This is just for future help, but I want some tips for how to do it? If the player openly says so, should I just dramatically kill them off and let the player make a new character with all the old XP, or are there different methods to doing something like this?

Since this is suppose to be fun, I say let them retire, send them out in a blaze of glory if that's what the player wants. Then give them the same XP - again, fun trumps all and lagging behind the rest of the group isn't really fun. Mind you, if this turns out to be a habit, I might have some words for him. But a one-off instance? Sure. Let him have it.

However, before all that, what's the reason behind it? Does he just not like the skill set he's chosen? Is his character story arc not make him happy? Does he even have an arc - I find that the most satisfying characters have somewhere to go: a princess making good with her past so she can go home, a terrorist learning not to be a mean heartless bastard, a character with amnesia relearning who she is and her place in the world - that sort of thing. The characters that often don't click with me are the ones that drift along without an end game.

So what is it? Why does the player say his character suck?

I had a player like this once. I was running a campaign with a group of first-timers and, to save time during the first session, I assigned each a character that I had already made. One of the players was... dissatisfied with their character, so they wanted to make a new one (that ripped off all of the existing characters abilities!)

This isn't actually something I need to do yet, but I'm assuming soon. You guys make good points, and I'm not really sure why the player seems unhappy, but I wanted to know how to handle it well. Thanks

Best thing you can do...talk. This game is not just about narrative story telling - its collaborative story telling. The players should be just as involved in their characters AND the story as the GM is. So have an open discussion and work out what people like/dislike. I try to do that once every 6 months.

RetCon the campaign if you must (modify his character's stats)

Re-Cast if you have to (have the character just not appear in the next episode and say 2 months have passed).

I can see it:

Player A: Wonder what happened to X?

Player B: We don't talk about it. Not in polite company.

Its a role playing game and about having fun. Changing something to enable all the players to have fun is better than thinking that "ratings" will suddenly drop if you change something

This isn't actually something I need to do yet, but I'm assuming soon. You guys make good points, and I'm not really sure why the player seems unhappy, but I wanted to know how to handle it well. Thanks

It's good youre preparing but if you're saying you have an unhappy player and don't know why the player is unhappy, why don't you ask the player. If you were the player, I'd say talk to the GM but ince that hasn't happened, just ask them yourself.

I have a group that has gone through players like a rancor going through Gammoreans. We have finally found a set of players to stick with, that could fit both my GM style and my players style. For example, we had a problem on both sides of the GM screen with doing complex plots. The players could not comprehend what was going on, nor could I effectively write them. Our solution: play as the simple, brute force hired guns. This worked well with everyone's style, and we finished our first campaign together. The point: let a player create a new character, but look at why this player doesn't like their character, and make sure this is accounted for. To do this, you could introduce the new character in a fancy way, but restarting with the entire group works well, to.

We had one that was the opposite of Sprinkles; liked the character concept but hated the build he ended up with - underwhelming redundant skills and they didn't really mesh with the character that well. He ended up doing a rebuild of the character. In the next game he "confessed" that he had "lied" about being a mechanic so we would take him with us.

One thing to be careful of is when a play keeps wanting to change the character. It's fine if a play just isn't jiving with their character every once in a while and desires a change. It happens to all of us. (Common reasons seem to be that the character isn't powerful enough, the character is too powerful, the skills never come up (such as pilot in an on foot game), or the character just has no flavor/life.) Watch out for when players want a new character every few months. It gets frustrating when the same player wants a change because they start having character envy.

I've seen campagines fall apart because one player wanting a change sparks others to request the same. My buddy's group recently implemented an incentive program to keep their one envy player from wanting to change too often. What the GM did was come up with story benifits the characters got through their adventuring. Bonuses to skills or interactions with known NPCs, that sort of thing. If a character was changed (or rebooted) then those in-play bonuses are lost. This way there was a positive incentive to maintain a character and not just switch over to the new shiny idea.

Also be careful about the departing character's gear. This isn't as big of an issue in EotE, but in D&D a player might expect to keep all of their last character's magical equipment plus get new starting gear for the new character. Be careful letting the players loot the character leaving as this could lead to power creep.

I had a player that told me a couple times (during game sessions) she didn't like the character that she was playing, but then when I'd ask her about it later, she would just wave it off and say it's no big deal, she actually likes playing the character. Turns out there was some drama at home and that was just affecting her mood at the time. So...I guess what I'm saying is there could be any number of reasons why your player is saying these things and acting this way. So good communication is a necessary first step.

I've had this happen in more than a few game systems, and depending on the style of campaign a few options are available. I'll rank them in what I feel would be the best options for my group...keep in mind that your options can be different.

1.) Have the player's character decide to handle something in their backstory or Obligations and leave the group to achieve them.

2.) Move the player's character to a NPC that helps coordinate with the group but takes less of an active role.

3.) Have the player killed off

As a note, keep some things in check when players intentionally or unintentionally cycle characters quickly. What happens to their money? Their items? Their contacts? I see this was stated before, but think beyond just the simple 'gear' aspect. Try not to reward the group for a player leaving, but also don't gut the group and make them feel like they are being penalized.

As an example, one player on a group I'm on decided to write his character out by 'betraying' the group to somebody they were trying to deal with...due to his character being a little more loose morally than the rest of the group. Suddenly, everything the group had acquired before (we have a mining operation paying us money) was suddenly in threat because we didn't know what the character would have 'sold' to others to make a profit. We had to retcon the betrayal to also include the 'death' of the betrayer so that the rest of the group didn't feel completely gutted by the character leaving.

Either way, I wish you luck!!

3.) Have the player killed off

Killing a player should probably be one of your last resorts...the authorities frown on that sorta stuff.

(warning...there is a bit of graphic violence in this video)

I believe in retcon.

I believe in retcon.

Also: Hyperspace anomaly, alternate universe, space-time-altering Sith magic.