Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Last night, my 3rd level dragon shaman was unexpectantly pasted by an orc shaman/barbarian. Two...TWO!...natural 20s in a row. Crit and confirmed. Battle axe...3x damage. Went from 20 to -15.
So, I have to admit here that I do not deal as well with my character getting killed as I would like to. I'm 37, so I would like to think I'm mature enough to say "Ah, shucks. That was fun, though!" and roll up another character. However, I don't. I think I pout quite a bit, actually. And that sort of embarrasses me.
I think the issue is because I haven't had very many characters die in a game. I suppose that one gets used to it after "X" number of character deaths? Also, I tend to invest quite a bit of myself in figuring out how to roleplay said character. Not quite acting, but more of getting into a mindset. And the longer I play that character, the more invested.
So, I'm curious how other folks feel when their beloved character goes below -10.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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I should also note:
After the session, us players and DM discussed the option of raising my dragon shaman from the dead or if I should roll up a new character...the general concensus was the dragon shaman should come back. I don't know if it was aura of disappointment I was radiating at that point or whether he's a fun character that is valuable to the party, but it sort of took the sting out of it... ;)
sometimes I say oh well, and sometimes I just about cry, and begrudgingly start making a new character. My favorite characters that have died have a special place in my DnD binder. I refuse to throw any character sheet away, so I still have all of my favorite deceased characters *sniff sniff*
After one of my PCs dies I usually just serve poison brownies to everyone at the gaming table, then I bag them and bury them out back.
If no one is alive to know my character is dead, he's not really dead, is he? It was just a bad dream and I made it go away.
Finding a new gaming group for my character to adventure with is easy. It's explaining the missing friends to the cops that's the hard part.
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So, I'm curious how other folks feel when their beloved character goes below -10.
I don't usually mind as long as it was a fair death and not some "plot twist" gone arwy.
Death can actually be pretty cool for a PC, especially if you were in the middle of some heroics. Holding off the monsters while a party escapes...cool. Leaping onto a flying Succubus from a balcony to drag it down into striking range of your buddies and paying the price for it...awesome. Being imprisoned and beheaded by the Local Lords goons for something you didn't do....lame.I actually look for especially heroic ways for my PCs to die, it makes them more memorable to me.
FH(trying to kill off a dwarven duskblade currently;P)
Me agree.
Nic Logue killed my cleric at the very end of an epic good vs evil battle last week. I could not have wished for a more glorious or important death. I left that game to drive home at 5:20 am with a smile on my face.
Last night, my 3rd level dragon shaman was unexpectantly pasted by an orc shaman/barbarian. Two...TWO!...natural 20s in a row. Crit and confirmed. Battle axe...3x damage. Went from 20 to -15.
So, I have to admit here that I do not deal as well with my character getting killed as I would like to. I'm 37, so I would like to think I'm mature enough to say "Ah, shucks. That was fun, though!" and roll up another character. However, I don't. I think I pout quite a bit, actually. And that sort of embarrasses me.
I think the issue is because I haven't had very many characters die in a game. I suppose that one gets used to it after "X" number of character deaths? Also, I tend to invest quite a bit of myself in figuring out how to roleplay said character. Not quite acting, but more of getting into a mindset. And the longer I play that character, the more invested.
So, I'm curious how other folks feel when their beloved character goes below -10.
I can hardly blame you for not 'handling it well'. I would go mad if my 3rd level character died due to 2 natural 20s in a roll!
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After one of my PCs dies I usually just serve poison brownies to everyone at the gaming table, then I bag them and bury them out back.
If no one is alive to know my character is dead, he's not really dead, is he? It was just a bad dream and I made it go away.Finding a new gaming group for my character to adventure with is easy. It's explaining the missing friends to the cops that's the hard part.
Do you let yourself keep the XP and loot you gained in the "dream session" though?
I would.
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I have a house rule in my game that if someone gets to the character and heals them before the end of the round then they are stabilized. Even then we have lost a few.
I have not often played but mostly DMed. I only have a few characters beyond 6th or 7th level. I have one halfling rogue who is 11th. I have not really lost many but it is alwayd a tough one for me. And it depends on the character. The longer I have them and the more their personality is developed the more difficult it is.
To the OP. I suggest therapy but then again I suggest therapy if someone breaks a fingernail.
Do you let yourself keep the XP and loot you gained in the "dream session" though?
I would.
You know me all too well!
Director of Narrative
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A few of us in our group were discussing character death very recently. A few of us in our gamer pool have played together for years, and while the newest additions have been around for nearly half that long they still have a unique style of play that has brought some real good things to our table. Their outlook on character death is one of the things I have taken away from our experiences.
Our old group saw very few character deaths and campaigns lasted around two years. We fell victim to getting very upset at character deaths. I somehow avoided losing a character for a long time and my first was in 2e. A gnome in the gullet of a deep dragon seemed an honorable death. Since then I have lost a few characters and the ones that have been with me the longest are always hard to take, but somehow I’ve kicked it. I kinda get excited at the opportunity for change.
I generally am sad for about thirty seconds before saying "oh well, hey! I just had a great idea for a new character"
My chracter ideas are virtually endless and I generally have at least one or two backup characters made just in case my current one dies. I do grow attached on occasion to certain characters that I am truly sad to see go however.
The problem is when the next necromancer your party faces raises your old character as a zombie. Talk about ignominious!
Ummm...are we trying to make me feel bad about forgetting to get animate dead?
Because it's working.Now I'm sad.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Death can actually be pretty cool for a PC, especially if you were in the middle of some heroics. Holding off the monsters while a party escapes...cool. Leaping onto a flying Succubus from a balcony to drag it down into striking range of your buddies and paying the price for it...awesome. Being imprisoned and beheaded by the Local Lords goons for something you didn't do....lame.
I actually look for especially heroic ways for my PCs to die, it makes them more memorable to me.
The DM pointed out that Rach (the dragon shaman) died pretty cinematically. I'd have to agree. He was climbing across the wall to get to the orc barbarian shaman on the other side of a chasm when the cleric went down at the hands of two orcs. He jumped from the wall, crossed to the two orcs and beat one down with a heavy mace. That's when the orc barbarian leapt across the 15' chasm, landing right next to Rach. Rach got in a nice AoO before the triple damage axe hit cleft him in twain.
That was one of two character deaths at the hands of the orcs last night. I think we all requested that the d20 in use be retired.
I've had quite a few characters up and die on me over the years, and they've all met mysterious yet fitting ends. A few got resurrected, most recently being my half-elf bard, who got turned to stone by a medusa monk for the sin of countersonging her meditation. He was dragged back to a temple to be returned to flesh- and rolled a 1 on the fort save. His last words were "Hey, I'm back! *choke* *collapse*". It was perhaps the funniest death I've ever endured, but not nearly as funny as the party convincing the greedy half-dragon warblade to part with the gold to bring me back to life. He ponies up the money, but then proceeds to tell my character that he is officially party property. Hilarity ensues. Man, I'm starting to love it when my character dies.
If my Black Leaf ever died, I just don't know what I'd do...Nice!
Or as Cosmo frequently notes,
I see what you did there.
...I can't wait til I'm 13 level...
Or is it 9? I can never remember...
My feelings depend on the kind of death I received. It helps to soften the blow if you get a nice, well described and (hopefully) glorious death scene. I remember one time when after a character of mine had died, the other characters got a orator to speak at his funeral. It was kinda cool having some guy extol the crowd on my characters deeds and accomplishments. Fortunately they politely skiped my characters somewhat unglorious last words "hey guys, I think they have rifles!" (this warning was shortly followed by three successful his two of which were crits, at least they took the warning seriously after that!)
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was once in a game where I was playing a samurai and my friend was playing a ninja. My friends first mission of the game was to assassinate me...That character did't last the first 45 minuts of the game. To be honset I felt a little cheated that time. But, glorious or not, I keep a red folder in house which I call the Honored Dead folder where I keep the sheets of all my dead characters.
Depends mostly on the type of death. There has been good number of deaths which make sense, sometimes resulting from my character's own actions...not all of them particularly heroic (getting shot by another PC who then discreetly buries your corpse in the swamp and steals everything you owned is not heroic, but it was realistic in the context and rather memorable death...and I am first to admit that I am at least partially to blame for that).
When the character dies I make another one. That's how it goes.
I can hardly blame you for not 'handling it well'. I would go mad if my 3rd level character died due to 2 natural 20s in a roll!Last night, my 3rd level dragon shaman was unexpectantly pasted by an orc shaman/barbarian. Two...TWO!...natural 20s in a row. Crit and confirmed. Battle axe...3x damage. Went from 20 to -15.
So, I have to admit here that I do not deal as well with my character getting killed as I would like to. I'm 37, so I would like to think I'm mature enough to say "Ah, shucks. That was fun, though!" and roll up another character. However, I don't. I think I pout quite a bit, actually. And that sort of embarrasses me.
I think the issue is because I haven't had very many characters die in a game. I suppose that one gets used to it after "X" number of character deaths? Also, I tend to invest quite a bit of myself in figuring out how to roleplay said character. Not quite acting, but more of getting into a mindset. And the longer I play that character, the more invested.
So, I'm curious how other folks feel when their beloved character goes below -10.
we used to use a rule that if you scored to natural 20's and a hit your character was killed outright. sadly this meant that one of my friends had his 12th level fighter/mage killed by a very lucky, bog standard hobgoblin... like something from OoTS! poor Mav, he was never the same after that!
Depends mostly on the type of death. There has been good number of deaths which make sense, sometimes resulting from my character's own actions...not all of them particularly heroic (getting shot by another PC who then discreetly buries your corpse in the swamp and steals everything you owned is not heroic, but it was realistic in the context and rather memorable death...and I am first to admit that I am at least partially to blame for that).
When the character dies I make another one. That's how it goes.
My character in AoW was recently killed by Ilthane, fortunately he was raised from the dead again... just when he was getting into his stride as well... i guess it goes to show that you should never think your character is immortal! i also remember in an old 1st ed game i had a fighter character. we were using the natural age of death rules from the DMG, rolled in secret by the DM, and he died at the age of 24! massive heart attack and then run over by the wagon he was riding on... i was not a happy bunny at that but could accept the death of the character to the dragon... i guess as it has been said it all depends on the circumstances.
Last week, sadly, my Age of Worms wizard, Lysander the Younger, bled to death because of failure to locate his body in a crowded inn shrouded in magical darkness. So he died on the floor of a bar after getting stabbed twice.
I was bummed out, for about three whole minutes.
Now we have a rogue and I'm happy again.
sometimes I say oh well, and sometimes I just about cry, and begrudgingly start making a new character. My favorite characters that have died have a special place in my DnD binder. I refuse to throw any character sheet away, so I still have all of my favorite deceased characters *sniff sniff*
But they're so fun to kill! Like that time you looked into a pit full of stirges in Forge of Fury when everyone else heard them and backed away. That was priceless.
I've only lost a character once, an it was in a one-shot (actually it was DMed by Kaliona) so I wasn't very attached to it.My pirate character in RotRL wasn't kille but I did have to retire him after he was bline by an unfortunate crit from Nualia. Maybe he'll return once I have enough money to get some magical eyes.
I'm not as afraid of having a character die as having him die unfulfilled. We roleplayers who roleplay always have complex back stories and personalities for our characters. for example, I once had a half-orc wizard who pretended to be stupid. Everyone else took him for an idiot, so I looked forward to revealing his secret. Then he got killed by a goblin, due to a mistake on the DM's part. All my work wasted on the first encounter!
Needless to say, that ended the campaign.
Last week, sadly, my Age of Worms wizard, Lysander the Younger, bled to death because of failure to locate his body in a crowded inn shrouded in magical darkness. So he died on the floor of a bar after getting stabbed twice.
I was bummed out, for about three whole minutes.
Now we have a rogue and I'm happy again.
In one SpaceMaster game one of the characters was killed by completely random drive-by shooting DM just happened to throw in to set the flavor of the place where we were, unfortunately one of the bullets did very effective "dies instantly" critical hit. All of us players were just so baffled by this that nobody could really react to it. Ah, those SpaceMaster/RoleMaster crit tables...
Another odd character death happened in Ars Magica where number of characters had caught bubonic plague...well, no worries, there was a healer who could deal with it with little effort...except in one case, where the healer did make a big fumble resulting to death of the character. And it was known that the healer and the character who died have never really gotten along, usually being openly hostile to each other, so that got lots of discussion and speculation...
And one time we had a TPK resulting from glorious series of awful fumbles. Nobody minded because everyone was laughing so hard at our unbelievably bad luck with the dice.
I have been lucky in that I have not had to deal with it. More often than not, I GM. Of course this all brings up my point from How Do You Handle Death
If my Black Leaf ever died, I just don't know what I'd do...
Nice!Or as Cosmo frequently notes,
I see what you did there.
...I can't wait til I'm 13 level...
Or is it 9? I can never remember...
I'm assuming Black Leaf died at 7th level (damned poison traps!) as when the session's over Debbie's cleric Elfstar (though in the first panel she's referred to as "Wizard") levels up to 8th.
Tch-tch-tch, poor Marcie...hey, can I have that dragon figure since you're not using it anymore?
- Chris Shadowens
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I'm assuming Black Leaf died at 7th level (damned poison traps!) as when the session's over Debbie's cleric Elfstar (though in the first panel she's referred to as "Wizard") levels up to 8th.
Don't forget, thieves needed fewer experience points to go up levels; it was one of the ways AD&D compensated for the class's poor saving throws and particularly poor hit points.
So, if Elfstar (probably wizard, presuming she's an elf) leveled to 8th, and everyone was receiving the same experience, Black Leaf was probably 9th or 10th level.
that's making a lot of assumptions. Maybe the diabolical Mrs. Frost was manipulating die rolls and trasure split (PC's received experience for treasure, and a lot of DM's divided that experience proportionally to the treasure each character received and kept) through a Satanic "unholy roller" pact.