Death

[Sleazy]

I've become an agreer to this sentiment. I don't think you have to be a hardcore killer, but death's going to happen. I'm going to cause it, though I'm going to try my damndest not to until pushed into a narrative corner. It's going to happen to me, and I'm just going to try and get what I want to do out of the way so I can be at peace with it. (killign swuper)

If it doesn't happen? Coping is part of the process. And brother? I'll boof that copium with all of you.

[Matthew]

(do not tell me when your character died to literally save the world. everyone thinks thats badass. tell me about the time you were noobed)

i will tell you about when my character died to literally save the world, because i think it's really relevant actually!

so, imagine you're playing Eternia 2 and you have this character named Shen. Shen is a Qilin, which to any uninitiated readers are basically magic androids made by Japan-land in order to carry out the Emperor's will. Shen manages to land a spot in an event that is crucial to a certain arc involving an angsty vampire named Malentine who opened a big portal because he hates everyone. you and your allies are tasked with closing this portal to stop these super death wraiths from spilling down the mountainside and killing a bunch of people.

you've performed quite well in this event, managing to roll favorably by the end of the last fight. a very brutal fight, one that is highly lethal and KOs could mean death. but, you know who didn't roll favorably?

one of the attendees of this event who I won't name outright was an older character who had pretty much done everything there is to do. they were basically an old man jedi master who wanted any excuse to kill their character, and they had plans to do it on this very event. and, this was the perfect opportunity for them! they rolled badly, and death was in the cards for them. all they had to do was get eaten by this giga evil monster and say sayonara to us

there was just one small problem though, and it's that there was an opportunity for a save to happen. a sacrifice to save this character. i was interested in performing this save purely for my IC. despite the fact that I arguably had much more to live for, my character pretty viewed himself as beneath humans and in their servitude. from an in-character standpoint, my Qilin wouldn't even hesitate to throw himself in front of that attack. so, i declared my intent in LOOC.

this is where a conflict between IC and OOC arose. the player insisted that i didn't take the hit, and that they really really wanted to die. they were pretty much begging me not to take their perfect end from them. and, i took the sacrifice. OOCly against their wishes, my character threw himself in front of that attack. i typed my death RP, and it was over for Shen.

the player who was meant to die was very upset about this. upset to the point of refusing to post an RP for the rest of the event, not even acknowledging Shen's death. and, i felt really bad about it. conflicted, too. on one hand, i had one of the best, most heart-wrenching deaths i'd ever written. and on the other hand, i had the fact that i stole that moment from someone else. looking back on it now, i don't even know if i did the right thing. was following my IC worth ruining someone's night? it is, without a doubt, the choice my character would have made 100% of the time. there's no questioning that.

i guess what i'm saying is, OOC can really sour these kinds of moments! i don't know how that player feels looking back on it, but i still feel bad for doing what i did. but, i also look fondly on the death at the same time. it's this really weird moment that i can't ever forget. i hope he forgives me

[Konaa]

i've had issues getting too attached to my rp game characters from the very beginning of my time in this genre

this is why Faolan is the way he is and if/when he dies it'll just feel like he did his job. of course he still hasn't...somehow.

[InThePooPoo]

ill kill all of you

[Sandshark]

Death is a consequence. It is, in fact, the only consequence. 'Permanent' nerfs do not exist. 'Pain' cannot be felt. 'Trauma' is ephemeral. There are some writers that are able to have a living, growing character that changes fluidly. Not all do, however.

When people write, more often they are writing concepts rather then characters. They are writing true to their concept, don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day someone who goes 'I want to play an evil wizard' isn't going to, likely, want to write a redemption arc. They're going to play their evil wizard. There's no much you can do, IC or OOC, to stop that. If they stop wanting to play their evil wizard, they're going to make a new character.

If there is no death, there are no risks and consequences to the world. It is hard to feel threatened if there are no threats, mind, and if there are no threats then there are no stakes. We can hem and haw about it on an IC level but fundamentally if nobody is threatened with a change to their character then it's carte blanche to do whatever.

I disagree with this and I think almost every EM actually does, whether they'll admit it or not. Dying on someone's random event sucks ass, but the chance of death is used as a crutch to justify giving out major items or materials on some events but not others. In Eternia it was widely joked that CoD events only existed for some people, because most DMs didn't kill. For the ones who did, people sometimes brought "sacrificial" allies who were there to die to justify the items they got, which is obviously not ok.

Here even though your death rolls are set, there's still great leeway in the challenge of an encounter so EMs do control whether someone dies in an event. Some people complain it doesn't happen enough but I really don't get that.

Instead, wouldn't it be simpler if people could fail? Not getting what you want is a much more meaningful OOC consequence than getting what you want at the cost of someone else's character.

Negative story consequences like unleashing an evil onto the world or temporarily or permanently closing off an avenue for your character's progress towards a thing is more meaningful than someone else dying, and just as meaningful as your character dying.

I do think there should be a real chance of death on major world arcs, since dying to save the world is a cool ending for a character and the stakes justify it, but normal events shouldn't (and almost never do in practice) have that risk.

[Bruce]

you guys are just not dying enough time to fix this

[Konaa]

oh if we're sharing stories of when we got shitty deaths can i go ahead and say one that still bothers me?

so in spires (you know it's gonna be good) i played for my second character a shitkid edgelord swordsman named noda. people who know my style know i don't really like killing or even antagonizing people beyond wisecracks so that might seem out of character but he was very oblivious in a way i found fun. he was an ambitious swordsman of the dark wind but he could kick it with his friends and have a drink.

i wandered up into enemy territory looking for a fight and got killed. that, in itself, isn't bad. i'll say i don't think this was 'grime' per say - anyways, i got called out and went "okay let's go have ourselves a fight." the vibe was very "you're under arrest." in fact as I lost I had them and an onlooker in OOC assure me that I wasn't going to be killed. i thought okay this should be fun they're gonna try to convert me to the jianghu lifestyle.

then another character who was a wrath sin working for the "righteous" jianghu walked up, and whitetexted about how i needed to be executed immediately. then they did, after posting about how sorry for themselves it made them feel. whomp whomp.

...then a bit later I found out the guy who beat me was bug abusing so yeah it was grime. twist ending. that sucked

[misposition]

I got noobed by someone here but in spires. Was about 40 rpl below them, got scouted, cap'd, killed on site I dont hold it against them nor am I mad at them for it.

I believe in realism when playing rp games. And that comes with, although still getting attached to characters, learning how to cope with death, and how it helps the other end of the stick, even if they dont gain significant advantage in IC. There is something that I've done that warranted it. Many will disagree because its not worth losing something you've invested so much time into for naught but..

Such is life. And you are likely to be dying in a cirumstance that you shouldn't be getting yourself into. High Fae and Demons are good examples. If you are out trying to beat the crap out of them and somehow lose? Id write down death as a possibility and think twice (but thats me).

[ry0un0suke]

Speaking of Spires, I was killed by a Roomy character as some noobie crafter. Honestly boycott Roomy.

[bubu]

...then a bit later I found out the guy who beat me was bug abusing so yeah it was grime.  twist ending.  that sucked

it was me lol
my claw was hitting 20k it was fun