Discussion: Killing Characters

[ImagenAshyun]

When do I kill (your) characters? That's up to you entirely. I tend to not have the heart to kill any character unless I know, for sure, the player is okay or supportive of the notion without me having to toss a CW. I killed off two player characters this way, in events, to show how dangerous the whole situation was. That was fun. I'm always very open to kill off characters, either due to heroics or stupidity (both occurred). It's very fulfilling because everyone wins (even the players whose characters were bumped off).



When do I kill MY characters? Well... I'm fairly certain my view will be unpopular. And that's fine. Everyone has their own opinions, and I accept, validate, and support others. But these views are mine. When do I kill my own characters? Whenever I'm done with them.

In the context of World of Warcraft and Conquest of the Horde roleplay, I try to keep my characters as long as I am able to or when the surrounding players are willing to let go. If I'm not done with the character, and rules allow it, I do hope for a resurrection to occur. This is mostly due to unfinished storylines that I don't want to leave hanging or abandoned, especially if they're storylines I'm not DMing and my help/involvement is needed. While I support sudden and realistic deaths... as a writer, who uses writer and storytelling conventions in RP, I tend to demand or ask a little suspension of disbelief if I'm not willing to kill the character prematurely.

Perhaps I would be clear if I gave examples. All of the below has actually happened:

Kapre: He was involved with three stories that I am not directly leading--Heart of Evil (CappnRob), the Draenei Pilgrimage (Bovel), and the romance with Xanthe (free-form story with Caravan)--when he was killed seemingly randomly (by Barregis, played by Zenethen). Would anyone be in favor of this death? IC, they have no choice. OOC, no one was pleased; even I think Zenethen regretted the move. This is a situation where, as a writer, I'd have to think of a saving throw. Thankfully, resurrection is possible for WoW, and I used the death to forward Kapre's development (his weakening strength against spirits as a spirit walker).

Urameil: He actually died twice, but the first death was decidedly de-canonized thanks to the 2011 restart and rewritten resurrection rules ("You cannot resurrect a character you had your own alt kill off"). The second death, however, remained canon (by Dalikan, again by Zenethen. Dammit, Zenethen, what do you have against me? ). In this case, the resurrection was out of my control and decided by Doran's friends, as he died at the same time by then (not sure if SachikoMaeda kept the death canon). I accepted merely because Urameil was still involved with another story I'm not directing: Song of the Sun, by CappnRob. Urameil is a major character in that story, so to kill him off permanently would leave the story unrealized.

Kogan: Okay, he didn't actually die, but there was a situation where I neither could save him nor did I plan the move that nearly crushed him. In one of the final events in Two Birds with One Stone, the original plan was (an admittedly cookie-cutter) for the heroes to fall for a trap and for them to outsmart the bad guys and capture them. However, Matthew didn't fall for the trap at all (damn genre savvies!), forcing me to be a bit more creative. While I'm happier with these results, it did nearly kill Kogan: Kogan was almost crushed by a collapsing mine. Because, however, I was directing the event, I was DMing the enemy, and Kogan was my character, the results could have had me unintentionally killing off my character prematurely (he's the only character who wasn't written for the story event chain--I'd actually be more okay if Kitson was the one who was crushed). In this case, I had to ask the advice of GMs before his death was confirmed. I had to pull a fast one where he had a bubble of air that prevented crushing his head, but his legs were nearly demolished and had difficulty breathing. I ended up throwing an impromptu event to save his bum, which extended the story a little more. It felt needless for a "final draft" story, but it's an element I couldn't leave hanging.


By far, the two characters I've permakilled: Blanche and Bastos. Blanche, she was killed because, despite being fun, she was more an obstruction to RP than a complimentary addition; thus, one of the Black Harvest (I forget who) simply killed her on the spot. Bastos, I constructed his death as a means of permanent retirement; despite being super fun for myself and other players, he was exhausting, stagnant in character development, and his story was going nowhere. In that case, I was more than willing to end his story and let it carry through someone else.


I suppose, this sort of means of discretion regarding death, is the reason why a majority of my characters are still alive. Quite frankly, before their stories were picked up and players have plead for their lives, I was very willing to kill off a majority of my characters by Cataclysm, which included Kapre, Kantado, Tibalan, Dino, Urameil, and so forth, to make room for Cata characters. The only one I ended up killing is Bastos. Huh.


TL;DR: I kill off my characters permanently when I'm done with them. I do kill them off. Until then, I suspend disbelief (and hope others too) in the amount of abuse they go through. When their time is up, realistic means do apply--rocks to the temple, stabs in the heart, pillows to the face will do. They don't need anything big. Just complete.

[muhaha8]

When do I kill my own characters? Whenever I'm done with them.

This summarizes my opinions, really. When I feel the character isn't providing anything, and I can't bring myself to RP that character anymore, it's usually time for retirement. While only once has that been through a perma-death (the likes of Aulten), it happens eventually for every character I've made.

[Rowgen]

I personally blend between many viewpoints here. In the case of some characters, I retire them with some excuse if I don't feel like they have anything more to contribute. Some are left with a brief note of whatever happened to them, and others are killed. In the case of some characters, I have big plans I want to see through before I see them die. I don't exactly try to plan the deaths of my characters to minute detail (in most cases), but in other cases . . . I feel that killing off or otherwise removing the character from roleplay permanently can have a desirable effect on the people they leave behind - the loose ends.

I don't particularly care too much about whether this character or that has survived tricky situations where they maybe should've died . . . But I don't want my characters' deaths to be pointless. I don't want them to randomly fall over in the street without anyone to mourn them or perhaps even take joy in that happening. I want their deaths to have an effect, to mean something, to someone.

[Loxmardin]

I'm personally very wary of a permanent end to any of my characters unless I feel that I had a choice in it.

Ultimately, the RP is supposed to be fun for everyone involved. I appreciate death as something very important to the characters and I'd hate to trivialize it by brushing it off, but at the same time... I come from a time on CotH where character death was exceedingly common and ganking wasn't so much a thing of legend. Character Warnings haven't been seriously enforced here until pretty recently and there was a lot of drama spawned out of death scenarios and people who couldn't dodge their characters dying in vain. Not to mention, you were only ever allowed one resurrection at the time. After that, you were done. The character was gone.

It grinded many stories to a halt. Death is often swift and unexpected, especially when someone is involved who's just especially murderous. There are plenty of those characters around. I'm completely fine with character death normally, but I'm not so fond of a storyline being interrupted by a chance encounter. Granted, these are few and far between these days thanks to the CW system we have, but nonetheless my stance has been influenced greatly by what I've seen before the system was enforced and the resurrection policy was rewritten.

This is also one of the reasons I couldn't play on Prologue back then. I know others appreciate that kind of play style, but the thought of nowhere being completely safe for you and anyone having the power to beat you down and kill you for good, no questions asked, didn't appeal to me in the slightest. We are the masters of our own characters, in the end. No one should have any power over you unless you give it to them (either through consent or direct provocation).

Pointless deaths are just that; pointless. They trivialize our characters in the larger scheme and remove them from the center of their own stories. If a death comes along that makes sense to me, I'll still accept it. I will fight tooth and nail to prevent it if I can, but I'll accept it if there's no way around it and I can make something fun and memorable out of the scene itself. Then I'll start looking at resurrection options, if I feel the character isn't done yet or there's a reasonable possibility that the body would be taken care of from there. Death and it's aftermath are very interesting to me, and add a lot to my roleplay.

Permanent death comes in when there's no viable options available to resurrect the character again. No friends, all alone in the wild... Whichever. I rarely use it as a means to retire a character permanently. Retirement's a separate thing altogether for me, although I suppose a permanently dead character counts as "retired".

That said, I don't actually have many permanently dead characters. Yah'zka, a Troll of mine, died. I don't intend on resurrecting her. She's dead and will stay dead. Resurrection was not an option for her and the story surrounding her had a pretty good ending as it was. No need to push it any further; those who cared for her had their development as a result of her death and I'd hate to trivialize this.

... Ramble ramble.

I'll shut up now.

[McKnighter]

I personally don't care for the well being of my characters. I will eagerly let them become severely injured or die if the situation calls for it. Generally, the only exception I make is if I require that character to stay healthy for other planned things. For some reason, I feel like there isn't enough characters being severely harmed in combat situations. It just feels weird when a group stomps through a combat heavy event and chuckles are had at the end while healing up every wound like it was nothing. It's my gritty side getting the better of me, so whenever I'm playing what I consider a 'expendable' character, I normally allow deadly attacks to be such. Perhaps I'm just a stuck up elitist or something, but I find it fun for myself.

Redis and Tana have been my death prone characters, and for both they were killed because of their own actions, which I love.

Redis died because he was a freaky Necromancer that pissed off a Demon Hunter then started a huge battle in a lawless island. Then he ended up killing himself so he could be raised as an undead because his body couldn't handle the two deaths. Finally, a certain priestess he was dogging after put him to rest. For good..? He came back for a short while, crashing weddings and ended up getting his head chopped off. Only then did he finally -die-. Redis was my most dynamic character, one of my favorite, but it came a time where he needed to be retired.

Tana was a little different. At first, she died due to overdosing on goblin drugs in my attempt to retire her. I ended up bringing her back though where she died in the Realm of Shadows to be used for a warlock ritual(she didn't warrant it, but she ended up being the odd elf out). Finally, being brought back with amnesia and other various conditions, a pair of Death Knights ambushed her, dragged her off and murdered her in cold blood. After all of this, she was brought back to be a crippled, mentally unstable henchman for Redis, ended up being freed from his grasp and ended up dying a short while afterward, when her body refused to go on.

I love using death as a plot developer, and I don't mind it happening to my characters. All I ask, though, is that any character that is the murderous type, readily accept your fate if the time comes. Nothing bothers me more when a player is quick to kill other characters, yet pulls OOC into protecting his/her own if they get 'caught' or lose a fight. Character warnings goes both ways.

[Rowgen]

I always issue two-way character warnings, as a rule. Unless it's an event, in which there kinda is no need to issue a character warning towards NPCs . . .

(On the note of pain and injury, I'm all for it. I actively try to make some of my characters' lives miserable. )

[Alpharius]

Agreed with Rowgen. I gave my character a busted face just because I thought it would improve his image and look. Missing teeth? Hell yes! Replace those bastards with metal. Horrible scars? Yep! Give em three right across the face! How bout a bit of his ear missing! You bet! Hell I may chop off a finger next.

I've had em beaten up tossed around punched kicked sliced burned... cuz why the hell not? They're tough, they can handle it!

Although I still need to address the issue of Asgrends ear having fallen off... hmmm...

(On a side note... Lord Pigtails huh? Mkay then!)

[Duraza]

I think death is a really confusing topic because we are in conflict between what is narratively correct and what is enjoyable for a game.

If you think about a story death can be a very meaningful plot device and really enhance the world, the other characters, etc (just read Anski's post). From a writer's perspective you often make bad things happen to characters to reveal who they really are and making someone significant die truly will reveal what kind of person other characters are.

But from a gamer's perspective when do you ever actually die in a game? Others die and mechanics make it so you die but get reborn. A game removes you from death so you can continue trudging on through the story for two reasons. First, it's fun and the fun ends when your character is no longer alive. Second, because your character is the main character. Death and pain may happen around your character, but that's solely to reveal his/her inner traits as they advance on. In any game you are the main character, even if there are higher storylines and more important figures. Your actions make an impact so until your storyline reaches its dramatic conclusion, death for your character isn't sensible.

I think the contention over death comes from these competing views. Roleplaying is an act of group story telling as much as it is an act of individual gaming. We are the side-characters for others as well as the main characters in our own narratives. Depending on which view is your dominant you come up with a different conception for how character death should be treated and how your character's should die.

That said, I do think there is a right time to die, however I wanted to make sure it was clear I'm most likely being influenced by my desire to treat rp as a narrative rather than a game. So I have an opinion I stick to with my characters, however I wouldn't prescribe a wrong or right because, you know, different strokes for different folks.

[Nightharrow]

I am also one of those players that does not mind my characters being harmed if they are in a situation that may harm them to begin with. As for heals being tossed about like rock salt? Coming from a table top stand point I can get behind healing spells working miracles. However, I think the healer should and would be exhausted. Digression aside though, more consequences are always a good thing. I have killed characters in the past and will do so again in the future. The only character I currently play on CoTH that I would absolutely refuse to kill is Poyvida. She's one of those travel with ya characters and none of her incarnations have been killed.

Character death can open doors to some great progression for you and the characters your character knew. As someone else already kind of mentioned, if your character's death doesn't leave loose ends then what purpose is your character serving alive? It might be interesting to ask yourself this when considering some of your characters.

BIG BUT incoming: When it comes to another character killing my character though? I am very selective and careful about allowing this to be done. It is not because I do not want my character to die, it's because I do not want my character's death to be an ego boost for another player. The thought and time I put into my creations are worth more to me than a trigger happy player's jollies.

[Kimaira]

Typically, in a hostile situtation, I find character deaths common. This is Warcraft afterall, and if character warning has been given and fight ensues; I expect the losing part to be at the mercy of the other player. At least in my case, all my characters who have passed away have met violent deaths and I have accepted that. One can always make a new one if necessary.