Till Death do us part... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Till Death do us part... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Hubbs
03-10-04, 07:45 PM Just recently, in an ongoing message board game, we lost two of our fellow adventurers in a fight with a liche. One of the PCs had been among us since the first part of the campaign over a year ago, and had survived a lot to become a core member. As player's, some of us are reeling from the two-day-old event. We knew some of us might not walk away from the fight, if any of us at all. And we're not even done! One round left, we figure, if attacks go right; but the liche has initiative, so he goes first. I expect to lose one more PC before the dust settles.

See, I don't know about the rest of you, but I put a lot of affection into my RP creations. I look at them beyond a system of stats, and I'll admit that its been a folly of mine in the past after their abilities proved to be less than handy. Still, I hold each and every one close to my heart.

So I'm curious, how do the rest of you feel when you lose a character or a companion in a game? Is there a pause, then a shrug and the clatter of rolling dice as you make up another?
CursedMoredhel
03-10-04, 09:42 PM sometimes i find it humorous other times i laugh at them i'm a dm and a player 2 different groups muahaha ha ha

i remember one time in my player campaign we were on midkemia and one of my comrades was a tsurani adept( he was finding his path). he had to make a jump across a crevass can't remeber how far it was but with a 20ft run up he needed a 16 to make it, without any points in jump. he couldnt bare to roll it himself so one of my other mates who, didn't get on well with the tsurani in game said i'll roll it, and he did. he rolled a natural 1 i was lmfao,l since the tsurani didn't roll it himself the dm let him have another go because he felt sorry for him so the tsurani rolled and got a 3 i was then rotflmfao

then in another campaign in FR my group was fighting a fallen paladin and his 2 followers, the followers were weak but the paladin was 6 levels higher than us(big villian of the short term campaign). my fighters cleaved through the first follower and since another in the group was occuping the other one i attempted to follow through the cleave on the fallen paladin but missed on the re-roll. then when it was his turn the bastard dm rolled a critical hit with a greatsword and ended up doing 11 points more than was needed to kill me... stupid magical greatswords...
anyways after that i was devastated as was the rest of my group for he was the center of the group in game, the leader and friend of them all... through my devastation my dm sought to fix the damage this would cause to the party, hence the rest got out alive killing the other minion after the fallen paladin left after succesfully demoralising the group... anyways my dm used the devastation we all felt to bring me back into the campaign as my dead characters younger brother, the group had travelled to my home land to notify my family of my death due of thier love for his leadership etc... i was devastated but i got over it and i got revenge muahaha ha ha, for his younger brother got his turn to face the fallen paladin after constantly being in his brothers shadow however the younger brother was only 1 level below the paladin when the encounter came and the paladin had knocked 2 others out of the battle before my character was able to fight him, so the paldin was weakened anyway my point is i handle the death of the characters i love by doing it in game if possible...

[edited to suit negative punctuation comments.]
LiXinjian
03-11-04, 08:51 AM Geez, man, how about using punctuation a bit, huh? That post's one hell of a string. Well, mostly the third one. ;)

Or perhaps you shouldn't write when you're on speed. Your post looks like someone cast Haste on you then handed you a quill and a piece of paper.
Sisyfos
03-11-04, 09:38 AM Adventuring is dangerous. These days if I lose a character I shrug and pick up the dice. The character's life is a story. When he dies the story does not necessarily always end right there as some of his past deeds might still have some effects to the future. Death of one character is just an opportunity to start participating in creation of a new story.

Sisyfos
LiXinjian
03-11-04, 09:47 AM [edited to suit negative punctuation comments.]
:rofl:
Dawnspeaker
03-11-04, 10:17 AM Well on the topic and not punctuation.

I DM more then I get to play so I mainly watch reactions. The best two I remember were as follows

1.) The main player (2nd edition, Ranger 11/Cavalier 14, when redone in 3rd edition Ranger 6/Fighter 8/Paladin 4) was a member of a knighthood and the entire force was united to fight a special made dragon from the Abyss. (other players were just othe rknights of various levels) His mentor was also fighting with them(he wasn't part of the knighthood, 2nd edition Fighter 14/Ranger 24 and 3rd dont' remember but epic level o'coures) They fought the dragon who tore up the tower and the knighthood. Eventually his mentor took the players holy sword and managed to get onto the dragon and a weak point at the back of its' neck.

When the dragon died it fell from teh sky against the tower. Killing the mentor. My player actually got teary eyed over losing an in-game friend that he had adventured with for so long (4 years real time campaign length)

2.) One player lost his character fighting his own brother at the end of a war in the Moonsheas. They killed each other as the climax of the campaign. THe other player(the above character but earlier in his career) was elsewhere battling corrupted treants and firbolgs, so didn't even see him die ingame. THey were both so shocked we stopped the game there for the evening and picked up the next day.

3.) This is my only hard part. After running the same campaign world for many years, I killed off one of the main NPCs(a high level paladin of tyr). It was actually difficult to write into my timeline and I almost choked up when describing it to my players.

Sometimes it seems stupid to get attatched to characters or NPCs, but when you put so much time and effort into them, it can be hard not to.
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger
03-11-04, 10:42 AM I just had a rogue character die in out last session. The party ended up in shock somewhat and ended up arguing to each other a lot as the carried the body out of the dungeon since all our characters had been childhood friends. But the interesting part is that an hour later my character came back to 'life' as undead with amniesia. Which confused the party and they weren't sure of how to react, but knew they had to revert my rogue back to living. However he has currently wandered off and become a NPC (prehaps big bad evil guy now)

I was kinda shocked at first since he died by a trap and didn't get any saving throws. (But then again it was a trap more suited for a level 10+ rogue)

But I'm not sad now because I want to see what happens if or when they face off with their undead childhood pal.
Cynosure
03-11-04, 08:48 PM I think the most memorable death of one of my characters came in a campaign where I and another player were playing identical twins. We were in a dungeon and tearing the dungeon up because we were both rogues. Finding all the traps and disabling them with ease. After a particularly difficult encounter in the dungeon we downed a potion or two and our party kept going, unphased. We came to a T-section in the hallway with a room on the right side. We both began searching for traps at the entrance of the room (the room had no door, but it had treasure in it.) Both of us rolled horribly low on the dice to find the trap, so, believing there to be no traps, I stepped forward into the room. Then, I promptly rolled a 1 on my reflex save to avoid the trap. *SPLAT* A huge boulder fell from the ceiling, crushing my character and closing off the entrance of the room. The brother of my character (now covered in blood) dropped to his knees and stared at the blood now seeping out from under the stone. The other characters had to literally drag him out of the dungeon.

It was quite emotional. Luckily, however we had just gotten the Ghostwalk campaign setting book, so I got to come back as a ghosty with a horrific manifestation. :)
Highlander316
03-11-04, 11:48 PM I hate to see good characters die. If the player really is attached to a character, and he takes the dirt nap...he probably will be coming back somehow.

A Beserker was killed by a Fire Giant, the rest of the party disposed of the Giant, pretty much after the Beserker went toe-2-toe with it for a good number of rounds. They had gotten to the end of the dungeon when it all went down, and the prize was at their grasps. After he died, we were all like "what happens next". So instead of the prize being a treasure horde or magical items, i had it be a Fountain of Life, which the PCs then submerged the Beserker and brought him back to life, before they emptied all their vials of whatever and filled it with the powerful healing water of the Fountain.

I'm glad I did that too, because that Beserker, is still the most popular and most talked about character that anyone in our group of gamers has ever played. In fact, my signature is the quote the player said, right after he died.
Trydan
03-12-04, 08:32 AM In the final session of the best campaign I've ever DM'd, the characters were in a horrible choice situation. Although it is incredibly complicated (and too long to explain here), here is a brief summary.

One of the characters had a treasure that she didn't want to give up. However, this treasure was instrumental in a particular spell that would allow the über-villain to regain his powers. In the end, the party let the spell get part way through before one of the other PCs interrupted the casting to recover the treasure. The only problem was that this action would be suicidal. Although the treasure would be recovered, and the evil villain banished, but the PC doing the interruption would die.

The group knew this, discussed it for over an hour, and then decided to let the spell proceed. They wanted the treasure, and they were prepared to risk fighting the renewed villain.

However, at the last moment, one of the PCs - on her own initiative - interrupted the spell, recovered the treasure and destroyed the villain. However, contaminated with the magical energy of the spell, she would lose 1d6 hitpoints per round - no cure, no dispel, no prevention possible. Death was inevitable, and only a matter of moments away.

Horrified at the magnitude of the act, and awed by her selflessness, I witnessed the final words and messages between the PCs as the heroine's life slipped away. As I counted down her hitpoints out loud, the others roleplayed the final moments to utter perfection.

When it was over, two of the players broke down and openly wept. I was certainly wiping away tears, and no one spoke for well over a minute. It was the most moving D&D experience I've ever experienced.
Lhiannon Sidhe
03-12-04, 09:22 AM During one campaign, my character had actually gotten married to another one of the PC's. While trying to find our way out of a dungeon, my character's husband triggered a trap, which resulted in his death. I was shocked for a moment, then almost started to cry. When I learned that the NPC that was travelling with us was aware of the presence of the trap and knew how to disarm it, I became very angry.

Once the characters got home, my sorceress began construction of Wrath, a +2 Keen, Vorpal Longsword, which was only ever used to slay 2 beings. The NPC that was travelling with us at the time, and the Dungeon's builder.

Upon slaying the builder of the dungeon, an artifact that he had was destroyed, which caused a temporal displacment, sending the party many years in the past, where my character gave birth (She had become pregnant about a week before her husband was killed). Ironically, it was my character's son, that built the dungeon in the first place...
Dawnspeaker
03-12-04, 02:05 PM Originally posted by Lhiannon Sidhe
Ironically, it was my character's son, that built the dungeon in the first place...

That is harsh! A great plot twist but very very harsh. Your DM is clever working all that.

P.S. Love the name! I use to RP with someone on AOL with the same name(spelled the first part different but same way to say it)
Howling.Banshee
03-22-04, 10:22 AM For me it's always sad when a fellow player's character dies...especially when the group has existed for a longer time...I mean, you got used to those characters, you liked them, and sometimes, your own char might even have fallen in love, who knows...

I think it sometimes resembles real life...it is hard to lose someone you like or you got used to. It is the same in RPGs, I think...
Ace Spade
03-23-04, 07:50 PM One time when I ran a Star Wars campaign set in the Rebellion time frame and we had come to the last session, I decided to break up the group into individual groups a la Return of the Jedi. One of the small groups had the only Jedi and a Wookiee who were the only two to live throughout the whole campaign. They had become attached in the life debt sort of way. Anyway, the two had to face an Imperial Inquisitor on a bridge high over a body of water. The Jedi ran up to face the Inquisitor as the Wookiee stayed back and fired his crossbow. The Jedi was not fairing too well and had been knocked down. The Wookiee flew into a rage and charged up to defend her. He was able to give the Jedi time to get her lightsaber back, but unfortunately, the Inquisitor had rolled a critical hit and did enough damage to kill him instantly. The Wookiee stumbled back and fell off the bridge and into the water. It was tragic. This was the first character that the guy had ever made and it hit him pretty hard. It hit all of us pretty hard. I felt so bad because I knew how much effort the guy had put into trying to understand roleplaying and how be a good role-player of his character and not a power gamer. Anyway, the Jedi went into a destructive onslaught of death using the remainder of her Force points (imbue with the Dark side) and she narrowly beat with a frightening amount of Dark side points at the end. It was incredible to take in.
Howling.Banshee
03-24-04, 06:38 PM THIS is definitely worse than every character-death story I've ever heard...:///
Maybe it's that way, 'cause I'm playing the Star Wars RPG too, and over the past seven months I have become very attached to our group (a kel'dor soldier, a duros fringer/soldier, a mon calamari scoundrel, a bothan noble and a zabrak tech specialist/force adept) and, of course, my jedi...
I don't think I could stand it if something like this happened to one of my friends' chars....

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hubbs 03-10-04, 07:45 PM	Just recently, in an ongoing message board game, we lost two of our fellow adventurers in a fight with a liche. One of the PCs had been among us since the first part of the campaign over a year ago, and had survived a lot to become a core member. As player's, some of us are reeling from the two-day-old event. We knew some of us might not walk away from the fight, if any of us at all. And we're not even done! One round left, we figure, if attacks go right; but the liche has initiative, so he goes first. I expect to lose one more PC before the dust settles. See, I don't know about the rest of you, but I put a lot of affection into my RP creations. I look at them beyond a system of stats, and I'll admit that its been a folly of mine in the past after their abilities proved to be less than handy. Still, I hold each and every one close to my heart. So I'm curious, how do the rest of you feel when you lose a character or a companion in a game? Is there a pause, then a shrug and the clatter of rolling dice as you make up another?
CursedMoredhel 03-10-04, 09:42 PM	sometimes i find it humorous other times i laugh at them i'm a dm and a player 2 different groups muahaha ha ha i remember one time in my player campaign we were on midkemia and one of my comrades was a tsurani adept( he was finding his path). he had to make a jump across a crevass can't remeber how far it was but with a 20ft run up he needed a 16 to make it, without any points in jump. he couldnt bare to roll it himself so one of my other mates who, didn't get on well with the tsurani in game said i'll roll it, and he did. he rolled a natural 1 i was lmfao,l since the tsurani didn't roll it himself the dm let him have another go because he felt sorry for him so the tsurani rolled and got a 3 i was then rotflmfao then in another campaign in FR my group was fighting a fallen paladin and his 2 followers, the followers were weak but the paladin was 6 levels higher than us(big villian of the short term campaign). my fighters cleaved through the first follower and since another in the group was occuping the other one i attempted to follow through the cleave on the fallen paladin but missed on the re-roll. then when it was his turn the bastard dm rolled a critical hit with a greatsword and ended up doing 11 points more than was needed to kill me... stupid magical greatswords... anyways after that i was devastated as was the rest of my group for he was the center of the group in game, the leader and friend of them all... through my devastation my dm sought to fix the damage this would cause to the party, hence the rest got out alive killing the other minion after the fallen paladin left after succesfully demoralising the group... anyways my dm used the devastation we all felt to bring me back into the campaign as my dead characters younger brother, the group had travelled to my home land to notify my family of my death due of thier love for his leadership etc... i was devastated but i got over it and i got revenge muahaha ha ha, for his younger brother got his turn to face the fallen paladin after constantly being in his brothers shadow however the younger brother was only 1 level below the paladin when the encounter came and the paladin had knocked 2 others out of the battle before my character was able to fight him, so the paldin was weakened anyway my point is i handle the death of the characters i love by doing it in game if possible... [edited to suit negative punctuation comments.]
LiXinjian 03-11-04, 08:51 AM	Geez, man, how about using punctuation a bit, huh? That post's one hell of a string. Well, mostly the third one. ;) Or perhaps you shouldn't write when you're on speed. Your post looks like someone cast Haste on you then handed you a quill and a piece of paper.
Sisyfos 03-11-04, 09:38 AM	Adventuring is dangerous. These days if I lose a character I shrug and pick up the dice. The character's life is a story. When he dies the story does not necessarily always end right there as some of his past deeds might still have some effects to the future. Death of one character is just an opportunity to start participating in creation of a new story. Sisyfos
LiXinjian 03-11-04, 09:47 AM	[edited to suit negative punctuation comments.] :rofl:
Dawnspeaker 03-11-04, 10:17 AM	Well on the topic and not punctuation. I DM more then I get to play so I mainly watch reactions. The best two I remember were as follows 1.) The main player (2nd edition, Ranger 11/Cavalier 14, when redone in 3rd edition Ranger 6/Fighter 8/Paladin 4) was a member of a knighthood and the entire force was united to fight a special made dragon from the Abyss. (other players were just othe rknights of various levels) His mentor was also fighting with them(he wasn't part of the knighthood, 2nd edition Fighter 14/Ranger 24 and 3rd dont' remember but epic level o'coures) They fought the dragon who tore up the tower and the knighthood. Eventually his mentor took the players holy sword and managed to get onto the dragon and a weak point at the back of its' neck. When the dragon died it fell from teh sky against the tower. Killing the mentor. My player actually got teary eyed over losing an in-game friend that he had adventured with for so long (4 years real time campaign length) 2.) One player lost his character fighting his own brother at the end of a war in the Moonsheas. They killed each other as the climax of the campaign. THe other player(the above character but earlier in his career) was elsewhere battling corrupted treants and firbolgs, so didn't even see him die ingame. THey were both so shocked we stopped the game there for the evening and picked up the next day. 3.) This is my only hard part. After running the same campaign world for many years, I killed off one of the main NPCs(a high level paladin of tyr). It was actually difficult to write into my timeline and I almost choked up when describing it to my players. Sometimes it seems stupid to get attatched to characters or NPCs, but when you put so much time and effort into them, it can be hard not to.
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger 03-11-04, 10:42 AM	I just had a rogue character die in out last session. The party ended up in shock somewhat and ended up arguing to each other a lot as the carried the body out of the dungeon since all our characters had been childhood friends. But the interesting part is that an hour later my character came back to 'life' as undead with amniesia. Which confused the party and they weren't sure of how to react, but knew they had to revert my rogue back to living. However he has currently wandered off and become a NPC (prehaps big bad evil guy now) I was kinda shocked at first since he died by a trap and didn't get any saving throws. (But then again it was a trap more suited for a level 10+ rogue) But I'm not sad now because I want to see what happens if or when they face off with their undead childhood pal.
Cynosure 03-11-04, 08:48 PM	I think the most memorable death of one of my characters came in a campaign where I and another player were playing identical twins. We were in a dungeon and tearing the dungeon up because we were both rogues. Finding all the traps and disabling them with ease. After a particularly difficult encounter in the dungeon we downed a potion or two and our party kept going, unphased. We came to a T-section in the hallway with a room on the right side. We both began searching for traps at the entrance of the room (the room had no door, but it had treasure in it.) Both of us rolled horribly low on the dice to find the trap, so, believing there to be no traps, I stepped forward into the room. Then, I promptly rolled a 1 on my reflex save to avoid the trap. SPLAT A huge boulder fell from the ceiling, crushing my character and closing off the entrance of the room. The brother of my character (now covered in blood) dropped to his knees and stared at the blood now seeping out from under the stone. The other characters had to literally drag him out of the dungeon. It was quite emotional. Luckily, however we had just gotten the Ghostwalk campaign setting book, so I got to come back as a ghosty with a horrific manifestation. :)
Highlander316 03-11-04, 11:48 PM	I hate to see good characters die. If the player really is attached to a character, and he takes the dirt nap...he probably will be coming back somehow. A Beserker was killed by a Fire Giant, the rest of the party disposed of the Giant, pretty much after the Beserker went toe-2-toe with it for a good number of rounds. They had gotten to the end of the dungeon when it all went down, and the prize was at their grasps. After he died, we were all like "what happens next". So instead of the prize being a treasure horde or magical items, i had it be a Fountain of Life, which the PCs then submerged the Beserker and brought him back to life, before they emptied all their vials of whatever and filled it with the powerful healing water of the Fountain. I'm glad I did that too, because that Beserker, is still the most popular and most talked about character that anyone in our group of gamers has ever played. In fact, my signature is the quote the player said, right after he died.
Trydan 03-12-04, 08:32 AM	In the final session of the best campaign I've ever DM'd, the characters were in a horrible choice situation. Although it is incredibly complicated (and too long to explain here), here is a brief summary. One of the characters had a treasure that she didn't want to give up. However, this treasure was instrumental in a particular spell that would allow the über-villain to regain his powers. In the end, the party let the spell get part way through before one of the other PCs interrupted the casting to recover the treasure. The only problem was that this action would be suicidal. Although the treasure would be recovered, and the evil villain banished, but the PC doing the interruption would die. The group knew this, discussed it for over an hour, and then decided to let the spell proceed. They wanted the treasure, and they were prepared to risk fighting the renewed villain. However, at the last moment, one of the PCs - on her own initiative - interrupted the spell, recovered the treasure and destroyed the villain. However, contaminated with the magical energy of the spell, she would lose 1d6 hitpoints per round - no cure, no dispel, no prevention possible. Death was inevitable, and only a matter of moments away. Horrified at the magnitude of the act, and awed by her selflessness, I witnessed the final words and messages between the PCs as the heroine's life slipped away. As I counted down her hitpoints out loud, the others roleplayed the final moments to utter perfection. When it was over, two of the players broke down and openly wept. I was certainly wiping away tears, and no one spoke for well over a minute. It was the most moving D&D experience I've ever experienced.
Lhiannon Sidhe 03-12-04, 09:22 AM	During one campaign, my character had actually gotten married to another one of the PC's. While trying to find our way out of a dungeon, my character's husband triggered a trap, which resulted in his death. I was shocked for a moment, then almost started to cry. When I learned that the NPC that was travelling with us was aware of the presence of the trap and knew how to disarm it, I became very angry. Once the characters got home, my sorceress began construction of Wrath, a +2 Keen, Vorpal Longsword, which was only ever used to slay 2 beings. The NPC that was travelling with us at the time, and the Dungeon's builder. Upon slaying the builder of the dungeon, an artifact that he had was destroyed, which caused a temporal displacment, sending the party many years in the past, where my character gave birth (She had become pregnant about a week before her husband was killed). Ironically, it was my character's son, that built the dungeon in the first place...
Dawnspeaker 03-12-04, 02:05 PM	Originally posted by Lhiannon Sidhe Ironically, it was my character's son, that built the dungeon in the first place... That is harsh! A great plot twist but very very harsh. Your DM is clever working all that. P.S. Love the name! I use to RP with someone on AOL with the same name(spelled the first part different but same way to say it)
Howling.Banshee 03-22-04, 10:22 AM	For me it's always sad when a fellow player's character dies...especially when the group has existed for a longer time...I mean, you got used to those characters, you liked them, and sometimes, your own char might even have fallen in love, who knows... I think it sometimes resembles real life...it is hard to lose someone you like or you got used to. It is the same in RPGs, I think...
Ace Spade 03-23-04, 07:50 PM	One time when I ran a Star Wars campaign set in the Rebellion time frame and we had come to the last session, I decided to break up the group into individual groups a la Return of the Jedi. One of the small groups had the only Jedi and a Wookiee who were the only two to live throughout the whole campaign. They had become attached in the life debt sort of way. Anyway, the two had to face an Imperial Inquisitor on a bridge high over a body of water. The Jedi ran up to face the Inquisitor as the Wookiee stayed back and fired his crossbow. The Jedi was not fairing too well and had been knocked down. The Wookiee flew into a rage and charged up to defend her. He was able to give the Jedi time to get her lightsaber back, but unfortunately, the Inquisitor had rolled a critical hit and did enough damage to kill him instantly. The Wookiee stumbled back and fell off the bridge and into the water. It was tragic. This was the first character that the guy had ever made and it hit him pretty hard. It hit all of us pretty hard. I felt so bad because I knew how much effort the guy had put into trying to understand roleplaying and how be a good role-player of his character and not a power gamer. Anyway, the Jedi went into a destructive onslaught of death using the remainder of her Force points (imbue with the Dark side) and she narrowly beat with a frightening amount of Dark side points at the end. It was incredible to take in.
Howling.Banshee 03-24-04, 06:38 PM	THIS is definitely worse than every character-death story I've ever heard...:/// Maybe it's that way, 'cause I'm playing the Star Wars RPG too, and over the past seven months I have become very attached to our group (a kel'dor soldier, a duros fringer/soldier, a mon calamari scoundrel, a bothan noble and a zabrak tech specialist/force adept) and, of course, my jedi... I don't think I could stand it if something like this happened to one of my friends' chars....