Character Suicide [Archive] - Wizards Community

Character Suicide [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Alisttair
10-07-03, 01:05 PM Have any of you played a character that you no longer whished to play , and thus tried everything to get him killed or commit suicide to make a new character, or even DMed a game where this happened?

I DMed such a game. One of the players was a Dwarf, and he was tired of playing his character, so he kept trying to commit suicide, but I wouldnt let him succeed. Eventually I gave up when he flew up high over the great glacier on a hippogriff and dived right off, crashing through the ice, into deeper ice (he couldnt reach any possible water cause that would have been VERY deep), thus ending his life finally.
Masakado
10-07-03, 01:08 PM Whatever happened to just retiring the character, balling up the sheets, tossing them in the trash, & starting over?

Orchestrating a suicide is a bit on the disturbing side, IMO.
ENHenry
10-07-03, 01:51 PM If a player is unhappy with a character, I let them leave the group (becoming an NPC or just exiting Stage Left), and then the player rolls up a new character, with the same level, and different equipment in line with the avg. party value equipment. I don't allow suicides as a general rule because there is this temptation to take the dead PC's stuff, and try to get me to allow the "new stuff" too.

Following another poster's suggestion on these boards, I give the party the choice of keeping the PC's ol stuff, and the new character starts off with starting funds only, or they let the old equipment off into the sunset, and the new PC comes in with level-appropriate equipment.

Long story short, if you are unhappy with a character, you shouldn't be forced to keep it; however, neither should you be changing PC's every other session.
The MadStepDad
10-07-03, 02:30 PM Originally posted by Masakado
Orchestrating a suicide is a bit on the disturbing side, IMO.
I agree. That is laaaaaaaaaaaaame.
JellyFishBrains
10-07-03, 03:00 PM One of my friends was doing a mission, with a couple of other kids , and I came late so while they were gaming I was making my character , but while I was making the character I got so pisssed and when I finally finshed and got into the campaign I couldent stand the DM or how he was running the mission so I killed my character and left. Heh heh
Amoun
10-07-03, 05:27 PM well a guy in my campaign had his character killed twice... after the second time he just left hehe... (There are other details to the story, as in he wanted to play in the group I DMed another day)... Was hysterical though, he died twice... both times very brutally... And the rest of the party hardly was hurt from both encounters... He just got up after his second death, smiled, said goodbye and off he went hehe...
Darth K'Trava
10-07-03, 06:15 PM A friend of mine did that with his fighter character in a non-FR game. He got tired of the character so he had it go toe-to-toe with a Warhammer troll (The kind that spew acid everywhere if you did alot of damage to it). Basically the fighter/archer finished the guy off by hitting the troll and exceeding that damage threshold.

So far, I haven't had any suicidal characters. I retired one when a DM switched settings and made a new one rather than opting to bring the character over into the new setting.
The Lone Sorcerer
10-07-03, 07:56 PM Yeah killing your charcter seems wasteful. two characters i made have become ongoing npcs,especially in the one game where my character who was a harper left to do some serious top secret harper buisness. Along the way the his old friends , as well as my new character encountered him in a suicidal fight against a marilith. we quickly came to his aid and saved his life. We helped him complete his mission. since then he has always been a helpful ally to the companions.
RobTzu
10-08-03, 04:12 AM There are a few times that it could happen. A samurai fails a important mission, Going to be captured by demon lord etc
The Lone Sorcerer
10-08-03, 07:44 PM yeah but just flying up into the sky and jumping is disturbing.
TinySilverChalice
10-08-03, 07:59 PM Originally posted by The Lone Sorcerer
yeah but just flying up into the sky and jumping is disturbing.

Talk about "breaking" character! :heehee Sorry, but that's a poor excuse for a RPer, IMHO. If you can't even imagine a single reason why a character would want to retire or even stay alive... I can't think of a way to express how uncreative, even anti-creative, that is. Anti-creative it is, as in that it destroys any sort of realism any of the other players had, and in fact crushes any sort of value that player might have for that player's future characters.

We once did have a character threaten suicide though. We were all playing in this horrid campain. THe DM was dragging us around by the nose through a world without encounters (three rounds of combat in a month of play, never against any living opponates) and the poor human fighter felt he had nothing to do, which was kind of true. The poor player was maybe 15 and hated his cousin DM for making his character essentally useless in a "non-violence" world. His character worshipped Pelor, the god my cleric worshipped. One day while the DM was explaining more about the BBEG which he had already told us that we'd never fight because "he's too smart to engage his foes", the fighter said something to the affect of "Why should I live? I can change nothing in this world! What does Pelor say I should do?" As a player, I had a heck of a time 1) I know jack about Pelor's beliefs even now ("All good things come from Pelor..." whoopie-do!) 2) The player would have been better off playing just about any other class and race. I had to keep it in character though and did my best to convince him to stay alive at least until the group broke up a few weeks later.
Dargoth
10-08-03, 09:31 PM I imagine the Kelemvor wouldnt like people who commit sucide very much. After all hes big on the "All things should die at the appointed time" and sucide ignores that
Alisttair
10-09-03, 10:43 AM Originally posted by Dargoth
I imagine the Kelemvor wouldnt like people who commit sucide very much. After all hes big on the "All things should die at the appointed time" and sucide ignores that

Well anyways at that time it was years ago that my friend did that thing in my game. I wonder how exactly Kelemvor would treat such an incident (for it is sure to have happened in such a vast world).
Malaug
10-09-03, 11:23 AM I had a one armed mage that was just having bad luck with everything, spells taking double time to cast, doing half damage.

The final straw was when he walked through a curtain of purple moss and lo and behold it sucked away your strength. He was already half armless now he was going to be powerless too! I just said he refused help from the characters, took out his dagger and plunged it into his eye. He was only level 1.

The DM was very nice about it and said "I suppose that's fine".
knightserpent
10-09-03, 02:10 PM A friend of mine had a Paladin that couldnt hit anything. Each gaming session he would be completely worthless in combat except as another target. He just could not roll worth a crap. Then once our Wizard learned Prismatic Spray, He was hit with Indigo and Violet (insanity and sent to another plane), He faild both saves. He was retired after that. He didn't want to be saved.
RobTzu
10-10-03, 02:55 AM Oh knightserpent telling the same story twice heh?
kiwidoc
10-10-03, 02:20 PM There was a long discussion on this very issue in the "What's A DM to do?" forum. Most people seemed to think this was a very bad idea, and there was a long list of suggestions as to how the DM could "sabotage" this suicide attempt - including just plain saying the player can't do this; insisting the rest of the party prevent it to; and having an NPC resurrect the character.

Seriously if somebody wants to change characters they need to talk it over with the DM and the players. Changing a character doesn't just affect the player who wants to change. Other players often develop their own characters to make the team stronger, making choices based around the current team. The DM may have tailored plot hooks and "dungeons" to match this character. If a player doesn't acknowledge this then he/she is behaving in a very selfish manner.
dezcordero
10-10-03, 03:30 PM I would never have one of my characters commit suicide...it's easier to just make them have another task they need to do or whatever and just roll a new one.

I did play with a DM though that liked to try and kill his players, which is annoying in the extreme. The funny thing about him, though, is that he would pit us (and I was playing a Drow Bladesinger, of all things) against terrifically powerful foes at low levels and we always managed to not only live, but kill the oppenent in such a way as to prove it wasn't just luck.

Although, when the Half-Orc fighter/thief backstabbed a dragon (with a spider-climb and jump spell from me)...crit on both die rolls for hit and damage...that was probably Tamora's smiling down on us, LOL.

Dez
knightserpent
10-10-03, 04:02 PM Not everyone reads all the posts. I figured I would share the love. Not to mention that the same story applied in both posts.
Cherrn
10-10-03, 09:38 PM Well suicide can be ok in some instances. For example: We did a Dark Sun campaign a few years ago. The group was generally evil (duh it's Dark Sun :D ). Well at a time we ended up in some trouble with some Templars and to save our own hides we ended up selling the Mul (a PC) since Muls are much sought after as gladiators. The Mul having previously escaped the arena and slavery did not want to go back and after a failed attempt at getting back at the ones who orchestrated the deal (me an elf bard/ranger and the human cleric :D), he ended up trying to flee from the Templars, in the end he realized he couldn't get away and he turned to face his wouldbe captors, smiled at them, and plunged his dagger into his own throat. So it did indeed turn out as a happy ending. We got paid for the Mul and the Templars didn't get anything :)
RobTzu
10-11-03, 02:17 AM Knightserpent I was just teasing you. At first I thought something wrong happened as yours was the last post in both threads. Apparently we have the same tastes!:D
jwanderer5
10-12-03, 10:05 PM Well, I think character suicide is acceptable in certain cases. However there are different versions of suicide. I could completely see a dwarvish battlerager singlehandly battling a horde of orcs to die with honor.
We have one guy in our group who used to get bored with his characters very often and try and have them killed off, which usually didn't happen because of our DM. However one adventure, his character was captured by a Rakshasa, who then took his form and infiltrated our group. After backstabbing us, the Rakshasa dissapeared at the exact same point as the character freed himself. Bursting into the room that we were in he was unfortunatly fried by some flame arrows from the party mage. We players knew that it was the character, but bound by player vs. character knowledge, we were bound by roleplaying rules to kill our party member. Of course the player was very happy with his characters demise and proceded to role up a new character on the spot.
Corthan
10-16-03, 01:51 PM Just had someone do that in my game. 1/2 orc fighter falls in combat and is trying to be saved. monk/sorceror fails on 3 of 4 attempts to stabilize. Player of orc comes to me in side bar and states thta because his char. fell in battle he is willing himself to die. Some honor thingy. Turns out that he is better playing casters (which he is) and decides that b/c his dice rolls suck in combat he wishes to kill of his char and be done w/ him.
B/c he brought up honor, I reminded him of what he told he mentor "What command, I will do."

Another victory for the DM's.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Alisttair 10-07-03, 01:05 PM	Have any of you played a character that you no longer whished to play , and thus tried everything to get him killed or commit suicide to make a new character, or even DMed a game where this happened? I DMed such a game. One of the players was a Dwarf, and he was tired of playing his character, so he kept trying to commit suicide, but I wouldnt let him succeed. Eventually I gave up when he flew up high over the great glacier on a hippogriff and dived right off, crashing through the ice, into deeper ice (he couldnt reach any possible water cause that would have been VERY deep), thus ending his life finally.
Masakado 10-07-03, 01:08 PM	Whatever happened to just retiring the character, balling up the sheets, tossing them in the trash, & starting over? Orchestrating a suicide is a bit on the disturbing side, IMO.
ENHenry 10-07-03, 01:51 PM	If a player is unhappy with a character, I let them leave the group (becoming an NPC or just exiting Stage Left), and then the player rolls up a new character, with the same level, and different equipment in line with the avg. party value equipment. I don't allow suicides as a general rule because there is this temptation to take the dead PC's stuff, and try to get me to allow the "new stuff" too. Following another poster's suggestion on these boards, I give the party the choice of keeping the PC's ol stuff, and the new character starts off with starting funds only, or they let the old equipment off into the sunset, and the new PC comes in with level-appropriate equipment. Long story short, if you are unhappy with a character, you shouldn't be forced to keep it; however, neither should you be changing PC's every other session.
The MadStepDad 10-07-03, 02:30 PM	Originally posted by Masakado Orchestrating a suicide is a bit on the disturbing side, IMO. I agree. That is laaaaaaaaaaaaame.
JellyFishBrains 10-07-03, 03:00 PM	One of my friends was doing a mission, with a couple of other kids , and I came late so while they were gaming I was making my character , but while I was making the character I got so pisssed and when I finally finshed and got into the campaign I couldent stand the DM or how he was running the mission so I killed my character and left. Heh heh
Amoun 10-07-03, 05:27 PM	well a guy in my campaign had his character killed twice... after the second time he just left hehe... (There are other details to the story, as in he wanted to play in the group I DMed another day)... Was hysterical though, he died twice... both times very brutally... And the rest of the party hardly was hurt from both encounters... He just got up after his second death, smiled, said goodbye and off he went hehe...
Darth K'Trava 10-07-03, 06:15 PM	A friend of mine did that with his fighter character in a non-FR game. He got tired of the character so he had it go toe-to-toe with a Warhammer troll (The kind that spew acid everywhere if you did alot of damage to it). Basically the fighter/archer finished the guy off by hitting the troll and exceeding that damage threshold. So far, I haven't had any suicidal characters. I retired one when a DM switched settings and made a new one rather than opting to bring the character over into the new setting.
The Lone Sorcerer 10-07-03, 07:56 PM	Yeah killing your charcter seems wasteful. two characters i made have become ongoing npcs,especially in the one game where my character who was a harper left to do some serious top secret harper buisness. Along the way the his old friends , as well as my new character encountered him in a suicidal fight against a marilith. we quickly came to his aid and saved his life. We helped him complete his mission. since then he has always been a helpful ally to the companions.
RobTzu 10-08-03, 04:12 AM	There are a few times that it could happen. A samurai fails a important mission, Going to be captured by demon lord etc
The Lone Sorcerer 10-08-03, 07:44 PM	yeah but just flying up into the sky and jumping is disturbing.
TinySilverChalice 10-08-03, 07:59 PM	Originally posted by The Lone Sorcerer yeah but just flying up into the sky and jumping is disturbing. Talk about "breaking" character! :heehee Sorry, but that's a poor excuse for a RPer, IMHO. If you can't even imagine a single reason why a character would want to retire or even stay alive... I can't think of a way to express how uncreative, even anti-creative, that is. Anti-creative it is, as in that it destroys any sort of realism any of the other players had, and in fact crushes any sort of value that player might have for that player's future characters. We once did have a character threaten suicide though. We were all playing in this horrid campain. THe DM was dragging us around by the nose through a world without encounters (three rounds of combat in a month of play, never against any living opponates) and the poor human fighter felt he had nothing to do, which was kind of true. The poor player was maybe 15 and hated his cousin DM for making his character essentally useless in a "non-violence" world. His character worshipped Pelor, the god my cleric worshipped. One day while the DM was explaining more about the BBEG which he had already told us that we'd never fight because "he's too smart to engage his foes", the fighter said something to the affect of "Why should I live? I can change nothing in this world! What does Pelor say I should do?" As a player, I had a heck of a time 1) I know jack about Pelor's beliefs even now ("All good things come from Pelor..." whoopie-do!) 2) The player would have been better off playing just about any other class and race. I had to keep it in character though and did my best to convince him to stay alive at least until the group broke up a few weeks later.
Dargoth 10-08-03, 09:31 PM	I imagine the Kelemvor wouldnt like people who commit sucide very much. After all hes big on the "All things should die at the appointed time" and sucide ignores that
Alisttair 10-09-03, 10:43 AM	Originally posted by Dargoth I imagine the Kelemvor wouldnt like people who commit sucide very much. After all hes big on the "All things should die at the appointed time" and sucide ignores that Well anyways at that time it was years ago that my friend did that thing in my game. I wonder how exactly Kelemvor would treat such an incident (for it is sure to have happened in such a vast world).
Malaug 10-09-03, 11:23 AM	I had a one armed mage that was just having bad luck with everything, spells taking double time to cast, doing half damage. The final straw was when he walked through a curtain of purple moss and lo and behold it sucked away your strength. He was already half armless now he was going to be powerless too! I just said he refused help from the characters, took out his dagger and plunged it into his eye. He was only level 1. The DM was very nice about it and said "I suppose that's fine".
knightserpent 10-09-03, 02:10 PM	A friend of mine had a Paladin that couldnt hit anything. Each gaming session he would be completely worthless in combat except as another target. He just could not roll worth a crap. Then once our Wizard learned Prismatic Spray, He was hit with Indigo and Violet (insanity and sent to another plane), He faild both saves. He was retired after that. He didn't want to be saved.
RobTzu 10-10-03, 02:55 AM	Oh knightserpent telling the same story twice heh?
kiwidoc 10-10-03, 02:20 PM	There was a long discussion on this very issue in the "What's A DM to do?" forum. Most people seemed to think this was a very bad idea, and there was a long list of suggestions as to how the DM could "sabotage" this suicide attempt - including just plain saying the player can't do this; insisting the rest of the party prevent it to; and having an NPC resurrect the character. Seriously if somebody wants to change characters they need to talk it over with the DM and the players. Changing a character doesn't just affect the player who wants to change. Other players often develop their own characters to make the team stronger, making choices based around the current team. The DM may have tailored plot hooks and "dungeons" to match this character. If a player doesn't acknowledge this then he/she is behaving in a very selfish manner.
dezcordero 10-10-03, 03:30 PM	I would never have one of my characters commit suicide...it's easier to just make them have another task they need to do or whatever and just roll a new one. I did play with a DM though that liked to try and kill his players, which is annoying in the extreme. The funny thing about him, though, is that he would pit us (and I was playing a Drow Bladesinger, of all things) against terrifically powerful foes at low levels and we always managed to not only live, but kill the oppenent in such a way as to prove it wasn't just luck. Although, when the Half-Orc fighter/thief backstabbed a dragon (with a spider-climb and jump spell from me)...crit on both die rolls for hit and damage...that was probably Tamora's smiling down on us, LOL. Dez
knightserpent 10-10-03, 04:02 PM	Not everyone reads all the posts. I figured I would share the love. Not to mention that the same story applied in both posts.
Cherrn 10-10-03, 09:38 PM	Well suicide can be ok in some instances. For example: We did a Dark Sun campaign a few years ago. The group was generally evil (duh it's Dark Sun :D ). Well at a time we ended up in some trouble with some Templars and to save our own hides we ended up selling the Mul (a PC) since Muls are much sought after as gladiators. The Mul having previously escaped the arena and slavery did not want to go back and after a failed attempt at getting back at the ones who orchestrated the deal (me an elf bard/ranger and the human cleric :D), he ended up trying to flee from the Templars, in the end he realized he couldn't get away and he turned to face his wouldbe captors, smiled at them, and plunged his dagger into his own throat. So it did indeed turn out as a happy ending. We got paid for the Mul and the Templars didn't get anything :)
RobTzu 10-11-03, 02:17 AM	Knightserpent I was just teasing you. At first I thought something wrong happened as yours was the last post in both threads. Apparently we have the same tastes!:D
jwanderer5 10-12-03, 10:05 PM	Well, I think character suicide is acceptable in certain cases. However there are different versions of suicide. I could completely see a dwarvish battlerager singlehandly battling a horde of orcs to die with honor. We have one guy in our group who used to get bored with his characters very often and try and have them killed off, which usually didn't happen because of our DM. However one adventure, his character was captured by a Rakshasa, who then took his form and infiltrated our group. After backstabbing us, the Rakshasa dissapeared at the exact same point as the character freed himself. Bursting into the room that we were in he was unfortunatly fried by some flame arrows from the party mage. We players knew that it was the character, but bound by player vs. character knowledge, we were bound by roleplaying rules to kill our party member. Of course the player was very happy with his characters demise and proceded to role up a new character on the spot.
Corthan 10-16-03, 01:51 PM	Just had someone do that in my game. 1/2 orc fighter falls in combat and is trying to be saved. monk/sorceror fails on 3 of 4 attempts to stabilize. Player of orc comes to me in side bar and states thta because his char. fell in battle he is willing himself to die. Some honor thingy. Turns out that he is better playing casters (which he is) and decides that b/c his dice rolls suck in combat he wishes to kill of his char and be done w/ him. B/c he brought up honor, I reminded him of what he told he mentor "What command, I will do." Another victory for the DM's.