I feel strongly enough about character death that I won't play games in which the GM is willing to kill off characters randomly through the luck of the dice. My character is my contribution to a group story. Sometimes it is best for the story for characters in it to die, but it should, like in any story, make dramatically satisfying sense when they do. I'm known (and teased often) about voluntarily doing really evil things to my characters' lives, including killing them off on purpose in dramatic fashions, but I don't want it done without my participation in the storywriting process, or in a way which doesn't give me anything fun out of it. And my character reacts, when death approaches, as if they have only one life and it's going to go away now. Sometimes that means terror, sometimes it means a blaze of radiant determination and self-sacrifice, sometimes it means the sweet anticipation of heaven, sometimes it means sunken apathy when everything else is gone anyway, sometimes they're too busy thinking about the job they're doing and before they can spot what's coming, they're gone. Depends on the situation and the character.
That doesn't mean I expect the GM to give me leeway to do any damnfool thing I want and still have my character live through it. As a GM myself, I usually serve notice at the beginning of a campaign that I will kill off PCs under two conditions: the player's desire, or persistent gross stupidity in the face of warning. I try hard to craft my statements about the situation so that players (and preferably also characters) will grasp when a course of action is suicidal and stay away from it; when all else fails I have been known to say flatly, "You can try that if you want but I honestly do not see a realistic way to have your character survive the experience."
From the player's end, sometimes those warnings give me a dilemma. There are characters I've played who, even if *I* don't especially want them killed, would not be smart enough or cautious enough to stay out of the clearly suicidal situations. Usually if I'm desperate to keep the character I'll ask the GM's help in figuring out an excuse, but otherwise I'll just say, "He's going in anyway. Yeah, I know, I know. If you kill him on this one I won't kick about it." Then it's up to the GM.
The flip side is also often true -- a character of mine is more cautious, being sensibly careful of their skin and not being aware that there is a GM who is looking out for their survival if they're even plausibly rational, than is convenient for me in the quest to get them involved in a juicy and entertaining adventure. Again, I usually ask the GM for help "baiting the trap," finding some reason why my character would want or need to go in despite caution, or would not see it as quite as dangerous as it is.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-07-27 03:34 pm (UTC)That doesn't mean I expect the GM to give me leeway to do any damnfool thing I want and still have my character live through it. As a GM myself, I usually serve notice at the beginning of a campaign that I will kill off PCs under two conditions: the player's desire, or persistent gross stupidity in the face of warning. I try hard to craft my statements about the situation so that players (and preferably also characters) will grasp when a course of action is suicidal and stay away from it; when all else fails I have been known to say flatly, "You can try that if you want but I honestly do not see a realistic way to have your character survive the experience."
From the player's end, sometimes those warnings give me a dilemma. There are characters I've played who, even if *I* don't especially want them killed, would not be smart enough or cautious enough to stay out of the clearly suicidal situations. Usually if I'm desperate to keep the character I'll ask the GM's help in figuring out an excuse, but otherwise I'll just say, "He's going in anyway. Yeah, I know, I know. If you kill him on this one I won't kick about it." Then it's up to the GM.
The flip side is also often true -- a character of mine is more cautious, being sensibly careful of their skin and not being aware that there is a GM who is looking out for their survival if they're even plausibly rational, than is convenient for me in the quest to get them involved in a juicy and entertaining adventure. Again, I usually ask the GM for help "baiting the trap," finding some reason why my character would want or need to go in despite caution, or would not see it as quite as dangerous as it is.