Hank Megatron is a veteran Templar in a friend’s Deadlands: The Wasted West game. He's probably the longest running character I’ve ever had and I must confess I've grown quite attached to him. The last few adventures he's been on have seen several of his long time companions ‘buy the farm’ and he's had a few very near misses himself too. I appreciate that the main career progression for a lot of heroic types is often death, but what if that’s not exactly what you had in mind for your favourite do-gooder?

All this made me think about the various ways you could retire a character that you don’t really want to use any more. It’s not that I don’t like playing some of my old RPG characters anymore it’s just that sometimes you fancy a change. I know you could simply put the character sheet in a draw and forget about it, but that seems a shame. After all these are identities that we have played through a host of heroic storylines and I think they deserve more.

There are several options I have managed to come up with and they will all need some heavy GM involvement in order for you to pull them off.

My favourite would be the straight out retirement as some kind of minor celebrity.

For this to work you need to have amassed some kind of material wealth. You need a place to live out the rest of your days and a potential income.

This is could be a shop - perhaps selling the kind of stuff that the younger adventuring upstarts may need and of course every item will come with a lengthy dose of ‘when I was in trekking through the Mines of Moria this came in particularly useful’. With your brand name behind it how can it fail?

Or maybe your character is the kind of celebrity who writes a novel…

Dragon Slaying: I Did It My Way – Claude Cleft-Eye the famous Dragon Slayer of Hell Back Ridge tells you the truth about what happened on the most exciting trip of what was nearly the end of his life. Includes full colour map pull out so you to can follow the whole journey!

Paladin: The Man Behind The Full Plate – We all know him. We all love him. It’s the tower of power. The king of swing. It’s Mr Tyria Himself… Randall Og! That’s right for the first time the man of God let’s you in on what really drives him to do the Lords work. Available from all good churches.

Or maybe you were so good at what you did some kind of guide books could be in order…

Lonely Planet: Bretonnia – Thinking of holidaying in the enchanting land of fair damsels and heroic knights? This is the book for you. Includes an indispensable guide of what not to eat while your there.

Rough Guide to Witches – If you like your stake burnt with a side order of crispy witch this ‘how to’ is right up your righteous alley.

Another option more serious option is perhaps the heroic ending.

The GM will need to put a story together that lets you make your heroic exit. Work with them. Decide if you want to end up with the girl (or boy) of your characters dreams, perhaps you want to get fatally wounded and ride off into the sunset - living on only in the memories of those you saved. Maybe you just want out of the life you’re in and will need to fake your own death and start a new life somewhere else.

The final idea I came up with is more dependant on the storyline of the game you’re playing. Is there any way your character could elevate themselves to NPC status? In Conspiracy X you could be promoted within Aegis to a higher rank? Maybe you could take on a more powerful behind the scenes role, you could still interact with the group but the GM would now control you. Maybe you could make it onto the Jedi Council in Star Wars, allowing the rest of your gaming group to add a powerful contact to their list of advantages. This is quite good as it allows your GM to use someone your party can trust in games and you still get to see them from time to time, maybe they could mentor your new character.

However you decide to let your character bow out - make it good. It’s much better for the overall game if characters don’t just fade to black. Don’t just shut the character sheet in a book and forget about it, run that one last game and tie up loose ends.

So whether you go out in a blaze of glory or set yourself up with a new life in the sun make it memorable and give your next character something to aspire to.

Happy Gaming Amigos,

Jon Simpson