The Death of a Character

[Altered Tundra]

The thing about character deaths is that it all depends on the universe. Let's say it's something like Dragon Ball Z or Bleach. The aspect of death in both are, while at the core very present, it's not really anything major. Like in DBZ, someone can use the dragon balls to revive someone, as established early-on into the series that death was meaningless. In Bleach, if a Human dies, they can be elgible to either become a Hollow/Arrancar or a Soul Reaper.

As for my own characters, I agree with Haga. If the character that dies does so in a heroic way, then it could really bring the strengths out of the other characters by drawing strength from the pain of loss.

As I did vote in the poll, I went with the "death of character for plot advancement", but I do hold a little biased opinion towards the option of "I'm sad cause I worked hard on that character". I am that way because if one of my characters whom I've worked ultra-hard on is the one who dies, I would feel a little sad, but eventually I will see the bigger picture. Plus, it makes me to be able to revive him in another form, and just start over, which I find is the best thing ever. <3

[Jannah]

I think I may have only had like one character die in an RP before and that's because I was losing interest and needed a way out, haha.

[Dervish]

I have yet to have an RP where a character dies, but if it helps the story, by all means. I just want them to have a good run in the story and for the death to impact when it does happen. I'd hate for it to seem kind of... pointless? But at the same time, it adds dramatic weight to RPs.

[SgtKlum]

I purposely try never to get too attached to a character, because I am from the school of thought which subscribes to the idea that you can't win 'em all. Unless your character is literally indestructible (which, let's face it, a lot of people try to make them) there is always going to be -something- out there that can do him in, and there's only so many times you can lolwtfdodge someone spraying you with machine gun fire or dumping you into a pit of lava before it begins to look lulzy.

It's entirely possible, however, that this attitude is only down to the innate ease with which I think up new characters. I usually don't dwell on the losses of my old ones unless they die like a punk because one of the other players just -had- to show off how manly and butch his character was by sneaking up behind mine and cutting his head off. Thankfully, players like that who only get enjoyment from an RP by killing people tend not to last too long before they get bored and wander away to the Arena section.

[Dervish]

Actually, I'm curious about something you brought up SgtKlum, and I wonder how people usually handle stuff like this.

Say you have PvP or set it up where another player character can kill another, how do you guys usually handle that? Dice rolls? Mutual agreement between involved parties? Just let it happen? Both of my RPs I am GMing have the potential for death, and I wouldn't be entirely opposed to my characters dying (well, the one I kind of want them around because I'm working on a sequel and have long term plans for at least one of the characters), but the problem lays in the fact that that character is acting as a 'guide' character who is kind of leading things along due to the linear nature of the game. But that's beside the point.

Klum mentioned how irritating it would be if somebody sneak-killed his character to prove how tough he was, and I'm curious how often that's happened to anybody around here where you didn't have a say of how your character died. So, any examples and what not? I'm curious how people handle things like that.

[SgtKlum]

Well, I should clarify, this has never actually happened -to me-. Though I've had plenty of people try. When faced with a decent match and a sensible battle, I'm usually more than happy to have my character meet his end. However, there are those people who like to choose intentionally 'powerful' characters and spend the entire RP roaming from place to place trying to engage as many of the other player characters as possible and kill them. Usually, I off-set this a bit by keeping those players busy, creating NPCs for them to lay waste to while I'm off doing actual plot-related stuff. However, there was one instance in a Star Wars RP I was involved in back when I first joined the Guild where a player chose to play as General Grievous and gatecrashed a meeting between some characters.

In the end, he singled out my PC and they had a long battle all over the hangar they were in until -finally- he got bored and left. When things like that happen, I find it best to just go on the defensive. Don't try to actively engage them, just make it as difficult as possible for them to kill you and they'll usually wander off in search of an easier target. It's all about the instant gratification.

[Hellis]

Actually, I'm curious about something you brought up SgtKlum, and I wonder how people usually handle stuff like this.

Say you have PvP or set it up where another player character can kill another, how do you guys usually handle that? Dice rolls? Mutual agreement between involved parties? Just let it happen? Both of my RPs I am GMing have the potential for death, and I wouldn't be entirely opposed to my characters dying (well, the one I kind of want them around because I'm working on a sequel and have long term plans for at least one of the characters), but the problem lays in the fact that that character is acting as a 'guide' character who is kind of leading things along due to the linear nature of the game. But that's beside the point.

Klum mentioned how irritating it would be if somebody sneak-killed his character to prove how tough he was, and I'm curious how often that's happened to anybody around here where you didn't have a say of how your character died. So, any examples and what not? I'm curious how people handle things like that.

Well Dervish. It comes down to the stystem. Freeforms in the advanced section tend to be two people collabing the battle. And usually they predetermine who wins. In other cases, Its the GM's call. An if it's the latter, then its to show that the "your actions will have consequences" rule applies. Sneak killing does not work if the other player is smart, and the RP level is somwhat high. Becouse then everyone knows autohitting and random pvp is stupid and meant to be disregarded.

And to provide a example of a character death that I liked. To qoute my other post:

My favorite character death was not my own. It was a friends character. I was playing the bad guy for the scene and we collabed the death of his and another character as both were meant to leave the game. They were pretty much meant to be inseperable. So we made a collab that could not be contained in one post. The entire battle was a close call, everything was about trading blows and it was the most glorius blaze of glory moment i have ever seen written in a rp. Becouse in the end, the two who died litereally went up in a blaze (one was pyromancer). Ultimately they snubbed the bad guy of his satisfaction and pushing him deeper into insanity. Not to mention creating a massive surge of character development for everyone else.

[Azathbytes]

The death of a character presents the opportunity for drama and growth provided you are in a scenerio where the people involved are mature and interested in conflict, development and change that goes beyond, "I shoot bad guy with my gun. They all dead and save the people I did. Me am winning again!"

The problem is finding yourself in a scenario where its possible and worth while.

[Verbande]

It's funny, the only RP I've been in where it has been long enough to have anyone die, the only people that did were either inactives we decided to do away with, or "plot" deaths that everyone knew were going to happen and had little shock value. Oh, and this one guy who killed off a character cause he was bored playing him. Yeah.

Of course, now the RP is moving to a state where no one CAN die, because you can't kill without someone's permission. Which is fair in some regards, but in others, it means there's no real impact or danger in the game. After all, I can't get killed unless I say someone can kill me, so I don't have to try too hard in the RP. It will also mean that if I choose to have them die, that will have been prepared and discussed well in advance, so there's no way I can really react to it emotionally.

It's all up to the leadership, but I personally find it means I'll never really get invested in anything related to death. Rather boring, really.

[Amethyst]

Well, I just recently killed my own character, it was a plot death, but I still made myself and 3 other RPers cry when I wrote the scene.