the character get randomly teleported short distances at inopportune times (50 feet across the room, outside the bar into the rain).
Eventually, you can use it as a plot device when the character teleports into someplace interesting, and right before getting a reward, teleports away again. Then he/she can tell the group about it. Of course, getting in normally means going the hard route through guardians, traps, etc.
So I may be running a short mini-campaign over the summer, maybe 3-4 months or so. I have one player who's only going to be available sporadically, maybe every other week. I tend to dislike running a campaign with different groups, but in this case I think it will be unavoidable.
I haven't really started writing the campaign yet (it's a few months from now) but I'm starting to put together some ideas. I think I want to work this player (and character's) absence into the plot. The character keeps disappearing and appearing, and the party has no idea why. Maybe the character himself knows, maybe he doesn't. Anyone have any cool ideas for a 12-15 session campaign with this as a hook?
I made a comic relief Dwarf Fighter who managed this quite nicely. His canon-excuse for vanishing? He simply got lost.
This Dwarf had such a terrible sense of direction that he could travel down a dead-end hallway and literally VANISH. Then a few months later when the party was travelling through a Dungeon, an old house, or a Cave, he'd burst out of a nearby wall, or fall out of the ceiling coated in dust and wearing tattered rags, casually dust himself off, and rejoin the party.
"You inch your way slowly through the abandoned mine. It is dead silent. You do not detect anything out of the ordina- SUDDENLY A LARGE CLOUD OF DUST AND ROCK TUMBLES FROM THE CEILING. A You hear a surprised shout, and then several staggered curses in Dwarven intermixed with deep thunderous coughs. As the dust clears you make out the shape of a ragged Dwarf coated in bits of rock, dust, and indescribeable grime. Worry eases to bewilderment as you suddenly recognize this dwarf as being your long lost companion Bari Thundershard. When asked where he had been for the last few months, he could only give the briefest of explanations, stating "I took a wrong turn down that weird Hallway."
The party exploring a abandoned mansion? Bari would burst through a seemingly solid wall wrestling with some creature or monster, nonchalantly express that he was glad to see the party once again, and then go back to wrestling with the lizard or giant ant. Pretty much just imagine a Dwarf version of Artie, the Strongest Man in the World.
maybe he is semi-possesed by demon and has to hide every now and then untill he re-gains control of himself or seek treatment every now and then to keep it in check. one day he could loose control and turn into a demon with them and try and kill them