Has anyone had experience with characters that are absent for a longer time than just a few sessions?
Our group wasn’t that big to start with (2 players at first, then 3 now back to 2 plus me) and rather than not playing for a few months till the third player is available again, I’m wondering if I can do some sort of “off-camera gaming” by weekly love letters that are posted in the thread we are using to coordinate our sessions.
I’m thinking of letting our Nova wander off to some part of the current campaign arc (which one will probably be his decision in the first letter) that the other pc probably won’t explore anyway by weeky love letters.
Any comments/hints/…?
For my (online) gaming group, we play a lot of one shots and side campaigns when we’re down a key player. That may or may not work for your group. This has the side benefit of reducing GM burnout by rotating the GM hat around the table.
An old classic: they travel to a dimension where time passes differently. They’re there briefly (love letter), and return to see months have passed.
Or they’re replaced by a clone (NPC). They can escape bondage (and the sleeper clone can go evil) whenever the player returns.
They can take a pilgrimage to better understand the source of their amazing Nova powers / learn to better control them.
Less cliche:
Their family is moving. They choose to go along. They can come back when folks change jobs again,’or maybe parents get divorced.
They’re a rock star! They get inducted into the Grown Up supers club. When the player returns, they actually play their characters new protege.
They have a falling out and go solo for a while. If the player never returns, the PC can just be mentioned in passing (“the news mentions Redhawk stopped a nuke in Beacon City…”), and if they do come back, do a scene establishing why they have to work together (they can have a make-up later.)
Their secret identity is busted. They have to take their family on the run until the villain who has the info is mindwiped. You can have that happen in a sidestory when the player returns.
Without specifics on your fiction, that’s the best I’ve got.
The group still hasn’t figured out most of the basic team setup. Their hq is the Outsider’s Kirbycraft, the beacon still has a shoddy handmade costume and they only have met one other superbeing they haven’t fought and defeated. I guess they should probably meet some other supers to talk to so they can decide which way their little operation is supposed to be going.
Sounds like it would be plausible for a PC to get invited to join a group that actually has their shit together, and then return when it turns out they’re like… bloodthirsty Punisher-types.
Gives you a foil group, a rivalry/enemy, and an excuse for their absence, all wrapped up in one.