We’re 3 game sessions deep into a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle. I’ve just heard from one of my players that they feel like they’ve put a bit too much of themselves into their character, and they’re starting to get uncomfortable with it. As such, they’d like to roll up a new char sheet and bring their current character out of the game. We’ve talked a little bit about whether they want their character to die, or to permanently leave the party, and that’s still up in the air.
This is my first time as GM, and I’d like a few pointers on how to work with this. From an “off the table” perspective, I’ve already had a conversation with this player about what their needs are. I’m confident that the overall game is still fun for them, and that this isn’t about any player-player dynamics.
From a narrative perspective, I’d love to hear how others have dealt with this before. In the past 3 sessions, I haven’t had the chance to bring out the kind of enemies who could kill a PC outright (bloodthirsty elders, second inquisition deathsquads, conniving underlings). I don’t want the player to have to go through several more sessions with a character they dislike just because it would have more punch further down the line.
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That early on, you can just roll a hard mulligan.
Do a full character retcon, introduce the new character as if it were session 1, and maybe touch on how this character would have behaved over the last few sessions, then bam. Just keep running as normal.
This doesn’t have to be complicated.
The old character gets a personal lead in another city, and they’re going to follow it. They don’t even have to tell anyone. They just leave.
New character conveniently enters the foreground shortly after.
I recently had two of my six players decide to change characters in between our third and fourth sessions of our Pathfinder game. In their case, it was because their precious classes weren’t matching up with their expectations.
I told them it was fine and we could just handwave it and pretend their new characters were there the whole time. But one of the players took it upon themselves to write a really basic—but also very believable—excuse for the old character leaving and the new one joining.
We’re all in this to have fun, so as long as they aren’t constantly shifting around to the point it becomes distracting or difficult for other players’ characters to form meaningful relationships, I’m more than happy to let a player change up their character if they aren’t enjoying it any more. Session 3 is early enough that I’m happy just handwaving it, but if a player wants to write an explanation that’s always better.
You have the right instinct, narrative takes a backseat to player comfort. Don’t worry if it makes sense in-game, that’s not a real concern. Do whatever tying up of narrative threads you want, after you’re sure the player is comfortable out-of-game.
If the player wants, just let them start the next game with a new sheet. If they want to do a sendoff, do it at the top of the session. If they don’t want to acknowledge the old character, then they just evaporate and a new one is inserted.
Ultimately you’re playing with friends, and the reason everyone is there is to have fun. The group’s fun should take precedent over everything else.
