Plot Item Left Behind.. how to prevent?

[sidusar]

Originally Posted by vonzuben

How can I prevent these backpacks from being left behind, or at least prevent them from giving the items to other players?

You can't, and it's been a thorn in my side when hosting Ring maps.

Not even restarting the act gets rid of the backpacks. To make them go away requires taking down the entire scenario and loading it up again.

The idea behind this is that it doesn't become impossible to complete the scenario because the required plot item is gone. However, I usually set my scenarios up so that the item can be regained in the proper way anyways, and all these backpacks do is give later players a shortcut that makes them miss part of the scenario.