I killed a PC.

[lemming]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Hmm. I think four or five of my superhero PCs have died, a few by accident. And I couldn't tell you how many PCs have died in my games. Mostly by accident.

 

Normally, if it's by accident, it's nice to offer a way for the PC to come back. Especially if it was some stupid death that was caused by dice.

 

One GM of mine brought back my character Nighthawk. He had been killed by a 5d6 KA that rolled all sixes by a different GM.

 

But the one GM had had Nighthawk embroiled in a long plot, and the last bit had been Nighthawk flying down to Rio to check out a lead and he had disappeared except for some blood and feathers in a hotel. (He was similar to X-man's Angel, but a detective sort. Ran the "Fly by Night" Detective Agency)

 

Apparently before this other game, we glossed over it with, there were some Ninjas and some other adventures. We'll get back to it...

 

To summarize:

Nighthawk had been kidnapped, and cloned. Clone was the one killed, but there were seven other clones. Wound up going thru some manhunter like stuff, and one of my other characters was in on the rescue of the original. (Much cooler story than the summary shows)

 

The other seven clones are still running about. The brain of the "dead" clone had been saved and then placed in a jar. Went insane, caused other problems.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

This seems an appropriate place to share my experience at my former FLGS, Rider's Hobby, many years ago. They had reorganized everything since the last time I had come in, and I asked one guy that worked there (Dean) where the Hero Games stuff was. He began spouting off on how "bad" the Hero System is. And his primary complaint? It's "too hard to kill off the player characters."

 

WTF? If I want a GM vs. Player game, I'll pull out Paranoia for a session or two.

[Greywind]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I've never seen Paranoia break down into "GM vs Player". The players are usually too busy trying to frag each other...

[Nolgroth]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

He began spouting off on how "bad" the Hero System is. And his primary complaint? It's "too hard to kill off the player characters."

Obviously dude was showing his ignorance of the HERO system right there. I've had no problem creating deadly scenarios, nor have my few characters ever been "death proof." Oh well.

[quozaxx]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Since I killed off my PC (which by the way is on Hero Central), I have talked to him.

 

He mentioned bringing in an alternate PC character from another dimension.

 

He's won't be back until after Labor day, so we haven't hashed out the details yet.

 

It has also been mentioned....

Make him an undead / zombie (got just the villain to do that too)

Have his Nanites hold his spirit in place.

[Tasha]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

This seems an appropriate place to share my experience at my former FLGS, Rider's Hobby, many years ago. They had reorganized everything since the last time I had come in, and I asked one guy that worked there (Dean) where the Hero Games stuff was. He began spouting off on how "bad" the Hero System is. And his primary complaint? It's "too hard to kill off the player characters."

 

WTF? If I want a GM vs. Player game, I'll pull out Paranoia for a session or two.

 

He's never played in any of the Fantasy Hero Games I have been in. Heck our new GM thinks that Heroic Level may be too Deadly. Esp with our luck at rolling head shots and Vitals shots.

 

CHAMPIONS isn't a very deadly game, but heroic level game can be quite deadly.

 

Tasha

[Beast]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

western hero and gatling guns

[Nolgroth]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Since I killed off my PC (which by the way is on Hero Central)' date=' I have talked to him. [/quote']I think the important thing is that the player and you are talking about this and the player is (apparently) not holding a grudge. I like the idea of the character's death becoming a "radiation accident" to give him an out. Of course whatever solution is good as long as both you and the player are happy.

[quozaxx]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

On a side note: Since Mr. Long is reminded of the song "I kissed a girl".

 

I thought I killed a PC's lyrics may look something like this:

 

This was never the way I planned

Not my intentions

PC was brave, weapon in hand

GM at his discretion

It’s not what I’m used to

Just want to try it out

I’m furious for you

Caught your attention

I killed a PC and I liked it, and with his own nightstick

I killed a PC just to try it

I hope my players don’t mind it

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

Don’t mean it’s over tonight

I killed a PC and I liked it, I liked it

No, I’m the GM at this game

Not how they should behave, my head is so confused

Make them obey

I killed a PC and I liked it, and with his own nightstick

I killed a PC just to try it

I hope my players don’t mind it.

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

Don’t mean it’s over tonight

The PC are so magical, iron skin, biceps rips, so killable, hard to resist, so trustable

To good not to try it

Ain’t no big deal; I’m innocent.

I killed a PC and I liked it.

 

 

I hope you approve

[Nolgroth]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Ha! Repped.

[ghost-angel]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Not to make light of the situation, but...

 

...every time I see this thread's title I "hear" it to the tune of "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry....

 

Ha! Jill Sobule did it first, and did it better, and she blew off Fabio to boot.

 

[phookz]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

The latter was Tempest' date=' who was trying to save hostages from a supervillain group. She used a wind TK to pull a burning fuel tanker away from the truck containing the hostages. The only place she could move the tanker was basically right in front of her, with her hovering just beside a bridge. Can you say "fanning the flames"? I knew you could. BIG boom, practically at point-blank range to her. It was one of those "Nobody could POSSIBLY survive that!" situations (I think someone even said that). So I took the player aside and talked to her. We worked out a plan to convince the other players that her PC *did* die -- she wrote up and played a new character for a while -- but in reality she was KO'd and fell into the river along with chunks of the bridge. The unconscious heroine had amnesia, and she was found downstream by one of the escaping villains. He convinced her she was one of his teammates and I ran a "Dark Tempest" plotline before the other heroes finally rescued her.[/quote']

 

Very cool. Repped

[phookz]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I thought I killed a PC's lyrics may look something like this:

 

Nice. Repped.

[Zephrosyne]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I killed a character intentionally in a superhero game a long time ago (Marvel Roleplaying Game). The character was an idiot and the player was an idiot and he suffered the fate that idiots deserve. That is the only time I can think of that a character died in a superhero game that I ran.

 

Frankly, I am a little surprised that was the only one. I am glad it was, but still surprised because I prefer my superhero games gritty. I like reading comic books. I don't like gming them. When characters have died in my games (other genres), I have tried to make sure the deaths were meaningful. I usually don't let a good/lucky roll by some schmuck take a character out. I'll cheat on the player's behalf. However, I have absolutely no trouble letting the cards fall where they may if the player(s) is stupid or careless.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Jackal simply stepped to the side, Concussion smashed through the window, and, even though I tried to catch him with another hero who was in the area, math won out, and we realized this particular hero wasn't strong enough to catch a terminal velocity DI Brick/Blaster.

 

He survived the impact with the pavement. The Storm sewer sent him into GM's discretion, the subway knocked him down to Zero body, and my randomly rolled for subway train reduced him to a greasy smear on the tracks. All they found was an arm.

 

The player wanted to have the "Concussion Memorial Hole" immortalized. It was a no go. Since he was a government licencsed hero, there was a huge televised funeral with full 21 gun salute and all that. And, of course it was raining, because http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals

 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is don't freak out about killing a PC, it happens in RPGs. Just add a kill counter to your GM screen (you DO have a kill counter, right?) and move on. It sounds like your player is perfectly fine with it. The player of Concussion is the one who talked me into killing him off. Sometimes your players can surprise you.

 

(P.S. I apologize for the TvTropes link, for whoever gets stuck, I am very sorry)

He survives the pavement; I think “wow, lucky”. The storm sewer does more damage; I think “crap, but at least I’m still alive, sort of”. THEN I get hit by a train because I just happened to land directly on a subway track while a train is coming?...”Regardless of how dumb the jump was, the GM is now officially trying to kill me”.

 

Actually' date=' my favorite example of this was when a PC did a move through on a villain and did so much damage that he destroyed the soulscape of his own other character he was trying to rescue.[/quote']

What’s a “soulscape” and how do you destroy it by hurting someone else?

Since I killed off my PC (which by the way is on Hero Central)' date=' I have talked to him. [/quote']

How do you talk to your PC? When I talk to my Player Characters their Character sheets just sit there and stare at me. Or did you mean you talked to the Player?

western hero and gatling guns

Do you have stats for a Gatling gun? I would like those if you do.

[Arkham]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I haven't accidently killed a PC in Champions yet...

 

But I do keep gunning for the two characters that Regen from death. Unfortunately they are both rather sturdy, especially compared to the squishy characters that _don't_ regen from death.

[Nagisawa Takumi]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

(P.S. I apologize for the TvTropes link' date=' for whoever gets stuck, I am very sorry)[/quote']

 

I HATE YOU! I almost missed my City of Heroes ship raid thanks to the link!

 

Not to make light of the situation, but...

 

...every time I see this thread's title I "hear" it to the tune of "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry....

 

Glad to know I wasn't the only one...

 

On a side note: Since Mr. Long is reminded of the song "I kissed a girl".

 

I thought I killed a PC's lyrics may look something like this:

 

This was never the way I planned

Not my intentions

PC was brave, weapon in hand

GM at his discretion

It’s not what I’m used to

Just want to try it out

I’m furious for you

Caught your attention

I killed a PC and I liked it, and with his own nightstick

I killed a PC just to try it

I hope my players don’t mind it

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

Don’t mean it’s over tonight

I killed a PC and I liked it, I liked it

No, I’m the GM at this game

Not how they should behave, my head is so confused

Make them obey

I killed a PC and I liked it, and with his own nightstick

I killed a PC just to try it

I hope my players don’t mind it.

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

Don’t mean it’s over tonight

The PC are so magical, iron skin, biceps rips, so killable, hard to resist, so trustable

To good not to try it

Ain’t no big deal; I’m innocent.

I killed a PC and I liked it.

 

 

I hope you approve

 

 

OK, I wish I could rep you more for that one!

[Rigel]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I know I'm late chiming in here, but I agree with the suggestion of talking to the player and see what he thinks. I personally have only had one PC die (since high school where the "DM" always tried to kill us) and he died due to the stupidity of a player and not something I had any real control over. I was quite upset and even quit playing in that group for a while. I wasn't morose or sad, but I was ticked off. We were playing a fantasy game where other figures had been resurrected, but that option was never given to me.

 

Nowadays, I actually find myself wishing for more lethality. My primary GM has been very reluctant to kill a PC and I have been around some pretty overconfident (ie, reckless) players. As someone else mentioned, the lack of lethality has created a sense of invulnerability that takes some of the fear and excitement out of our games.

 

As a GM, I would have no problem killing a PC if they did something heroic or dumb to deserve their fate. I would not kill a PC randomly or without a good reason, but I wouldn't fret over it if it was necessary or appropriate.

[shadowmage87]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Brilliant Quozaxx. Brilliant!

 

I heard it too...but it didn't occur to me to derive all of the lyrics...good one.

 

Killing PCs is oddly satisfying, but we're new to HERO, so all of my experiences killing PCs is in games where PC generation is not nearly as involved as in HERO.

[eilar1]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I can still remember when I almost (read should have) had a character die. It was my first time playing (this is old 1st edition btw) I was asked at a con to build a character so I bought a book -and built one on the spot.

 

Anyway 3/4 of the way though the adventure One of the main bad guys was escaping down a train tunnel beating on us heroes as he went. - notheing we did seemed to get though his defences. My character was a flying (Very Fast) Blaster - not knowing the rules i aske innocently if i could pick up a rail and use it like a lance. the GM said sure so I did going upto max speed i attacked him with it and rolled a 4!!! needless to say i put the rail through the badguy killing him instantly (bad hero!) but the GM ruled it was a move though soI to lots of damage too and truthfully was dead if I had known the rules but at the time i took his word for it that i survived but was out and in need of hospitalization.

 

I have learned that as a GM try to look ahead and try not to get caught in situations where characters die "accidentally" (and yes i have killed them off but usually for doing something stupid that they knew wa stupid)

 

I also dont usually roll champions dice in public so that if necessary i can fudge - though I try not very often.

 

As many others have stated the idea of a quest to "purgatory" or wherever sounds cool - maybe even make up your own place so as not to link it with any religions.

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

If a PC does something obnoxiously stupid (and note that, IMO, seriously ticking off the rest of the party AND the Ref qualifies for this), then I have zero problem with killing a character off, even going out of my way to expedite the process. Seen plenty of games go south because one party member was too stupid to live. Uh-uh, not on my watch.

 

I am also extremely reluctant to kill off a character under other circumstances. In an RPG, few things suck as much as having a carefully-built character with an interesting backstory get killed or be permanently maimed because some die rolls went sour, or (especially) because somebody else made a mistake.

So, I am not ashamed to admit that I can and do fudge results if I deem it necessary. In fairness, I may subtly fudge the other side's rolls sometimes, so as far as I am concerned, it all balances out.

After all, it is about running a challenging campaign that all participants can enjoy.

 

Some may assert that this approach is unrealistic, that it takes away the excitement of risking all, or that it makes PCs get careless because they know that their characters can't die.

 

Rubbish.

 

I may not kill or (usually) maim PCs, but there is still plenty of bad stuff that can be done to them. PCs invariably HATE being knocked out and/or captured, for instance, and will go to enormous lengths to avoid this. Also, any PCs who take the line that they don't have to worry about anything because they cannot possibly die .... well, as far as I am concerned, this is another clear example of "obnoxiously stupid". Bye, bye.

[Grimble]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I have killed a PC accidentally before...more often it was not an accident. I've never had the group do a spirit quest to retreave a fallen comrade from the afterlife, but it sounds like a cool idea.

I suppose you should look at what the consensus veiws of the afterlife are with your players...or what has been referenced in game. There are many choices. The classical Greek Underworld...Norse halls of Valhalla...Christian Limbo or Heaven or Hell...The Happy Hunting Grounds

Or maybe the dead PCs spirit has NOT moved on yet and they are a ghost haunting the PCs until they can bring his back or help him move on. With this option you can even let the player play his dead PCs ghost...just apply a LOT of limitations to how they can affect the "real" world.

[quozaxx]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

Actually, one of my player's characters IS a ghost.

 

2 may be too much, and step on her shtick.

[AnotherSkip]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

I fudged a "death by minions" to allow another character to save another

[Dr Divago]

Re: I killed a PC.

 

You can't kill a pc "by accident"; if you choose to roll dice and use system (and not one of those fancy new age diceless ruleless masterless funless systems i'd really hate ) then you know those things can happen

 

Btw, you're playing "superhero" and if your pc is'nt named Benjamin Parker he could be back.

 

this could happens

IF

1) player whant it. Of course player need to play it so if he dislike his characther coming back, he stay dead

2) is suitable for the campaign mood setting. In a marvel/dc settings it could be good; in a more realistic heroes-like setting it could be bad (maybe)

3) GM will agree with the "return from death" thing

 

HOW

this is up to you and your campaign; traveling "to the lands of the dead" or the spirit world could be cool and funny, but could get people annoyed. More important, if you are planning a long and difficult trip give The Player (the one whose PC got killed) a new character to play with or make'em play with a comrade/henchman/pet/something else or he could be very disappointed

on the other hand, if you are planning a one or two days adventure, something no more than an annoyance, be prepared everyone will whant do it again, and again, and again, to save their PC

Or they can just e-bay an Urn of Osiris to resurrect him, and then something happens and the Urn got crashed

(and he could wake up inside his coffin and walk around in zombie-like fashion... nevermind )

 

and of course, if this is not a game named "underground caverns and firebreathing lizars" (or something similar)

there's always a price to pay!! and the price could be their souls or something "simpler" like "let this harmless little devil sneak in the material world and hunt for all living beings"

 

hope this could help you