Player possibly dropping out of PbP game

[DM Tobi]

Hey all, had a question that I need some help with on how to handle the situation.

I'm currently running a PbP game and in it I have someone who is playing a 1st level character. During the second combat of the game, he suddenly stopped posting. I sent a message to him and received no reply (not that big of a deal, figured he dropped so I'd send him a chronicle and whatnot).

Now today I was going through the character that are playing and noticed that the info under his icon had changed. He was playing a fighter for my game, and now all of his info is for a cleric. I can only assume he is using the character in another game.

So I sent another message to him and am waiting for a reply, but what do I do in this kind of situation. He technically is playing in my game as a fighter, he can't use the character as a cleric in another without finishing his current game and getting a chronicle, correct?

[Mystic Lemur]

You have two options, really:

1) Give him a Mulligan. He dropped after the first fight for whatever reason, so he really hasn't experienced the scenario. Not really a legal option.

2) Fill out a chronicle with 0xp and however much gold and Prestige he managed to earn, and e-mail it to him. Report him as having played the scenario just as you would any other character. This is the technically correct option, but will mean he can't ever legally get credit for this scenario (replayable scenarios excepted, of course). He is still eligible for first level retraining, so no reason he can't be a cleric now. But, you can't play the same character in two scenarios at the same time, so however you want to handle it, he is no longer in your game.

[Sniggevert]

Mystic Lemur wrote:

You have two options, really:

1) Give him a Mulligan. He dropped after the first fight for whatever reason, so he really hasn't experienced the scenario. Not really a legal option.

2) Fill out a chronicle with 0xp and however much gold and Prestige he managed to earn, and e-mail it to him. Report him as having played the scenario just as you would any other character. This is the technically correct option, but will mean he can't ever legally get credit for this scenario (replayable scenarios excepted, of course). He is still eligible for first level retraining, so no reason he can't be a cleric now. But, you can't play the same character in two scenarios at the same time, so however you want to handle it, he is no longer in your game.

So, you have 1 option then, as you are right, what you have as #1 is not a legal option.

[Mystic Lemur]

There is always a choice. I try not to punish a new players for not knowing all the rules. The first time, at least.

[DM Tobi]

That's what I thought were my options.

I did finally receive word back. He thought he'd messaged me about dropping due to "time restraints" and apologized for the confusion. So I guess it's time to figure out what he gets.

[Nebten]

It's not due to "time restraints" since he tried to start up his own game and kept trying to jump into games after he left yours.

The guy doesn't really know much about PFS. He probably just thought it was some other random pick-up PbP game. After all he did try to join your game with a kobold character off the bat.

Good luck.

[DM Tobi]

Yeah, I figured he didn't know much about PFS with the way he started out, but hey I've only been doing it for a few months myself. So I can't fault him too much. Just would have been nice to get a notice that he was leaving.

[LazarX]

Record his number along with the others as a player and email him a null chronicle with no Prestige and no EXP. Basically the same thing a player would get when he's committed himself to a table at a convention, signed up the reg sheet, started the scenario, and just decided to walk off.

When he tries to play it again, the PFS site will reject the listing and not count anything towards his tally, because he's essentially "played' the scenario.

If he beefs about the result, he can learn that commitments count in real life, and there are penalties for walking out on them.