Coping with death..

[spikeyjoey]

this is something that iv wondered about for a while now,.. what do you do when your main character dies?

I mean, you have put all that time into modelling it, painting it, thinking of a background..

seems a little harsh to never be able to use it in a game again because his face got pulverised by a power fist.. I read a battle report here where 3 out of 5 members of a guys warband were killed.. what do you do in a situation like that?

[Molotov]

I put up a similar topic a while ago here. Mine sort of took a different tack, asking why people weren't more prepared to see their characters die.

In summary, if you want a character to survive, have them survive. The dice don't rule your character. They may not be dead, just prevented from taking any further part of the scenario. In the case of some characters, it may actually have been a duplicate!

Alternately, the circumstances surrounding your character's continued life could by mysterious, and the basis of further games!

[RobSkib]

In most games, having a character out of action I often think as 'unable to take any further part in the game' - this isn't always total unconciousness or death or whatever, but more an inability to function in any way to affect the outcome of the game. You know in action films where a fellow gets show and he clutches his chest on the ground, clearly wounded beyond action but still soldiering on whilst the main protagonist goes to get medical assitance, or to clear the room of bad guys.

[MarcoSkoll]

Pretty much as Molotov says... the dice don't own my character, so they don't get to make the decisions of when I'll stop using them. Usually I can find an excuse - sheer willpower, the hit wasn't as bad as it looked, they're just unbelievably tough, they got medical attention almost immediately, or other things like that.

I deliberately poke fun at this pseudo-immortality with some of my characters, leaving subtle hints as to why they don't die.
But sometimes I'm not subtle at all - half my reason for writing Jax Lynn (a mutant whose regenerative power is so powerful that she actually comes back from being dead) was to create a character who was genuinely immortal and recognised as so in-universe.

Don't ask me why I find such things funny. There are some things that man was not supposed to know.

[Necris]

As has been said the dice don't decide when my characters die as was perfect illustrated when Necris took a nose dive off a building with close to 30 witnesses

he still lives in a different form but he is still alive a kicking...

As it happens I've retired him from table top play for the time being but he will return eventually (Need a new mini to represent his new role)

[Dexter]

Hey, death is a fickle thing.  Just look at Marvel Comics.  They kill their characters off all the time, and they never stay dead long.  I think Charles Xavier has gained and lost the use of his legs about six different times.  Clones, alternate realities, divine intervention, body doubles, emergency life support systems, and good old fashioned surgery are some of the many ways you can bring your character back from the edge of death. 
Not saying Marvel is something to look up to these days when it comes to storytelling, but hey, they're the masters of the retcon.

[Jamas Orian]

In the last campaign I ran, main characters weren't allowed to actually 'die'. If something warranted a main character's actual death, I was prepared to get them as close as possible without just declaring "YOU BE DEAD" regardless of the player's emotional attachment to their avatars. And certainly, they would not be in a very good place afterwards - either requiring some serious hospitalisation, or being captured by the enemy.

Henchmen were allowed to die though, although none did.

[spikeyjoey]

yeah i have thought about the whole "body double" thing, but frankly its a bit cheesy, and could be very difficult to tie into certain campaigns.. same with a lot of marvel things- collosus dies, but comes back as a clone with all his memories

I know going out of action is fine, there is a chance of recovery, but im talking about the kind of critical head injuries like a power fist to the face, theres no chance of coming back with no head!

[Myriad]

Eh, it's not as bad as it looks...

While this does detract from the narrative side a little, it does let you keep using a character sensibly.  We can, after all, assume that inquisitors have access to a number of ways of recovering from any non-fatal injuries.

[Shannow]

I have a cup of tea and a biscuit and the world is right again.....

Though taking the example of your powerfist to the face scenario I think a hobnob would definitely be in order.

....

Though (if I'm being serious) I always like the fact that even though you know your characters head got mulched  what did everyone else see? It might have looked like that, but really it was just a stunning blow or some such....

[enigma]

' MEDIC MEDIC help the inquisitors head is mashed '
' right hold this bucket while i scoop up his brain ........ ok is that all of it right? off to the table he'le be up in no time'

[Morcus]

There is also the old, wait for the current campaigne to end and then just use the same character again ignoring all that took place.

You need to strike the right balance, sometimes Its good to let a PC die just to show that you will.

I did once play a really brutal campaign which had alot of deaths. We were using the power genre rules from the Pangolin Saloon (After armour deductions we multiplied damage by three). Our main Characters stayed away from most of the action understandably and between games we'd build entirely new groups of followers to replace those who were killed, capture or left behind.

If all else fails, just remember that everything you've been told is a lie and assume the death is as well, what more reason do you need?

[Dust King]

I've always had the opinion that characters should die, but it shouldn't be just decided by the dice.

The big question when dealing with characters is "how do they deserve to die?" I'm not talking about from the moral point of view but the narrative point. Does the long suffering henchman deserve to die after being left for dead by his mates? Does the cunning villain die after being shot by a cop in mid campaign? Does the old hero die in battle or does he have a couple of years peace before passing on.

If the death is right for the character then let it happen, if not then it was a close call

[Jarrik32]

Hey, death is a fickle thing.  Just look at Marvel Comics.  They kill their characters off all the time, and they never stay dead long

This is why I prefer ultimate Marvel, there's still the odd resurrection here and there but they tend to think things through and resurrect only when necessary rather than bringing back characters as cash cows (I'm still waiting for the return of Jean Grey), as such I utterly despise the 'resurrection' of Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne.

Unless the previous paragraph hasn't made my views clear then here they are, Dead is dead. If there is a logical way and reason for them to be brought back then it's okay but otherwise...

Campaign wise the only resurrection I've done has been that of Sgt. Jarrik (who took a un-lucky bolt round to the chest and eventually bled out).

[DapperAnarchist]

Is Bruce back already? I knew Steve was... worst part was (and I guess this feeds into the topic as well) that resurrection can competely invalidate the cool death scene and results that occured. I mean, Bucky as Cap along side Nick Fury, Thor, and Iron Man waiting to smack down some Skrulls? Excellent. Or how about the single best two issues I've ever read, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? As a grown man I feel no shame in saying the last 10 pages or so made me leak eye-water a little bit...

So, ignore death if it gets in the way, but if its fitting, keep them dead. Most of my characters either have a particular (possibly unreachable) objective, or are sort of eternal warrior types - dying just isn't their style. Thats my take.