Sometimes a player is unable to attend one, or more, game sessions for whatever reason. The character may be simply classes as being absent, or may be played by another person.
This supplement provides a way of making character absences more interesting, and more relevant to the game, than them simply not being present, and without the problems that can occur when someone else plays them.
Instead, here are fifty different reasons for why characters may be absent. Some in-game absences may be only a day; others could be months. These activities are what the character was doing during their absence. Some may have costs and benefits; others do not. Each activity also comes with an example.
The reasons for a character absence should not be chosen randomly, but should be mutually agreed between the GM and the player.
Here is an example result:
Charity Work – This activity is perhaps best suited to members of the right type of religious order those with mandates to support those less fortunate, or similar ideals, are the best but other characters may also wish to do charitable works. This is an activity that isn’t suited to evil characters, or even most of those that are neutral.
There are different actions that can be done for charitable activities; giving out food and drink is one of the more common ones, but healing the sick is another possibility. This work may or may not cost the character money; all the costs could be incurred by the organisation in question, but some may expect their members to donate more than just time and skills, but money as well. Charitable works are unlikely to take much time, although this can depend; it is perfectly possible for a character to spend a month in game time doing them, if a prolonged absence needs to be
accounted for.
At the GM’s discretion, the charitable work could give the player a bonus when interacting with the poorer classes of society afterwards for a period of time.
Example: Ingus the Priest is going to spend a week feeding and ministering to the sick in the poorer areas of the city. The GM rules that the costs of this are born by his religious order, and that for the next month following the charitable work, Ingus will receive a +2 bonus on any Diplomacy rolls when dealing with the poorer people of the city.
Released: May7th 2016 Pages: 24
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