D&D General Who “owns” a PC after the player stops using them?

[I'm A Banana]

I, as DM, own them.

Before they play them, as they play them, after they play them! They are mine, all MINE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

I like putting former PC's in embarrassing outfits, making them beg on city streets, ensuring that they had a messy breakup with their love interests, giving them horrible scars and at least three infectious diseases that are highly visible and involve various kinds of pungent oozing. If their former player's new PC encounters them I have the former PC cry a little bit and soil themselves in confusion. All of their magic items were eaten by roving disenchanters, and their priests have asked them to never set foot in their temples again.

Honestly, this has never come up in my years of D&D. As both a player and a DM, each campaign is pretty self-contained, and the only way I stop playing a PC is usually because they've seen themselves out of the main action for some reason (retired, gone mad, died), so either my former PC's are either literally in another universe, or at least functionally are. I suppose I imagine them pretty much in the DM's hands, and though it'd be nice if the DM considered my hopes and dreams for the character, I don't mind too much if they didn't.

 

[TwoSix]

I like putting former PC's in embarrassing outfits, making them beg on city streets, ensuring that they had a messy breakup with their love interests, giving them horrible scars and at least three infectious diseases that are highly visible and involve various kinds of pungent oozing. If their former player's new PC encounters them I have the former PC cry a little bit and soil themselves in confusion. All of their magic items were eaten by roving disenchanters, and their priests have asked them to never set foot in their temples again.

Or as I call it, my in medias res Session 1.

Oh, sorry, you said "former" PCs, not current ones.

 

[Shiroiken]

I try to incorporate aspects of old campaigns into the current one when possible. PCs become NPCs, but if the player is still around, I often present them with the situation before using them. If not, I just try to have them act the same way they would have back when they were active.

 

[MockingBird]

I've never even thought about this or have I ever needed to, but it's a great question. I would say the player owns the PC. They put the time into developing the character. If I ever use a PC in the future I'd definitely ask permission from the player.

 

[aco175]

As a DM i have fairly simple policy. Use it or lose it. If you want to retire character for any reason, cool. We figure out his retirement and then PC becomes NPC under my control. I do try to keep them out of game thou. But i will if it fits narrative. Hell, i'll use old PC as antagonist if it fits story.

As a player, i don't care what happens to character once I stop playing it. I stopped caring long ago after seeing enough campaigns fizzle out after only few sessions.

This is about how I see things. I cannot recall the last time it came up though. I think it was a Phandalin campaign after the original PCs in LMoP claimed Tresendar Manor and rebuilt it to use as a base. In the next campaign there was another threat to the town but the old PCs could not be found and have "Gone on another quest and are not here right now".

There have been times where a new campaign is set 20 years in the future from another campaign and the old Pcs are nobles and quest givers. The DM did not ask the players and nobody felt slighted.

I do recall a long ago game like back in middle school where old PCs came around and the player of a new PC wanted to get all the magic from his old PC since he was not using it at the time.

 

[ichabod]

It depends.

I had a PC who was left for dead, but wasn't actually dead. Furthermore, they had lycanthropy that hadn't manifested yet. Privately I asked the player if it was okay if I used them as an NPC, and how they would react to the situation. So they had veto on the character becoming an NPC and input on how he would act, but once he's an NPC he's mine. That's generally how I would handle the situation.

I don't allow evil characters, and if I decide your character is evil, they become an NPC. If this ever happens (hasn't yet), the player has no say. The character will come back, and they will be as evil as I can make them. This is clear in session 0. Although, if it was one evil act with reasons, I would probably allow the character to go on a side quest to atone.

A new player to my group ghosted us last session. If he ghosts us next session, his character is an NPC, and I do what I want with him.

 

[Jack Daniel]

As far as I'm concerned, characters belong to players, not to DMs or to DMs' campaigns. If a player leaves a campaign, their character leaves the campaign milieu along with them and doesn't become some kind of retried NPC (unless the player says so). If a player wants to take their character, play them in some other campaign, and then return to mine at a later date, it's all cool—OD&D and AD&D expected that to happen, so I expect it to happen.

Elric of Melniboné could, on occasion, suddenly find himself on another plane of existence just because he walked far enough. John Carter just kinda astral projected for no reason. Who am I to deny any player character the same access to more threats, dangers, and bothersome adventures that make you late for dinner?

 

[overgeeked]

Elric of Melniboné could, on occasion, suddenly find himself on another plane of existence just because he walked far enough. John Carter just kinda astral projected for no reason. Who am I to deny any player character the same access to more threats, dangers, and bothersome adventures that make you late for dinner?

Being literary characters instead of RPG character probably has something to do with that.

 

[cbwjm]

I did leave a game when I was tiring of 5e and online play and I do sometimes wonder what happened to my fighter. Did my friend retire my PC in his home city, did he die on the way home, has he continued to travel with the rest of the group as a support character. Maybe one day I'll ask.

 

[Yaarel]

It depends.

I had a PC who was left for dead, but wasn't actually dead. Furthermore, they had lycanthropy that hadn't manifested yet. Privately I asked the player if it was okay if I used them as an NPC, and how they would react to the situation. So they had veto on the character becoming an NPC and input on how he would act, but once he's an NPC he's mine. That's generally how I would handle the situation.

I don't allow evil characters, and if I decide your character is evil, they become an NPC. If this ever happens (hasn't yet), the player has no say. The character will come back, and they will be as evil as I can make them. This is clear in session 0. Although, if it was one evil act with reasons, I would probably allow the character to go on a side quest to atone.

A new player to my group ghosted us last session. If he ghosts us next session, his character is an NPC, and I do what I want with him.

I played in my friends 1e-ish game. My character was killed by Werewolf. So I wrote it off as if "dead", but actually it was still alive as an Evil Werewolf. The DM could have used it as an NPC, but didnt.

The thing is, in 5e, one can play a Werewolf as a player character.

So I translated the character into a 5e character. The 1e Elf Magic-User/Fighter/Thief is now a 5e High Elf Bladesinger with a Criminal background plus a homebrew Werewolf feat. I havent played him as a 5e character yet, but I have him as my DM-PC with minor cameos.

The narrative is the Werewolf came to his senses, and mostly can harness his animal impulses. The character is Neutral Good.

The 1e and 5e are different worlds, but it is the same character that shifted from one to the other. Both are planets in the Material Plane.