Re: Killing off players... er... characters

From: cookie@parallax.co.uk (John Cooke)

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000

On Mon, 07 Jul 1997 21:20:45 -0500, silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J.
Cravens) wrote:

>In article <33C0B967.18D0@gbrmpa.gov.au>,
>David Versace <davidv@gbrmpa.gov.au> wrote:
>>I think the degree of script immunity has to be tied fairly
>>closely to genre, as you've suggested here. If the genre is, for
>>example, "hard-bitten, grim-jawed space heroes versus the evil
>>Galactic Federation", then genre dictates that ill-considered,
>
>As well it ought... the question the "original poster" (as it
>were, since he wasn't posting here) brought up really kind of
>implied the question of "Doesn't the commercial need of the game
>limit the type of genre that can be played because you don't want
>to kill off the cash cow?"
>
>>risky actions will likely result in PC death (<tangent> or other major
>>setbacks, but we're talking about death here so I'll try to stay
>>focused </tangent>). If, however, you're playing a straight
>
>When the PC Death topic came up on r.g.frp.advocacy, one camp
>formed on the basis that "You Guys Who Don't Like Having PC's Die
>Just Can't Stand To Lose," and completely overlooked the fact
>that there are plenty of ways to "lose" in a session without
>losing all the work that went into a character.  But although a
>major setback may well cause a customer to quit in disgust, it
>shouldn't in the same way that losing a character does.  (Or
>maybe it *is* the same way.  I'm open to argument.)
>

In the game that I play, Saturnalia, there is a Karma system which
means that if a PC dies, then the player can start a new one. however,
instead of having to start at 'level 1' as the saying goes, the new
character starts off at about half the 'power' of the dead one.

This can be adjusted based on why and how the PC died, and indeed on
how well the player the played the character throughout their lives.
For example, a player doing the ultimate in self-sacrifice I think
would expect their new character to be relatively more powerful than
if the same PC had done something extremely stupid, resulting in their
death.

Whilst this doesn't solve the problem of all the hard work put into
the dead character, I think that ensuring that the new character gets
a leg up means that it is less likely for the player the 'throw in the
towel'.

Since Saturnalia is a frpg, then the GM will allow characters to be
raised from the dead in extreme circumstances. The GM is strict
however that any raised character will start their new life with about
the same power as any Karma character they would have started.

- John

...and we have already seen how insurance is like a pyramid -
(Huge, incomprehensible, hideously expensive, completly unnecessary and
specifically designed only to be of benefit to you once you're dead?)
                   (Tom Holt, "Djinn Rummy")

References

Re: Killing off players... er... characters
silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J. Cravens)
Mon, 07 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Killing off players... er... characters
silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J. Cravens)
Thu, 03 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Killing off players... er... characters
s337186@student.uq.edu.au (Bradley Jayakody)
Fri, 04 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Killing off players... er... characters
David Versace <davidv@gbrmpa.gov.au>
Mon, 07 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000