Have you ever had a character die in game?

I think the most fun death for me to write was back when I was transitioning from table-top to online a few years ago. This character of mine started as a hybrid of some custom race my DM has designed and of a drow. Raised by a sentient Warg and brother to a Wyvern runt, the kid grew up to be my first Epic hero. During the course of his campaign, his father-wolf died at the hands of a Deep Dragon and a Drow who was like him - a halfblood. By the luck of the dice and fine story-telling, my half-drow survived.

Fast forward .. several months. He saves the entirety of a continent from civil war, turns down a normal life (wed to a human noble, no less) and chooses anonymity. I write and program a simple 2D platformer with him as the main character and end up deciding that the story told in the game is canon for him. So here's this amazing half-blood, but he never got the closure he sought for his father.

When he returns home, however, he find that the world is threatened by a new menace and his brother has allied with a giant dragon to the North, who just happened to be at war with the essence of all Deep Dragons - a magic-feeding Black to the South. The dialogue I wrote for this scene was fun, barbs traded back and forth. I leave the ending ambiguous, however. I just might pick Feather boy up again, some day.

 

No not really. if anything they 'disappear'

 

Yes I have. Several temporary characters that I had intended to die, kind of sad when you get to love them.

Then there is Cate, my main OC who I have been playing in various Stargate RPG's for almost 6 years now. In my own forum RPG, I've had her die twice. The first time in a huge battle, after which if you are familiar with Stargate SG1, she spent six months in the Ascension Cafe with her father, then she came back just like Daniel Jackson. Then more recently she was dead once again after another battle with yet another horrible enemy and she was revived in a Goa'uld Sarcophagus. Her first words to her teammates..."I did it again didn't I?"

 

I've killed off characters before. It was sad but a necessary part of advancing the plot. I wouldn't kill anyone off just from boredom... too much work has gone into them.

 

Oh lordie. So many. xD I kill my characters off if the story dictates, if that was the plot point I was working towards, or at a whim - a lot of times, I'll make characters I pretend to have mains with their end already in mind. My members have nearly killed me for it before! x

 

I have had several, the most recent was a reincarnation I tried to do of a previous character but she didn't turn out the same and so she was murdered for the progression of a plot. Was fun, sad, all those feelings.

 

I've given blanket permission to a game Mod before to kill any character I played if they proved to be a moron.

 

We played Chronicles of Darkness: Werewolf last summer and my pack was the slight underdog in a territory skirmish with some trespassing Pures. My Storm Lord caused a chain of death rage that ultimately sealed the victory, but he lost more HP in Death Rage than he actually had in his human form.

That is to say, my werewolf was very briefly fighting while he was "dead."

 

Several, but I've done tons of tougher D&D sites before. Comes with the territory!

 

I play mostly baddies/madmen/both at once so I always see losing a baddie as counting, definitely. But I also always allow for a way to have them return in some way or at some point in time -

but to answer the original question yes I have had many of my characters die over the years, sometimes in pretty terrible ways. Boring deaths are ... well, boring xD

 

It would be fun for us to post the events of these deaths don't you think?

 

I'm that evil author that likes to spread a character's roots into the deepest corners of a site and then yank them away. >:)
Deaths for me are usually plot-driven. If it seems the natural course, I won't fight it! It is admittedly easier to kill off an evil tyrant who seriously has it coming than the sweetheart char who's just in the wrong place at the wrong time, though...

 

You mean how they died or the actual scene post? Well, mine died mostly in battles. Some executed after a mutiny.

 

Oh, maybe the actual post, or a summary there of :D

This was our post season write up


Time was growing short. The Eldari leader, Sunniva Guorun after so much delay, finally brought together a coalition. But would it matter in the end. A race was now on to secure Cate MacGregor, the Hozgura were after her, as was the El Aenir. Cate herself after the tragedy of losing her husband went into hiding, something that no one knew why, it simply wasn’t like her. But she had her reasons. At home she left no trace; yet the Eldari knew exactly where to find her. Cate could have pleaded temporary insanity; Sunniva found her in the mountains, high in the snow fields, alone. It didn’t take much for the Eldari guardian to convince Cate to go with her. Strangely, Cate told the strange woman she was waiting for her and knew exactly where to be.

The opposing forces met on the frozen fields of Asculae Tena. There were hundreds of thousands of them on either side. For the Alliance, the Tauri, Eldari, Goa’uld, Free Jaffa, many of their allied worlds and strangely, the El Aenir pushed the Revenant in as well. On the other side was the Hozgura Horde, probably close to a million of them if not more. The battle began sharply, nothing was said on either side, just the sound of weapons and people dying in the multitudes. All with one aim. For the Alliance, see that Cate MacGregor was protected and she gained the Temple above high on a snowy plateau; for the Hozgura, the same. Their leader Razgul, had the ability to take control of a weapon that would turn the Universe to his making, Cate had the same to stop him. While the battle raged below, those two made their way to the top, Razgul thinking in his arrogance, that this mere human woman would be like clay in his hands. But little did he know that the undead King, would be as mortal as his opponent once he stepped through the arches of the Temple. The ancient device within his grasp, he lunged at Cate with his black blade; Catherine was not unprepared, the Eldari had given her one their own two edged swords, which she used to good effect. It was a fight to the death, yet Cate knew if she lost; everything would be.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, the numbers of the Hozgura proved to be more than the allies had bargained for. With almost every SG team from Earth leading huge forces of the alliance, even with heavy artillery support, they were constantly being pushed back towards an ice covered lake. Heroes were made that day and many medals would be issued; but that did not make up for the numbers they lost and kept on losing. Several times the Eldari shock troops, surged forward, Sunniva yelling bloody oaths but to no avail. It was at that moment when all seemed lost; Baelor Devaucht of the Pegasus Eldari appeared with hundreds of women behind him. A large portal had been opened upon an opposing hill, and behind the women, thousands upon thousands of horsemen, heavy cavalry; their lances used like scythes through chaff. A roaring cheer went up around the survivors of the Alliance and a final push was made that turned the tide. SG1, with Cam, Teal'c, Daniel and Vala were as always at the forefront of the battle and when their weapons were expended, blades were taken up from fallen El'Dari.

Within the temple grounds a savage fight went on between the Tauri woman and the Hozgura Warlord. Both were cut in so many places, it was inevitable they would die soon enough from their wounds unless one of the reached the Weapon of Eternity. With all her remaining strength, Cate took one last lunge in a slashing movement. To her surprise Razgul merely stepped backwards, but tripped. That was her moment; she raced for the weapon and activated the four blue panels in a sequence told to her in a dream, which seemed long ago. The world turned; a great blue white beam shot up from the device; Cate disappeared in a vapor, as did Razgul only his was an inky black. The Hozgura forces finally collapsed and the strangest thing happened, the snow and ice disappeared, to be replaced with lush forests and fields of flowers.

That was the end. The Allies went their own way once again. Some would be enemies again, some would stay allies. Back on Earth now, the Stargate Command counted the butchers bill. More than half their SG teams were gone. The Odyssey, Saggitta and Deadalus, backed up by three of their new small cruisers won the day in the battles above the planet, along with allied ships, most especially those of the Eldari Vanir; it was from their mighty ships that the tide was turned. But they too, did not escape unharmed. Every surviving member of the SGC that went to that last fight, was mentioned for bravery. Outstanding names would be remembered, there were simply so many of them. Yet the perplexing thing remained, what happened to Cate? Officially she was listed as MIA, as both her mother and husband, refused to believe she was dead.

Six months later, July 30th 2011; Admiral Sean Davidson was reorganizing the SG teams. He had a heavy workload and wasn’t in a mood to argue as the newly promoted Captain Robert Hughes asked once again if he could return to the planet and search for clues.

 

The boatswain, that everybody except Antoine Lemieux knew under the name of Jacques Fresne, was looking at his mate, at his son, with approval. The lad was learning. He was getting better at mastering the art of being obeyed by the sailors.

On his side, Jacque was barking his orders to the riggers, to work quicker and better. Claude, afraid of the man, hurried to pull a line through a block and it fell back, hitting Jacque in the face. The boatswain cursed, rubbing the painful place, and, in a fit of rage, climbed the few spars separating him from the offender.

"How do you dare to do it to me? Youll pay dearly, sacre fils de chienne!" he shouted, punching him in the face, while still holding tight with the other hand.

The lad, shocked by what had happened, and frightened, already trembling in waiting his punishment, was caught unprepared by the bear fist landing in his face, so he lost balance completely, falling on the deck. Elouan, a yard farther, arrived too late to be able to do anything for the Little Fish. But his enemy, the boatswain, was there, looking at him with injected eyes, all his concentrated rage seemed on the verge of bursting into incandescence.

"Go back to your work! There is nothing to see here!" Jacque said, wanting to get down. "This lad never learnt to pay attention to his work. He had an accident before, its not the first one but probably his last one. A weak breed, nothing to build on," he added, convinced that everybody would say the same thing.

It had been merely a work accident, and the lad had been in sickbay before, he was prone to accidents. What investigation could prove anything different? But Elouan had seen what had happened, and he was seething, at his turn. The Breton faced the enraged boatswain unflinching, snarling, unafraid, his eyes launching back poisonous flames to the Provensal.

"No, it was not an accident. You have thrown him down, I saw it, and I think there are other witnesses too. This time, the acting captain will learn more about your ways to behave with the men and especially with the ship boys and younger sailors."

He was shouting loud enough to be heard by all the sailors around, and a few approved.

"Who knows if other work accidents involving people whom he disliked had been genuine or not?" another said now, that he felt supported by the other riggers.

Jacque didn't believe them. He knew the officers wouldn't either. It was a warrant officer's word against the dirty sailors.

"Shut up, you bastard! Everybody, go back to your work, or I'll trim your dirty hides!"

As Elouan was the closest to him, he raised the hand to strike him, more or less like he had done with the unfortunate lad to whom he didnt spare a glance to see if he was still moving or not. This was the best opportunity to take his revenge on the damn Breton. He had buried better men than this one.

And the confirmation came from the deck, for who was able to pay attention to what happened below them. Somebody went to look at Claude, and he shouted:

"Little Fish is dead! He broke his neck falling from the rigging!"

Elouan was stubborn and full of hate. He had liked the young Claude, who had been under his care. He was sick of the boatswain's hatred and abuse. And, more than everything, he remembered that he had been the one who had ordered Armelle's attack.

"Yes? The same way you have done it to Armelle, because she is my fiancée? Bad choice from your part; we got engaged anyway and I am not going to leave her just because you wanted it to", he hissed, raising his own fist as a guard, and deflecting the man's blow.

It was a fight between two men with a close age gap between them, only that one was better fed than the other - but the better fed one had also his body weakened by an addiction to opium.

"So what if you got engaged to her? Not the first, nor the last woman to mourn for her betrothed!" Jacque replied, as he fought back, intending to throw him from the rigging as he had done before, then to claim that he had been attacked which was true.

One of the sailors in the rigging above them cheered for Elouan, which angered the boatswain even more. They have exchanged a few blows, one stronger than the other... but the one who succeeded to make the other lose balance was Elouan. With a well placed fist, he sent the boatswain flying into the sea below.

Elouan heard the cheering, but now it didn't impress him. When Benoit told him to let the bastard drown, he nodded.

Then he returned to his work, hate and anger still not calmed down, focusing on the shrouds he had to tie properly. Those were knots not to be untied so easily...

"Besides everything you have witnessed by my side, and his continuous picking on me, he had sent thugs to attack my fiancée a few months ago She hadn't properly recovered yet, and shed be disfigured for life", he explained his reasons, while he kept securing the shrouds as if nothing had happened.

On the other side of the ship, Fernand wanted to approach Patrick, who was holding the young boatswain’s mate. He had something to tell him now too, that it seemed the atmosphere changed and the young man’s protector wasn’t there anymore. The men were in commotion, ready to stand up against the bully, following the Breton’s example they had witnessed. Others were shouting the name of another boatswain’s mate they had a bone to pick with, and others Lieutenant Forrestier’s, who had given a few harsh punishments lately too, for minor offences.

It was as if the boatswain’s death (or maybe the young rigger’s before, the one they knew as Little Fish, by the boatswain’s hands) was the spark starting the fire of justice in their hearts. Would this burn as tall as to turn into an uprising against all those who had wronged them?

Some crewmen had been gathering around Little Fish, talking if to call the doctor when he obviously wasn’t breathing anymore or to get ready to sew him in his hammock. One of them remembered that an officer had to be called first… and the one who came on the deck to see what the commotion was about happened to be the most hated among them, the third lieutenant Forrestier. As if some of the thoughts of the men on the deck had brought him here!

The sailors had nothing against the acting captain, lieutenant Lecuyer, who was a fair but distant man, rather new aboard. He had been leading them to victories and to getting unharmed from the confrontation with blockade runners.

They had nothing with the second lieutenant, Bauldry, either. They were objective enough to admit these officers had been doing their duties and, in the rare opportunity when lieutenant Lecuyer had to give a punishment, it was well deserved and not cruel, mostly focused on remedying the issue at hand and learning a lesson what not to do in the future. They were the ones who made the ship function and do what the King expected from a flagship, and the sailors understood there was more in running a ship on the deep seas and in battles than ordering men to pull and haul and managing watches. These tasks were meant to be delegated to warrant and petty officers… and they were expected to do their jobs and make the men work.

How exactly said warrant and petty officers had done it and how much hatred they had gathered on themselves, it was seen now. And the third lieutenant, who just made his appearance, was of the same kind of ruthless men like the dead boatswain and his mates, chosen by their superior to match his way of being.

People gathered menacingly around Lieutenant Forrestier immediately. Jean shouted at Fernand to come join them in getting their revenge, as they had been recently the target of the lieutenant’s rage. Fernand left Lemieux be, focusing on the lieutenant he hated more. The once orderly seamen had become an angry mob, ready to make a stand for their own justice, not believing in the Naval authorities’ justice anymore.

The officer, frightened, understanding from the mob’s figures that their intentions weren’t kind, took out his small sword, trying to impose and make room with it, which ended in stabbing with it the sailor who was closest to him. This was the beginning of his undoing – the crowd took the sword from his hand by force, piercing his chest with it.

Jean and Fernand couldn’t say, in all honesty, which exactly had been their part in all this. Things happened quickly, more instinctively than well thought.

 

That, Lena is absolutely fabulous :D

Interested in commanding Elizabeth's fleet ? ^_^

 

No, thanks. I need time for writing and publishing books in my mother tongue too.

 

Yeah there is that to do ^_^

 

There was an incident once with one of my characters which I would rather not talk about because it was sort of forced. As it was a crack rp though, it didn't count as being serious.

I have, however, had relatives of my characters die in my characters' backgrounds, partly because of the canon events of the fandom they are in, and partly because finding writers to take them on as a character isn't easy, and writing them myself as an NPC wasn't something I wanted to do on a regular basis.

 

I have never had my own character die in game. As a Dungeon Master playing AD&D 1st I have had many of my player's characters die in game. But there are lots of ways to come back from the dead in AD&D so it is often not a permanent death. The only times one has permanently died in any of my campaigns it was because the player wanted to roll up something else.