[quote=Kestrel]
You mention you write out characters without killing them. How much time does this take you and do you enjoy this method?
[/quote]

Depends on at what point the player dropped and how much longer there is until the end of the chapter - but the chapter ends tend to be a good break since these are also good time/scene move-on transitions. Currently we had a player leave about a month or so ago, I've been writing her three main characters with the same level of detail as I'd write my own characters until the chapter ends, at which point they'll depart.

And yeah, I actually enjoy it a lot. I find it an interesting challenge to see how well I can write another person's character once they've left, and see how accurate and close I can get it to the actual player's playing. I also do it because I'm pretty heavily anal about characters just departing in a story without rhyme or reason or any sense of narrative payoff or completed character arc, not just in an rp but any work of fiction. I hate becoming invested in a character just for them to be unceremoniously dumped. 

I also like to bring these players' characters back later within the story, since I think they still have promise and potential to add. One character we had belonged to a player who just didn't quite understand the theme and tone of the rp, and their character had no real reason to be with the character party when he thought every single one of them was completely beneath him and not worth his time. I wrote him out based on that, but I also brought him back later for a chapter where at this point, he had decided he actually had a lot to grow as a person, away from his drinking, womanising ways and into the kind of dependable person someone his rank within the organisation should have been, and all of the dramas that came with it. Another character was one whom had an affinity with earth and nature - I brought him back in a chapter focused on nature. Never let good potential go to waste. 

I'm planning on bringing back another player's two characters who departed a couple of months ago and instead of just keeping them for another chapter as guests like the above, will be writing them continuously. The player and her characters had been in the rp since the start and bore heavy character interaction and plot relevance and development, to the point that their absence feels like it detracts from the rp, and that something 'is missing'. It's a heck of a lot of extra work, but again it's really enjoyable, and will in the end be satisfying.