This is obviously something tightly related to the genre of the game, but killing characters is always going to be a delicate subject.
If there is no risk of the characters actually being hurt and killed, then the combat/action has a really hard time being challenging or interesting. If the risk of PCs being killed is great then it's likely that eventually somebody's going to get killed. Then what?
I am very interested in everybody's views on this. Is it "Oh God, don't you dare think about killing my character" or "I brought plenty of character sheets, let the dice fall where they may"?
For example, I've never had a character of mine killed. Pretty close on several occasions, but never actually killed. I'm undecided as to if this has more to do with my playing style or my GMs' storytelling styles. As a game runner, I find that I resist the temptation to kill my PCs, and if the dice show that the badguy would kill a PC outright, I tend to go easy on him and shave enough to let him survive if he acts wisely. RPGs are about drama and storytelling for me, and a story is almost impossible to tell if you have to keep changing the lead characters.
__________________
Welcome to the culture of cynicism, where doubt is better than knowledge, sarcasm outweighs reason, and the only real sin is faith in anything.
Some entire campaigns can go by without the PCs getting more than nicked. Other times, it takes two or three parties to make it through the story. It just... depends. I don't think of it as something I do, but rather, something that happens.
Most times I will never fudge rolls or damage, but instead will just try to make sure the situation fits the characters. This way people really don't die unless they're being really dumb. However, if someone did something stupid enough to get themselves killed I would have something interesting happen to let them live (if it works well with the story) or let them die (if it was just really that bad).
However, in a grittier game I would simply let the bullets (or arrows) fall were they may... I'd make sure they knew what they were getting into by the tone of the game.
Anybody coming to one of my horror games knows not to estimate their chances of character survival higher than 50% or so, even lower under some scenarios.
In "heroic" genres, I'll generally fudge (knock character unconscious, render them comatose, cripple them, etc, instead of killing them outright) unless the death is part of a highly dramatic scene like a story arc climax or unless I sense that the player won't mind taking whatever the dice dish out.
Personally I RARELY kill a player character... it has happened on very few occations and is usually remedied in some way. On the other hand at least 4 time's Ive had players kill each other... and it only get's better each time.
The only way to effectively pull this off is a white wolf approach... make each player think that the story is not about the story teller, a specific npc or even the band of heroes. The story is centered around your specific character. Repeat for each one of the players and you end up with some very extreme group dinamics where they roleplay without ever thinking twice or looking back... kinda like "lord of the flies".
__________________
Javier
"My English, she’s not so good. I meant to say I did it out of malicious intent. "
I've run games where the characters were all the heroes, like in a movie. While I might put a character in the hospital or temple (For you fantasy D&D type gamers), I'd never kill them unless they intentionally did something dramatically stupid and glaringly obviously suicidal. Or appropriatley dramatic.
And then I've GMed games (Cyberpunk 2020 comes to mind, heh heh.) where the PCs are fair game, and making it though the night isn't my responsibility, it's theirs.
I usually tell the players when I'm GMing for keeps, just so they know to mind their step and watch their 6'es.
People kill people.
Or rather, monsters kill characters.
If the players get into a situation where the roll of a single die can be the death of their character, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. (This often can't be avoided in DnD with all those instant death effects, save or die, so DnD is broken in that respect (and many others too))
They should always be able to avoid such situations, and, knowing the DM/GM/ST will not have any qualms about letting characters die (again, GMs don't KILL characters. They just don't save their sorry asses when they do something silly).
And, in some cases, rolling isn't even needed.
If character A is holding a 9mm to character B's temple and pulls the trigger, A is DEAD. No save, no matter that 'a nine mil only does d4 mortal', slug in brain = death.
And if you taunt someone to give you their best shot/stab/slash and don't even dodge or anything, don't be surprised if your guts are spilling and you're dying, no dice rolled, no matter how many HP you have, guts on floor through deft application of shortsword = death.
In some cases, extreme bad luck can kill characters in situations that should be cakewalks (and there is no bad judgement on and then fudging is at the GM's discretion. I would.
As a Marshal for Deadlands, I killed the entire Posse on the very first mission we played. I've subsequently lost several more PC's in Deadlands but as the players (and myself) learned the game I think they realized how better to survive.
I look at it like this, PC's actions have consequences. If the result of PC action caused the death(s) then it should stick. If some other action, not by the PC, something out of their control causes a death, I'll usually fudge the result. But I reserve the right to change my mind on this "rule" if its dramatically appropriate.
As a player I've never had a character die on me. But when I make an action, I live by the consequences.
In games where death is just a more severe form of hurt (say dnd games after 9th level) i really don't worry too much about it. i try and make the deaths more traumatic but its really not a "loss of primary character issue. Instead, i add an afterlife scene between the time of raising and the time of demise. In this scene i try and run some very personal interaction with people or places already dead and to give the character an actual quandry about whether or not to come back. i also like to give each character an opportunity to have change come about. Finally, within the game world the religious types following the death gods and goddesses play a role later. Some sects believe those who have died and come back are special and their having been "cradled in the hands of the goddess" gives them insights. They seek out raised individuals to recruit them and teach them how to use their new insights. (I add in special feats with prereq beginning with "been dead and got better.) other cults believe those brought back by other gods are an abomination, an insult in the face of the true goddess of death and seek these raised people out and try and kill them.
So, when death is not permanent, i still try and make it more than just a more difficult wound to cure and make it be a story CREATING element rather than a story ending element.
**************
In games where death is more or less permanent, I find the threat of death to be much more useful than the actuality of death. As long as the players understand their character CAN die and that it wont be a good thing, they will try to avoid it. Will i fudge dice or on the fly alter scenarios to keep them alive? Sure. Will i ever let them rely on or expect this? No. heck, maiming is a lot more interesting than killing, and captured scenes play well too.
I don't think I've ever had a PC die off in a game I was running. But then, the tension didn't come from the threat of death in combat. I've had PCs who would have been shot if they'd been found out, and thus the tension was from them trying very hard not to be discovered, and I've had PCs who were desperately trying to save someone else, or who needed to keep the military from investigating something in the neighborhood, or who wanted to keep a friend safe...
But I've never really tried to threaten PCs directly in combat. Since the death of the PC would mean losing all the time and background and emotional investment in that character, it wouldn't be worth it to me for what value I could get out of the threat; and if I'm not actually willing to kill a PC in combat, I'm not going to try to imply that I would.
Linear Mode
