Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;955345So, another thing to consider is this: what happens to the new PC once the sword guy comes back? Does he get kicked out of the group? Does he die at just the right time only to be replaced by Sword Guy character?

I like Spinachcat's suggestion of having the player roll a bunch of difficult rolls to determine degrees of success of this adventure. The issue with that is that if it fails, it won't be as much as a surprise if you bring Sword Guy as a villain later, which isn't a big deal, but, you know... Dramatic surprises can be fun!

Another way to handle it is to run an extra game, following that other character's adventures, probably as a one-shot solo adventure.

Yeah, if the player just wants to convert the sword and return as the same PC, you can just have the player play that out in whatever fashion using whatever media (notes, PBEM, private sessions, sidebar sessions, abstract rolls after listening to his plan). Meanwhile, that player can take a break and/or play as NPC allies and/or adversaries with the rest of the group. NPCs temporarily played by a player can return to NPC status when/if the PC returns. There is no need for weird consequences for NPCs the player runs in the meantime. Having an equivalent-power replacement PC materialize to replace a PC on a side-quest seems both very artificial and unfair, and also undermines the logic and cause & effect of the situation, which I think is the main thing that makes a game interesting anyway. i.e. It's about an interesting situation and seeing what choices you make and what that leads to, without weird gamey transformations of the universe to meet some weird artificial idea of what a party should be like in terms of number of members and their power levels - that's bizarre to me.

It sounds to me like the player enjoys his character and is doing a good job of playing IC, and the character's motivations don't jive well with the goals of the group.  If that is the case, I would not hand wave the situation.  I would do a side quest, probably 1 on 1, as a reward for playing his character well within the context of the campaign.  I would make such a side quest was extremely challenging with the greatest risk being that the character is overthrown and corrupted by the sword (because that's his motivation), and I would, in some in game fashion, let him know what he is up against.  If possible, the quest should be long (in game time) or distant from the main action of the party so as to remove the character from immediately influencing the group campaign - which should remain your primary focus.  Regardless of the outcome of the side quest, I would certainly revisit the character later.  He may be an NPC villain.  He may come into save the day as a force of good as either PC or NPC. Or, you may never see him again but characters might feel the consequences of his actions in the world.  I guess the main thing for me is that the campaign remains consistent and that the players are entertained through immersion in your world.  I don't think you can do that well by hand waving away a PCs primary story and motivation.  The world should be a living breathing place, and players should be allowed to forge their character's stories to the extent that it is not disruptive to the rest of the group.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;954345One of my players wants his character to break off from the party because of character disputes and pursue his own goal. He has an evil sentient sword that he wants to quest to try and somehow turn it into a force for good. The rest of the party wants to destroy it before it corrupts him.

With his character gone, he will then introduce a new character that fits better with the party.

This sounds fine to me.

But then I thought about it: doing miscellaneous activities during downtime, "off screen," is one thing, but shouldn't something that is basically an adventure in its own right be carried out in play?

Or is it normal to just have that happen in the background? It seems like a waste to have it just happen as a handwave during downtime, though it would certainly take a while in game-time.

How would you guys handle it?

This is the kind of thing that makes keeping accurate campaign time so important. Keeping accurate tabs on everyone's whereabouts is also key. If Sword Boy leaves town two weeks ahead of the rest of the group, heads north to some ancient shrine and so on, then he's not likely to run into the party when they've headed south. However, in a sandbox, all kinds of screwy things can happen and all kinds of detours can be taken so there's always a possibility they could meet up even if they're not actually looking for one another.

That said, this kind of side trek is a great idea to set aside for sessions when some players can't make it. Sword Boy can be like Gendry on Game of Thrones: We haven't seen him in a while but he's still out there rowing somewhere and when it's convenient, we'll pick up with him where we left off. The other players can play new PCs rolled up just for this scenario, Sword Boy's followers (if any), NPCs or even monsters. As a player and DM I always enjoyed the occasional change of pace.

Interesting.

We don't play that often, so I never thought of doing side sessions; my players are busier than I am typically too. However, that might be the most fulfilling way to do it.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;954794I'm 100% sure he wants that guy back later with the sword.

Basically the problem for him is he wants to quest to purify the evil sword, but the party doesn't want to take the detour since it'll be a big quest by itself, and would prefer to get rid of the sword.

So rather than get rid of the sword he wants to have the character go off and purify the sword and come back later.

If I had the time, I'd run a separate game in the same world for that player so the character could go on his own quest. Meanwhile I'd let him bring a new 1st-level (or game-system equivalent of 1st level) character into the original game. But our character death and retirement rate is such that you likely wouldn't have that many levels discrepancy between the new character and the veterans. I wouldn't let anyone bring a magic item unearned in the game or start at a higher level than 1st.

WOTC has up a new UA article on new ways to do downtime.

http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA_Downtime.pdf

Is sword boy role playing his his charcter well?  Or power gaming and unwilling to give up a magic item?  Expecting handwavium to allow him to keep his toy.  

Sounds like he's a role player.  But you would know.

Still converting an evil sword?  That sounds like a year or two of ingame time.