I've got a buddy who does a variation of this. He's got a little shack pretty close to town. He'll work in the oil field for a few months, come hang out with everyone, and live a "normal" life. Then when he's saved up enough he rolls out and lives in the woods with his dog hunting and fishing and growing veggies. We go by and check on his place every so often to make sure no one has broken in and it's not rotting to the ground.
When he no longer has the money to stay in the woods he comes back. I say that, but he's got the skills to feed himself out there. I think he gets bored after a year or two and wants to be around people for a while.
I asked him about retirement once and he's got another shack right on a lake that's been paid off since the 90s. His plan is to go there and fish and not come back.
This is actually the most clever way I've seen this done. But, just like with all art, I can say something is clever (or good, or technically proficient) and still hate it due to the content.
If you're not shitting then you need to see a doctor, friend.
Otherwise, if it's not your jam there's nothing wrong with sitting it out. In fact I don't recommend drinking as heavily as I have or take as many fun drugs as I used to (I can still do them but I choose to heavily limit myself) because there are long term consequences.
If we didn't both know who our fathers were and if he weren't a few years older that would absolutely describe us anyway. Went to school not far from each other and I played baseball against his younger brother, then was on the team with his brother for fall ball. Different churches that were part of the same cult. Similar teenage interests. Same social circles just a few years apart. Same branch of the military and same rate (this is where we went from being aware of each other to being friends). Both married and divorced young. Super similar career paths. Both settled in the same large city several hours from our small hometowns (I got here first, for once) and played music with the same people. Super similar adult interests completely separate from our teen interests. It's fucking freaky. We didn't even realize it for years until it was pointed out.
He eventually moved out east while I stayed. I'm one of like 3 people he still keeps in contact with in the state.
I can't play with my friend because we play the same guy.
Both rogue. Both street tough types rather than the shadowy assassin type. Both used to end up taking a couple of levels of either Bard or fighter and ended up with a swashbuckler. No strength, all dex and cha.
We did play together a few times and would swap out which one of us got to play that guy. The other always played a very angry wizard. Just grumpy as shit. Good at a lot of things, but preferred to either fireball or magic missile his way out of situations. Talking to NPCs? I think I've got potions brewing. Must be off!
Before we played together we played the same MUD separately. Yep, same character. We ran into each other from time to time.
In high school we played at the same place but a couple of years apart. I started going when he left for the Navy. The guy who DM'ed there said my character reminded me of that guy a lot.
I want to play BG3 with him remotely and both play swashbucklers.
I had a boss like this. Every so often when we had something that needed to be done I'd remind him of his previous idea (which didn't exist) that we all thought was so good and he's the bestest and smartest manager ever.
I've got a buddy who does a variation of this. He's got a little shack pretty close to town. He'll work in the oil field for a few months, come hang out with everyone, and live a "normal" life. Then when he's saved up enough he rolls out and lives in the woods with his dog hunting and fishing and growing veggies. We go by and check on his place every so often to make sure no one has broken in and it's not rotting to the ground.
When he no longer has the money to stay in the woods he comes back. I say that, but he's got the skills to feed himself out there. I think he gets bored after a year or two and wants to be around people for a while.
I asked him about retirement once and he's got another shack right on a lake that's been paid off since the 90s. His plan is to go there and fish and not come back.