132 replies to this topic

[Thom Frankfurt]

Okay I'm lost you guys talking about the attack on Sian or Outreach?

[RogueSpear]

I no longer have a clue.

[dal10]

sian is what i was talking about.

[guardian wolf]

Ehh.... well that was interesting while it lasted.

[dal10]

it happens

[cmopatrick]

The Death of a Character (AKA: Just dont do it): there are occasions where this one should be ignored, or at least adjusted. the trick is not to make a big deal of it... eject or kill you character and let everyone else in the rp go on with whatever. it is either the long drawn out drama or the trying to get back in that is useless.

[LinkIcefang]

Mmm, that is really dependant on the situation. It would be a big deal if a high ranking officer were slain in battle; perhaps not the death itself, but rather the consequences and aftermath.

The main problem I've seen in roleplay is that folks get too attached to their characters. Thus, when they find themselves in situations where they should die, they find it extremely hard to let go and either try a long, drawn out death scene (like the one you warned about) or Mary Sue their way out of it.

For me, I've just adopted this mindset: Death is just one event amid a sea of actions. One light is snuffed out, but a thousand more brighten the darkness.

[dal10]

actually one of my characters in one of this forum's RPs is marked for death, depending on how the RP ends up.

[RogueSpear]

The problem with killing a PC is that they are a PC. They're automatically an important character and your audience will get attached to them (Assuming you write them well). When a character dies, it must be meaningful or relevant to the plot. Now if you write stupid and would have to mary sue your way out, the GM should kill you. However, you should not just off a character. Character death is hard to do well, if you must die try and make it relevant.

[cmopatrick]

RogueSpear, on 11 April 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

The problem with killing a PC is that they are a PC. They're automatically an important character and your audience will get attached to them (Assuming you write them well). When a character dies, it must be meaningful or relevant to the plot. Now if you write stupid and would have to mary sue your way out, the GM should kill you. However, you should not just off a character. Character death is hard to do well, if you must die try and make it relevant.

The corollary to that is the RP must be a satisfying environment where the most basic needs of the PC and the writer are being met. continuous frustration is not conducive to anything in particular on the part of anyone involved, be they other PCs (and their authors) or the readers... much less the person attempting to write a believable and compelling character in spite of basic problems that undermine said character pretty much from the start. Why be frustrated to the point of anger by a continuing series of basic problems and risk poisoning the situation for those who are oblivious to those issues?
I would submit that the better direction is after trying to resolve issues offstage and failing, one is better off not prolonging the situation.

Edited by cmopatrick, 11 April 2013 - 03:59 AM.

[RogueSpear]

*Shrug*
I don't see why you'd bring that character to the RP. It's normally clear from the opening blurb and the other PCs whether or not your char will work with the RP. If it isn't for whatever reason, find a way to bow out of the campaign if that is your wish. But the character does not need to die to do so.

[cmopatrick]

RogueSpear, on 11 April 2013 - 04:06 AM, said:

*Shrug*
If it isn't for whatever reason, find a way to bow out of the campaign if that is your wish. But the character does not need to die to do so.

ah, perhaps I was applying the "die" more broadly. I agree with you on this.

[guardian wolf]

Well, usually if I'm going to bow out of a campaign or such, that's when I have to roll if he makes it, is injured, or dies. That way I usually stick it out so that I don't have to worry about killing a character.

[dal10]

RogueSpear, on 11 April 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

The problem with killing a PC is that they are a PC. They're automatically an important character and your audience will get attached to them (Assuming you write them well). When a character dies, it must be meaningful or relevant to the plot. Now if you write stupid and would have to mary sue your way out, the GM should kill you. However, you should not just off a character. Character death is hard to do well, if you must die try and make it relevant.

which is why my character's death is scheduled for the end of the RP (depending on how the end ends up).

[cmopatrick]

just for good measure,

bump...

[dal10]

yay garth pinned it again.

[Thom Frankfurt]

Good looking out Garth!!

[TheFlyingScotsman]

Iunno. I've always liked retiring a character or leaving it ambiguous.

[RogueSpear]

As opposed to...? Killing them off? Perfectly legitimate and my preference as well. That's part of the point that character death can be handled really poorly - a lot of authors kill off a character when they view them as disposable, despite the lack of need for the character to die or even a real justification for it. It ends up with a really unsatisfying moment in the story that's rarely then handled well.

[Thom Frankfurt]

Personally. I like the idea of them disappearing and the PCs, reader or whomever left wondering what happened to that person...

Kinda like how Long John Silver disappears at the end of Treasure Island with a meager amount of Flint's trove... It leaves you fantasizing about what happened with said character. Did he meet up with his wife and reopen his Inn? Did he end up p!ssing it away in Tortuga and spent the twilight of his years yanking dudes off just to get by? Or maybe he joined up with some more 'Gentlemen of Fortune' and set sail off for plunder and glory? Who knows... unless Stevenson wrote a sequel that I don't know about.