Killing Characters

[Trebuchet]

The newspaper has worked out pretty well. I solicit columns from the other GMs as well, and the articles often cover previous team exploits (The press often misses the full story, and the players really like having the "inside scoop") as well as set up future adventures. Of course, plenty of the team's exploits are off camera and/or secret. The team's last exploit (Preventing a rescue attempt by some supers trying to free their incarcerated comrade and also fighting two Mechanon knockoffs appeared in the papers as an ordinary "RAF C-130 military plane crash" (Having both wings sheared clean off at the roots on takeoff by the equivalents of light-sabers will do that.).

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by GrimJesta

I never, ever fudge the dice. It sorta cheats players of victories they attain through skill, as even if they dont do things right they get to live. If the villain ever smokes someone, then theyre dead. But I tend to run gritty, realistic games, thus why I run Fantasy Hero and Dark Champions.

We tend to roll combat rolls in front of everyone, so there is no fudging. Which is why my last charecter hit the ground with -17 body. Really sucks when you get surprised and don't have your force field up. For some odd reason the rest of my characters are staying in body armor even when sleeping.

[rayoman]

I have had or I have seen similar problems.

 

I have three players in a DnD campaign. I have tried to give them enough information so they could start their own investigation to get them involved in the game. They don't seem to want to do that. I have to basically put stuff right out in front of them that says, ENTURE HOOK! If that doesn't interest them then I try to wrap things up quickly so I can go watch TV or something.

 

If you are worried about teamwork then you need to make a villain that can take the groups largest attack (ie: read the villain isn't hurt or hurt very little). Make them have to work together. Don't kill them. The villain should gloat then get what he was trying to steal and leave. After a couple of times of getting pasted in fights they should try to work together.

 

Make a group on less points than the Heroes. This group has code words and manuevers worked out so they should be able to win against an unorganized team. After getting beat by weaker foes, make sure the group KNOWS they were beaten by a weaker foe. This should motivate them to work together.

 

 

 

Originally posted by Agent 537

I started this thread because I'm concerned about a sense of complacency I think I'm seeing. Heroes in our campaign alternate between sitting around talking ICly for hours,...

 

-rest of post snipped-

[zornwil]

Interesting thread.

 

Bearing in mind this is a game, I think the threat of death is helpful to the spirit of battling something. So I think it should be there, well, genre-dependent anyway (certainly a light-hearted genre wouldn't require such a thing).

 

I've very rarely had PCs die when running. They've been mostly on-camera events. I've tended to shy away, though, after a guy got pretty upset his PC died and basically stopped playing, though he would hang out with us. He never admitted it bothered him, he claimed in fact it didn't at all. But he was the type of person not to admit those things. The problem is, he played the character so aggressively and so killing-oriented at times that he basically set himself up to get killed, or at least I thought so. And his character was powerful enough he had reached a Reputation Level in my game where he could come back, so I thought he'd enjoy it.

 

Anyway, as a result, I'm a little more gunshy.

[Vondy]

I prefer to avoid killing PCs, and my players know it, but they also know there are two times where the normative plot-preservation and script-immunity ceases to be "golden":

 

1) dramatic or climactic plot junctures

2) if they do something extremely stupid

 

They still have cause to get nervous outside these times (there are bad things that can happen other than death), and there have been a few kills - all extremely well remembered - in my game.

 

In a thirteen year campaign five heroes have been killed.

 

1 because the player did something abysmally stupid + unlucky rolls

3 because the players knowingly paid the last true measure of devotion to the cuase

1 because the player wanted a new character (I would have let him retire one for another) and asked me to take him out in a brutal and dramatic way

 

There have also been some villian kills, but those also tend to be rare.

[Ken Solo]

1) When I start a campaign, I publish a pamphlet alerting the players to the nature of the world they will be playing in, as well as a list of all the optional combat rules I am and am not using in the game. I tend to weigh the combination of optionals so that Killing Attacks are indeed dangerous. For one thing, I like thugs with a .38 to be a *little* respected, and for another, I intensly dislike "gunfighter at high noon" combat. I like to see people seeking cover, and moving a fight to a battleground that offers them an advantage.

With this right out in the open, I have no problem with killig a PC that does something stupid. fer instance, the character the peeped through a window from hiding saw a squad of agants with AK-47s ready and aimed at the door. He charged through anyway. He got dead.

On the otherhand, it I manage to KO the whole hero team, I will look for any excuse to keep them alive. Usualy by way of the villan putting them into an 'inescapable' prison, or deathtrap.

 

 

2) I like the idea of the news paper acounts mentioned earlier so much that I'm going to start a new thread in the Champions Discussion soliciting just such accounts for my own game. I play with about two dozen NPC hero groups around the world, and a newspaper sumarizingtheir exploits would be wonderful for adding to the campaign world. (and giving me more springboards for plot ideas)

[zornwil]

Originally posted by Ken Solo

1) When I start a campaign, I publish a pamphlet alerting the players to the nature of the world they will be playing in, as well as a list of all the optional combat rules I am and am not using in the game. I tend to weigh the combination of optionals so that Killing Attacks are indeed dangerous. For one thing, I like thugs with a .38 to be a *little* respected, and for another, I intensly dislike "gunfighter at high noon" combat. I like to see people seeking cover, and moving a fight to a battleground that offers them an advantage.

With this right out in the open, I have no problem with killig a PC that does something stupid. fer instance, the character the peeped through a window from hiding saw a squad of agants with AK-47s ready and aimed at the door. He charged through anyway. He got dead.

On the otherhand, it I manage to KO the whole hero team, I will look for any excuse to keep them alive. Usualy by way of the villan putting them into an 'inescapable' prison, or deathtrap.

 

 

2) I like the idea of the news paper acounts mentioned earlier so much that I'm going to start a new thread in the Champions Discussion soliciting just such accounts for my own game. I play with about two dozen NPC hero groups around the world, and a newspaper sumarizingtheir exploits would be wonderful for adding to the campaign world. (and giving me more springboards for plot ideas)

 

I don't have the same prejudices you do, but I like your newspaper account comment and will (eventually) check out that thread, great idea for posting!

[Arthur]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

.....

WOULD kill them. Instead I decided to have Genocide capture them and try to learn as much about their real identities as possible, in order to track down any friends or relatives (especially relatives) who might also be 'tainted'. I did this by having the PCs wake up, as college students, and discovering they'd been participating in a virtual reality simulation for credit hours (and a little cash). Of course in actuality Genocide had put the heroes in a VR set-up in order to get them to talk about their 'virtual experiences' as super-heroes, and thus get info on them. Little inconsistancies...

 

This is one of the coolest story arcs I have ever read about. My hat's off to you.

[ZootSoot]

Re: Killing Characters

 

Originally posted by Agent 537

This subject has likely come up before, but I bring it to you all anyway.

 

How do you handle killing characters in a superhero setting? Do you make it an OOC priority not to, because making a character and fitting it into the campaign is difficult and/or time-consuming? Do you allow it only if the characters do something REALLY stupid? Do your campaign's characters start to feel invincible because they know they can't die, and thus start to maybe grow bored or take unrealistic chances?

 

I'd appreciate any and all viewpoints you might care to offer.

 

I am an extremist on these boards. I don't use death to force players to play my way (punishing them for being stupid) and I don't protect them from failure and death. If the characters would die according to the situation and the dice, they die.

[ZootSoot]

Stupidity will get a character killed, but not because I say they must die. They will die if the dice say their tactics result in death. I don't hammer my players into line (I also ignore many genre conventions, my villains have workable plans and comprehensible goals, never use death traps and never refuse to believe the obvious).

[Tech]

Hold on, I'm thinking here

 

I have yet to kill a character - although I have had villains try quite hard to kill the characters. Hm, that wasn't very clear.

 

As a GM, I do not look for ways to kill characters. Not one character has died while I've GM'd. I'm glad to be able to say that my players are veteran players and generally do not make stupid moves. The PC's look out for each other and teamwork is generally the action performed by them. I consider it the DnD mindset when a GM goes out of his way to actually kill a character and as we all know, building a good character takes a lot of thought, energy and time on a player's behalf.

 

As many have already pointed out, there are many avenues out to killing heroes. Brainwashing, putting them in a deathtrap, letting the heroes wake-up realizing their defeat and licking their wounds, trapping them suddenly, etc. Mind you, I have a few villain nuts who would try to kill the heroes, given the chance. However, the heroes go out of their way to avoid such an incident occuring and it works. Even the villainous nuts, who don't care if a hero dies, can realize there may be a way mucho big bonus if they bring home the hero tied-up to their boss than simply killing them outright. Wounding a hero can effectively neutralize a hero, also. For those who can't be hurt, generally bricks but not always, the threat of loved ones getting hurt or innocent bystanders injured works. There is no need to kill a hero.

 

One time I asked a player to the side if he'd be willing to set his hero in extreme danger and told him the specifics of the danger and he said 'Sure! Sounds like fun!' It was a small atomic bomb. (FYI, I use my own ideas on the damage an A-bomb would do.) He survived the bomb and came after the villain who set it off with tremendous heroic effect! Yes, the dice rolls actually worked with the player that time. The thing is, neither he nor I knew what the outcome of that adventure would be and the heroes likely death was a 50/50 chance in theory. (More like 0% since I so badly wimped out on the damage.)

 

To close, I haven't killed a hero yet because there are so many things that can be done to them otherwise, but that doesn't mean it won't ever happen.