Coping with death..

[Dust King]

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...

^I agree 100%, one of the best stories about death in comics

*SPOILERS*
It's basically about how some characters need death as part of their story but are just to good to have a single definitive death. Almost a essay on the subject in the form of a comic. A excellent read.

/SPOILERS

The only other comic I've read that is nearly as good with character deaths is Squadron Supreme. A marvel series featuring their take on the DC heroes. Because it was a one off series they could do whatever they wanted to the characters. If you want to get a idea of how to kill off a hero properly then you should definitely read it (Also if you're a comic fan then you should read it, it is amazing) 

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.

I think that's a good description of almost any character in Inquisitor, any character who ends up permanently dead isn't tough enough for the game's setting.

[Jarrik32]

The only other comic I've read that is nearly as good with character deaths is Squadron Supreme. A marvel series featuring their take on the DC heroes. Because it was a one off series they could do whatever they wanted to the characters. If you want to get a idea of how to kill off a hero properly then you should definitely read it (Also if you're a comic fan then you should read it, it is amazing) 

Did you mean the original or the later remake?

[Dust King]

Did you mean the original or the later remake?

Well I was talking about the original because it had a solid ending, I do like the remake but I doubt it'll end as well as it started.

[GAZKUL]

As  we havn't started a campaign yet my Namelsee warrior hasn't died yet but as he will never reveal his face it opens up lots of possibilities for situations like it was a bodyguard in discuise. Or simply give him extra bionics every time he dies.

[Hadriel Caine]

all my PCs have died so far. current PC is being hunted by the majority of a sector for various nasty crimes and wont last another campaign imo.

I like killing off my characters if it suits the narrative. gives their actions more importance. also means i can make a new warband...

[Acolyte Havlan Tome]

If i put a lot of time and work into a characters background, stats and model then i normally play with them until they die and then i go back and say that all the campaigns/scenarios that i play after that happened in his earlier life.

[Hadriel Caine]

thats exactly what i do. i end up making younger versions of my characters usually!

[Aidan]

Gah, all this talking about american comics offends my sensibilities. But, matters of personal taste aside, killing off one's characters is an interesting issue. If I have a character die in a scenario I usually decide for myself, but I do take into account the manner of their death. I can't stand cliche ressurections like 'it was a clone/bodydouble" or some sort of inexplicable magical revival. But I'm okay with a character convalescing in a med-bay bed for some months after taking a 'mortal' injury.

I ran a campaign a year back that was essentially a 'goodbye' for a character I had had running around in various different game systems for six years. Basically he had pretty much run his course as a character and not had a suitable death yet, so I actually planned it - and then changed it at the last moment, since the guy playing him in the campaign convinced me that the old guy deserved to live out his last days in peace rather than die in climactic battle.

Does the old hero die in battle or does he have a couple of years peace before passing on.

... Possibly refrenced there. Nice going, Dust - you bought Amers a good six more years. But for that campaign I did pretty much establish that any of the heroes who died (and did not have a plot-centric role still to fulfill) would be permadead, regardless of the circumstances. So I had one guy get boltered to pieces in a scenario that turned out to be superflous (the villain's doomsday plot was a dud!) and I had a woman bleed to death from a stomach wound suffered at the hands of some random mooks (though the situation of that - about a kilometer and fifteen minutes from a long awaited family reunion - did make it tragically satisfying).

There have actually been a few characters who have not died in a scenario, but who I have decided to kill off in background stories, to fit the plot or because I really can't see them appearing again in any capacity (though those sometimes retire, instead). But then, I have 60+ models and 100+ characters, so it makes sense that I find the field a little crowded sometimes.

- - - - -

Hm, Running campaigns out of chronological order for a dead character actually sounds like a good idea. I'll keep that one in mind.

-A.

[Morcus]

What happens when they die again. In the past?

Ever Play in Cold Blood on the Playstation? The whole thing was meant to be in his memory so when he died he just went, 'oh no, that can't be what happened?'

[Shannow]

After reading this thread, I'm now tempted to let a character die and then have an actual funeral for him... Maybe with a star wars type funeral pyre seen,,,, I may build a funeral pyre now for use in games, be a good plot hook to interrupt a funeral

[Swarbie]

Search the body for important clues and offend the Ecclesiarchy at the same time? Sounds like a plan . . .

[Alta]

During a game we played recently a character died, but I had an awesome idea to keep him alive.
A complex mechanism calculates chance of success when a ballistic approachs the character. If it calculates the chance of success as being 0 it immediately activates a stasis mechanism.

For our game we just made it that the stasis had frozen him just as the bullet entered his head (so that later on, on the ship, machines could remove it with minimal damage), but for other games it might be a good idea to use the rules for a stasis grenade on the character; and when it runs out, he dies. Obviously it can only be used for bullets, not close combat hits and only if the hit would kill him outright...

[MarcoSkoll]

Hmm, that is an interesting idea.

There's also the option for something with a slightly less intricate "trigger mechanism" though. Some device that if it reads the character's life signs (heart rate, breathing, brain function, etc ) as critical, then it activates a stasis mechanism - hopefully preserving the character until medical help arrives.
Of course, stasis mechanisms are temperamental technology, so it would only protect the character from death for so long - a few hours maybe, but that's a lot longer for help to arrive than without.

It strikes me that a similar principle applies to the Sus-an Membrane in Space Marines, allowing a Space Marine to enter a cryptobiotic state (at least, I think cryptobiosis is the right term) if they suffer major injury or trauma.
There must be a few Inquisitors out there who have tried to utilise similar technologies - whether it would work (be it well, or disastrously) is another matter.