|
I have a slight problem. I had a player leave on a Business trip for a month and a 1/2 so he missed 4 months in game time, this leads to my problem. In His last adventure 'Drakthars Way' He contracted Lycanthropy from a wererat. Now we are about to start 'Deamonskar legacy' and it is his first game back and he does not know he is a wererat. Now I need to account for his character for 4 months. Most likely he is now Lawful Evil in an all good group, and I have not decided if he even knows he is a wererat yet (Low will save). Also in this adventure if there is an evil person in the group an important event does not happen because of that (The angel will not talk to them).
Another piece of Info is that another player left the game in game he played this characters brother, on his first changing he killed his brother but does not even know that neither does the rest of the group. What I have been doing is for the last 4 months he has been investigating his brothers murder with no luck. As this investigation he has been becoming more and more depraved, doing things he would not normally do before the disease.
My questions to all the DMs out there is that now the player is back I would like advice on how to handle the situation. Also if the disease is cured will he get his old Alignment back?
|
|
once he killed regardless in his confused state as a wererat,he'll remain evil until he can atone for his actions.
What I was thinking was to have him gradually return to his old self as he comes to term with what he has done. My major problem is that he has probably killed others with out even knowing and he needs to pay for that. He has even probably made eneimies over the months without even knowing. This is my problem I hate doing this stuff while the player was not here, but time did go on ingame while he was gone. He loved the character and because he went on the buisness trip it has almost come unplayable. I am trying to think of way to salavage it in a way that makes sense.
|
Depending if he has any god to worship he can go to the local temple for advice. If he makes at least the effort to atone such as making some restitution for the victims.(maybe come up with a secnario that he enters a dream like state and has to slay his wererat counterpart), then i'll agree that he might regain his former alignment.
Why not just take him aside and find out what his character's been doing for the last four months, play out a couple of scenes and go from there. Remeber this is not your character. The alternative "You're a wererat, and you're Lawful Evil." is a bit of an ambush if you ask me. Sort of like wrapping a session with the character unknowingly touching some Black Lotus Extract and then when the player returns telling him that his PC died during the four months he was gone and because it's been four months you can't raise him. Granted you might have house rules governing what happens when someone can't show, but I think the intent of the lycanthopy rules are to allow some chance of finding a cure before it takes complete hold.
Another option is to say it wasn't a clean bite (no pun intended) or perhaps it was a weak strain of lycanthopy and its only now starting to affect him now.
GGG
|
Long ago, when my original group was playing, I went off to college in another state while everyone else stayed local. In our Spelljammer campaign, we dealt with this by having my character thrown in prison on the Rock of Bral. When I rejoined the campaign at the beginning of summer, he finally got released and the campaign ended before I went back to school.
For other campaigns, I simply played a recurring character, or else would have a throw away character for each game.
I see several options:
1) Spring it on the player that he's now Lawful Evil and a wererat. Some players would be OK with that, some not. Sounds like your isn't.
2) Find some time to roleplay out with this character the last 4 months. Probably not practical.
3) Just ignore that he contracted lycanthropy. Yeah, it would have been fun to play that but the chance has passed by. Let it go.
4) Make it a really slow acting lycanthropy that is just now taking affect. Drop hints that he's been eating a lot of cheese the last 4 months and that his nose is always itching. Just let it start now.
|
|
I already Have in the Story that His brother was Murdered. And I think that some of you are right that just telling him all of a sudden that he has been a wererat the last 4 months is not fair. What I am thinking of doing is just forget that he got Lycanthropy (know one knew anyway) and have that his brother was murdered by another means, maybe by some enemies of the group, especially since his brother was the leader and the group is named after him. I think that is my best course of action. Thanks all for your advice.
I would concure that the easiest solution is to ignore it since no one knew about it anyway.
On the other hand with out it how do you explain his absence in game? Or have you been NPCing this character.
I would probably write up and give the character a new background for that time. A half-remembered feral time in which he is taken over by his new form. Only clips and memories of the times after he woke up, covered in blood and mud, not knowing what he may of done. His brain blocks out even much of that to protect itself from the horrors that took place. Play it up as a mysterious past he needs to investigate.
As for the meeting with the celestial, I seem to recall see tries to sense evil right then to determine the composition of the party. I wouldn't want them to miss out on this encounter since it really helps make them feel important for the overall campaign. The answer seems to be almost too simple. The night she comes is also a full moon. This character is mysteriously absent from the meeting and reappears the next morning.
Anyway, if you don't think this particular player would enjoy this then I would go back to skipping this entirely.
Sean Mahoney
|
|
I would probably write up and give the character a new background for that time. A half-remembered feral time in which he is taken over by his new form. Only clips and memories of the times after he woke up, covered in blood and mud, not knowing what he may of done. His brain blocks out even much of that to protect itself from the horrors that took place. Play it up as a mysterious past he needs to investigate.
Sean Mahoney
That is how I orginally was planning on doing it, but I have a few fears.
1. He will enjoy it too much and embrace being evil and disrupt the game (He has done that in the past)
2. He won't like that I screwed with his PC while he was gone.
This is how I orginally was going to play it out. Do the thing you were talking about then Have the law finally catch up to him with help from one of the many enimies the group has made (Allybashers, Stromblades, Ebon Traid, Stormblades noble Parents, Cagewrights, etc.). Now I was thinking that the law may not be sure who is the Lycanthrope in the group, especially since it is a well known rumor that one of the group was one( Recently one of the group also became Lycanthrope, werebabbon and they cured him in a very public place, Church of St. Cuthbert)And they arrest the whole group until the discover who is the lycanthrope. sooner or later the do dicover who it is and he is brought forth for justice. Now this is where it can go a few ways and here was another problem i had. The group does have a way of curing him since they found a way in the pass, but would curing him make in difference in the eye of the court? To me this is what i saw the most logical way this would go specially with all the enimies the group has had. This is why I did not like it, because all this would have happened because he was not there to get the PC cured before this all started. Everyone else in the group was new to the adventure group and did not even know his PC well (all new players) in fact have not gone on any adventures with him, so they would not have kept a close eye on him to stop it from getting that far. And like I said above even if i decided not to go that route and have the law not know about him, I would be afraid that he would love that he is playing an evil PC and disrupt the group like he has doen in the pass.
If there is any fear that he would use it to disrupt the game, then I would definately recommend you just pretend it didn't happen. Or at most say he was gone because he was in Shick Shadles Lycanthrope rehab facility for detox.
Sean Mahoney