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This months How To series is titled: "How to Deal with a Death of a Character"
Common responses to PC death:
Depression Desire for Revenge SGS (or Sour Grapes Syndrome) The temper tantrum is the most common first stage encountered. This is usually marked by sudden spurts of violence directed against the character sheets, the dice, or the food (the worst of the three by far, of course). Thankfully, this violence is almost never directed against a person (unless you laugh too much at them - its better to save the laughter for when they reach step 2). Also thankfully, its the shortest of the steps. The transition is normally noted to involve eating most of the snack food around the place. Example: I was a player in a sci-fi roleplaying game a while back. The GM had been particularly devious, and had about half the players (two of us) trying to kill the other half of the players. The only thing was, the other half thought that we were their friends. After a short verbal fracas, my character, good with a laser gun tagged the other players character in the head, point blank, with a laser. After a moment in which it sunk in, he turned very red for a minute. Then he stood up, said a few incoherent words and proceeded to tear his character sheet up into little pieces. Following that, he stormed out of the room. Those of us that remained looked at each other, then removed the pieces of character sheet from the floor, and put them together. It was rather like piecing a jigsaw puzzle together. We then put a bunch of tape on the sheet. He came back in, and saw his sheet lying there on the table again. Try as he might, though, he couldnt tear it up again. Let that be a lesson to you, tape is stronger than it looks. As mentioned earlier, the transition to depression is usually accompanied by binge eating. The depression state is usually marked by cynical or negative comments, temporary low self esteem, or a desire for solitude. We all feel grief when someone dies, even a fictional character in a story weve read. Its understandable. Man, if only they wouldnt eat the rest of the pizza. I would give an example of depression, but it mostly involved a lot of quiet pondering. Besides, my editor said that my articles were too large of a file, so I had to either cut out small parts or use a smaller font. You can thank me for saving your eyes later on. The desire for revenge is a common feeling among players who just lost a character. Usually the thoughtfulness of being depressed turns into brooding. You can usually tell a person in this stage from the maniacal glint in their eyes, and the way they throw those dice. This is often a stage to be wary of them. Any laughter when they were in the previous stage will likely be forgotten in their fervor, but try not to remind them. Example: After the incident in which I had killed his character, things ran smoothly for a bit. He had decided to take a break from the game for a little bit, so the rest of us played on our own. Then he made a new character that was part of the rest of the PCs team (the other character they had been trying to kill was actually recruited to their cause). For some reason, this character hated my character right from the start, and constantly tried to pick a fight with him. Eventually, they did get into a fight, and he won. My character died. I, personally, had expected it, and moved right to this step. It might have been a vicious cycle of character revenge-killing, but I did not wish to ruin our game by killing his character again. No, instead I practiced my burgeoning GMing skills and secretly convinced one of the other players to take his out. Remember, its not personal if its someone else. SGS is a common final stage for a player to reach once their character has died. This is where they say "Well, fine. I didnt need that character anyway." Or "Man, these grapes are sour. You need to stop shopping at that place." Either way, it means that they are mostly healed, and are just as quirky and neurotic as they were when they first desired to play your game. As a GM, or even a fellow player, this should be considered a clean bill of mental health. And dont forget to make them pay their fair share of the food bill. Well, weve gone through most of the stages that follow a character death. Theres really nothing one can do to prevent this, besides only playing with GMs that never kill characters. There are some ways that can prevent it for a good amount of time, though, or at least help one deal with it better. Heres a list of a few things that would help:
Bribe the GM. While some might consider this "cheating" they probably tend to play paladins anyway. Bribe the GM, then take out and loot their PC. No one likes a goody-two- shoes anyway. Act crazy, and have your character do insane, funny, and dangerous stunts. An example would be suddenly turning and mooning a bunch of orcs that hadnt quite yet seen the party. You might think "Thats horrible advice." And youre absolutely right - but if you wanted good advice, you wouldnt be reading this column. Actually, it is good advice - history has shown that GMs are loathe to kill off characters that amuse them, so something will usually happen to keep them alive. I would check to make sure that your GM has a good sense of humor first. This method works excellently when combined with method 2. Haveyour character get some sort of item of mass destruction, and have them condition it so that it goes off right at their death. This may not prevent you from dying, but I can guarantee that it will do two things. One is that the other players will do their best to keep you alive. The other is that you dont have to worry about getting revenge on whoever killed you (however, the other players might target you while youre all making new characters up. Pillows are excellent at deflecting dice.). Act smart. This is actually the hardest method, so I dont recommend it. GM a game that your GM is a player in. This is very similar to method 2, and they overlap quite well. Method seven has been left out for budgeting purposes. Quietly amass power until you are invincible. This also works for your character, too, although it is kind of hard. For a slightly easier method, stop when youve achieved the goals of number four. Remember, its not shooting for the stars and missing thats bad - its what that darned bullet hits on the way down that is. Maker eally, really good friends with powerful clerics or doctors, who might be able to help you if you did die.
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