Well, the regular question of the day was the Wildest Character Concept. I thought and thought even with the NPCs and I just couldn't think of one that was particularly wild. I do have a few short retirement stories I can tell though.
One of the drawbacks of running a long campaign--even one planned with the best intentions wherein we've planted seeds for logical plot twists and have set the stage with with an epic satisfying conclusion in mind--is that the parties tend to fall apart for one reason or another before the ending comes around. It happens all the time winter holidays, spring break and summer vacations are all banes to a good RPG group. It's probably even worse on Roll*20. It's not that online players are flakier--although they arguably are--so much as it is that we are all coming from such diverse places that scheduling problems are almost preordained to rear their heads sooner or later. That said I'll give you three brief tales of retirements that actually happened.
Gnissa Fumblebuck: Although I still pull the name out from time to time. Live table Gnissa--in this case gnome bard with a street urchin background--and her mouse, Baldric were pulled into a 'Hunger Games' type of situation with her other party members and some NPCs to perform contests and competitions for beings whom we officially never met. We saw crowds of spectators, but we never discovered who they were. Everyone had a magical device on their necks that kept them from escaping. We played through several events and were well taken care of as survivors. When the campaign wrapped the party never made it home. Instead the characters continued the harsh, yet celebrated lives of gladiators. For her part Gnissa had been possessed by a demon of some kind that controlled her now elongated right hand, but other than that she was none the worse for wear.
Charlie X: This character was from the 7th Sea campaign I ran on Roll*20. Charlie joined up with the crew while they were in one port or another. He began as a total amnesiac knowing little more than his name. His personal quest was to find out who he was. By the end of the campaign he found that he was the heir to a massive shipping operation out of Castille (I believe that's the stand-in for Spain in this alternate world). His corrupt uncle had gotten rid of Charlie, his nephew, many years before. Eventually, Charlie was able to learn and clear his good name, and help run bandits and occupiers out of town. However, he was hurt very badly in the battle and decided to retire in his hometown having won his fortune and even getting the girl.
Amber "Spade" Spayed: I may have mentioned that I've been playing and running games for 30+ years. The campaign with Spade felt the most "complete" I've ever run or played in. She was still a relatively low-level character (level 8 apparently, although I could have another updated sheet somewhere) but I feel that I got the most out of her. She was a Tabaxi rogue using unearthed arcana scout background. She was fast (re:broken), but had a hard time with anything involving CON or STR. At one point the angry Dragonborn Cleric in the group threw her into a Gelatinous Cube (because of my being "funny" as a player. When the cube showed up I claimed to be far from it and behind the Dragonborn). She barely escaped that and was ready to throwdown right there...but I made her hold her temper because I was the one that started it (player not character really). Another time she got stuck in a spider web and couldn't get out for anything in the world. Eventually, the other party members had to free her. We saved some children from a homebrewed group of villains that were "D&Dized" versions of the weeping angels from Dr. Who. Our big bad was a serpent-men cult who planned to bring their god, Set into the world. We fought our way through the minions, but we didn't stop the ritual and Set was about to materialize for the biggest smackdown of nearly year long continuous campaign...but I called a time-out and had a private conference with the DM. I knew that my Dragonborn Cleric friend from earlier had 'Banishment', but I wasn't sure if Spade knew it or not...and I had the suspicion that the Dragonborn player would have never remembered on his own. We recalled that Spade had indeed heard about the cleric using the spell in an earlier episode. So, as soon as it was my turn in initiative order, Spade told the Dragonborn to "disappear him" which the Dragonborn did. Set never laid a hand on anyone. Note: I consulted the DM first in case he didn't want the Big Bad getting taken out so cheaply. The Cleric still had to cast the spell and Set still had to fail his charisma saving throw--he in fact crit failed with a natural 1--but it was kind of assumed that banishment to his own plain was probably going to be the end result. I almost didn't do it myself, so that we could have had the epic fight, but I figured there wasn't a need to 'play' with the big bad. Had the DM asked me not to, I would have backed off--and he could have always used DM fiat to say, "funny that should have worked...", but he instead, he graciously chose to let the spell work as written in the RAW. The whole crew was then allowed an epilogue, and Spade decided to stop her roguish ways and went to work for the royal family--the only remaining member of which herself had just been saved from serpent men--as personal security. After it wrapped the DM said had we not saved the queen, the entire kingdom would have fallen to us. I think for her part Spade would rather work security instead.
One of the drawbacks of running a long campaign--even one planned with the best intentions wherein we've planted seeds for logical plot twists and have set the stage with with an epic satisfying conclusion in mind--is that the parties tend to fall apart for one reason or another before the ending comes around. It happens all the time winter holidays, spring break and summer vacations are all banes to a good RPG group. It's probably even worse on Roll*20. It's not that online players are flakier--although they arguably are--so much as it is that we are all coming from such diverse places that scheduling problems are almost preordained to rear their heads sooner or later. That said I'll give you three brief tales of retirements that actually happened.
Gnissa Fumblebuck: Although I still pull the name out from time to time. Live table Gnissa--in this case gnome bard with a street urchin background--and her mouse, Baldric were pulled into a 'Hunger Games' type of situation with her other party members and some NPCs to perform contests and competitions for beings whom we officially never met. We saw crowds of spectators, but we never discovered who they were. Everyone had a magical device on their necks that kept them from escaping. We played through several events and were well taken care of as survivors. When the campaign wrapped the party never made it home. Instead the characters continued the harsh, yet celebrated lives of gladiators. For her part Gnissa had been possessed by a demon of some kind that controlled her now elongated right hand, but other than that she was none the worse for wear.
Charlie X: This character was from the 7th Sea campaign I ran on Roll*20. Charlie joined up with the crew while they were in one port or another. He began as a total amnesiac knowing little more than his name. His personal quest was to find out who he was. By the end of the campaign he found that he was the heir to a massive shipping operation out of Castille (I believe that's the stand-in for Spain in this alternate world). His corrupt uncle had gotten rid of Charlie, his nephew, many years before. Eventually, Charlie was able to learn and clear his good name, and help run bandits and occupiers out of town. However, he was hurt very badly in the battle and decided to retire in his hometown having won his fortune and even getting the girl.
Amber "Spade" Spayed: I may have mentioned that I've been playing and running games for 30+ years. The campaign with Spade felt the most "complete" I've ever run or played in. She was still a relatively low-level character (level 8 apparently, although I could have another updated sheet somewhere) but I feel that I got the most out of her. She was a Tabaxi rogue using unearthed arcana scout background. She was fast (re:broken), but had a hard time with anything involving CON or STR. At one point the angry Dragonborn Cleric in the group threw her into a Gelatinous Cube (because of my being "funny" as a player. When the cube showed up I claimed to be far from it and behind the Dragonborn). She barely escaped that and was ready to throwdown right there...but I made her hold her temper because I was the one that started it (player not character really). Another time she got stuck in a spider web and couldn't get out for anything in the world. Eventually, the other party members had to free her. We saved some children from a homebrewed group of villains that were "D&Dized" versions of the weeping angels from Dr. Who. Our big bad was a serpent-men cult who planned to bring their god, Set into the world. We fought our way through the minions, but we didn't stop the ritual and Set was about to materialize for the biggest smackdown of nearly year long continuous campaign...but I called a time-out and had a private conference with the DM. I knew that my Dragonborn Cleric friend from earlier had 'Banishment', but I wasn't sure if Spade knew it or not...and I had the suspicion that the Dragonborn player would have never remembered on his own. We recalled that Spade had indeed heard about the cleric using the spell in an earlier episode. So, as soon as it was my turn in initiative order, Spade told the Dragonborn to "disappear him" which the Dragonborn did. Set never laid a hand on anyone. Note: I consulted the DM first in case he didn't want the Big Bad getting taken out so cheaply. The Cleric still had to cast the spell and Set still had to fail his charisma saving throw--he in fact crit failed with a natural 1--but it was kind of assumed that banishment to his own plain was probably going to be the end result. I almost didn't do it myself, so that we could have had the epic fight, but I figured there wasn't a need to 'play' with the big bad. Had the DM asked me not to, I would have backed off--and he could have always used DM fiat to say, "funny that should have worked...", but he instead, he graciously chose to let the spell work as written in the RAW. The whole crew was then allowed an epilogue, and Spade decided to stop her roguish ways and went to work for the royal family--the only remaining member of which herself had just been saved from serpent men--as personal security. After it wrapped the DM said had we not saved the queen, the entire kingdom would have fallen to us. I think for her part Spade would rather work security instead.
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