I just killed one of my Characters...

In my twenty-two years of writing/gaming/roleplaying I have permanently killed exactly seven major characters. Each death had a purpose, and a massive ripple effect into the story they were involved in. Some began wars. Some ended them. All progressed the story into evolution. Change. Sometimes it takes a sense of loss to make that happen. Maybe it was to prove the power of the threat. Maybe it was to add the spice of vengeance into the mix.

But I've never once regretted it.

Those I've played with over the years still discuss the impact of losing the characters I've buried. The characters they play still feel the loss of those people in their lives. These are the things that make our characters more realistic and developed.

The death toll is about to go up.. and soon, so I've been thinking heavily on this subject as of late. It never occurred to me to delete the soon-to-be-deceased character. Is that strange? Letting a corpse linger on my account?

I recently killed an alt with the Young Saints, an archer type originally named Kestrael. Rerolled her after a few weeks of inactivity, as Eagle Feather, then flat out killed her off. Then took the character, and made her over at the Pocket D with a new name, background, so on. The story was that they were both in a fight, and Kestreal was killed. Dana then joined the Saints as her replacement, and took her codename as a tribute to the fallen archer.

Reason was that as long as she was Kes, she didn't feel right. Moment I changed her over to Dana, she took off rply finally.

Not to mention, the death of Kes made for a good jumping off point for a couple of other toons in RP..it was also a reminder to the other teen heroes that anyone of them could fall in battle. My Saints main, Meg, was pretty messed up over that for weeks.

this is what? the count's first case of murder?

I'll humbly add, that for my money, to truly kill a character you have to delete it. It's that physical act that really consummates the death as "total".

I understand many would not want to do that, and I respect that. For me, characters are a dime-a-dozen. They are just whims of fantasy and imagination, for which I feel there is an endless supply in all of us. Some characters become too beloved or useful to consider killing them permanently, but once I decide they are expendable, and are never to return, I hit the delete key, and complete the act 100%.

I don't think that's a superior way to go about it, but I find it makes the death complete, real and even somewhat haunting. Perhaps its just the old dicer in me, that knows one of the greatest tension reliefs after a character dies in dice-sessions is tearing the character sheet into little pieces and throwing it at the GM like confetti.

Since you can't "waste the GM with my crossbow", sometimes it was the only refuge left for a dead character.

I haven't offed any of mine to date; one is about to be 'decommissioned', but since he was always a remote rig played by a still-extant character, I doubt it counts.

Two of mine have come close to buying it; one by design, as part of his arc, the other just started drifting into a really ugly place. He's mostly better now, but there's still scar tissue.

Would I? I honestly don't know. I fully agree with the impact that Killed Off For Real can have when done well, but I suspect I'd end up too tied to the character to go through with it.

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: I have killed off THREE of my characters, the highest as level 41, Then a 35, then a 27.

The 41 was an Etoile Loyalist. A Soldier of Arachnos who fought bravely, and got insulted by anyone who worked against the good of the nature. He disliked Recluse and his Despotism, hated the Heroes who beleived anyone in the Isles, his Homeland that he was loyal to the end, was nothing but a breeding place for villains and terrorists. He worked as a guardian, and a savior for his country!

And people... HATED him for it. He would insult heroes who beleived his country, in and of itself, was evil. He hated soldiers who were loyal to Recluse, and not to the nation. He hated the villainous scum that tainted his land. He wanted everything to be better, and wanted to protect the country until Recluses reign finally ended, so he could stand proud in a land free from opression... But nay! Two villains had planted an ambush, one a freelance, one paid from Arachnos, and he was murdered, afetr exhausting himself fighting off a 'Longbow invasion'. It was an epic battle, but he died, the saddest part, no one knew. He just disappeared from the history books...

The 35 was a tragic hero. She grew more and more bitter as she was raised in the isles. Seeing people care less and less, and soon was put comatose by a fellow villain in her group as a way to gain more power. She was eventually murdered, two people taking her from her hospital bed as guise of hospital workers, and buried alive, she slowly dying.

This character, however, was revived through one of her allies after discovering where her body was buried, and brought her back through a hellpact. She is alive again, but even more of a fiery, angry, and hateful villain. No more a Tragic Hero, but a villain bent on insanity and the want of those that would even THINK of wronging her to suffer painfully and slowly.

The 27 was an ARROGANT punk. He beleived he was the greatest, no matter how many times he was beatten, and this pissed a lot of people off. He was such an annoying *******, seven people eventually came, ambushed him, and tore him limb from limb, finishing him off.

Those are my characters, and stories. It sucked I had to kill them, especially the permenant deletion of my level 41 Arachnos soldier, as I loved his playstyle, but that is what happens. No one has replaced him yet, and the 27, I am kind of afraid of making anothe rone like him for fear of them getting mutilated as well. The 35 was rerolled as a different class, as I deleted her at 35 and then was raised, and I started from scratch, not expecting her to be ressurected.

But there you go, my own characters, fun, huh?

With Love,
Me! <3

Putting a different skin and name on a dead character, to me, isn't really fully letting go of a character. There is always a price.

Deleting it into oblivion, really formalizes the death - and for me is cathartic, it demonstrates that with MMOs it is never the destination or the number associated to that destination it is always the journey.

Once you let go like that, its easier to do it again. There's a million characters in every willing mind.

I will say, I have played this game for five years now. I do not have a single level 50. Not. One.

So, my style of play is a lazy, loose, and a rather cheesy style - that doesn't suit others. So take my advice and opinions with a grain of salt, or slice of brie which ever you prefer.

I've never had anything in this game that really occasioned the "offing" of a character as something more than simply emptying a character slot.

But in PnP games, some of the best moments are when you decide that you see the opportunity and go for it (so to speak). But I've been playing a lot of Legend of the Five Rings where death among characters is so easy to achieve that it sometimes/often comes up by accident. The dramatic duel or the seppuku are often the end of a long, dramatic storyline, and they can achieve as much heroically as a death in battle might. But in that world, death can be the means to your character's end where it often isn't so much in other RP games.

*nod*

In an old game called Traveler, your character could literally die during character creation.

Traveler was, just a marvelous game, that way.

I think I lost more Traveller characters to the creation process than I ever did to actual play.

I killed off my character with ressurecting powers multiple times....

WHAT?!

I killed one of my creations just over a month ago. It was too galvanize my SG's RP, and shake some things up. He was a lvl 30+ scrapper. But his soul is in Tartarus now, so there is always a chance for resurrection....

I don't think I'd kill off any of my CoH characters. If I like their playstyle, I start to roleplay them, and vice versa. RP and gaming sort of twine together on each of my favored characters, and I just wouldn't erase them. I have no problem deleting characters, but I am simply not attached to the ones I delete.


Other roleplaying on the other hand.. I've dabbled in forumy-RP off and on for years and years. And I have killed one of my characters.

It was.. odd. She was not evil, but certainly not good. Lived a pretty hellish life- torn from her home dimension, no way back (Amazing how many characters are away from their own dimension, but the gravity of it never really sinks in), poor impulse control, horrible impulses... The more protagonistic characters viewed her with a little pity, a little dislike, a little companionship.

Just living was nasty enough for her, but then being dragged through inexplicable trials and general horrendous crap? (some call that adventuring, I guess) She kind of snapped. Stabbed a friendly destined-for-savior-things hero, set upon by extremely protective guardian, died. Was sort of the first taste of the protagonists' "We are the good guys, right? Right?!" quandary in that story.

The closest I came to killing one of my characters was killing a copy.

It was part of a storyline were a number of people in our VG were captured and replaced with Nemesis clones. Yes, clones, because for storyline purposes, we wanted them to be as indistinguishable as possible from the real thing. Memories, flesh, magic auras, ect. all had to be intact. My character is one of the leaders in the VG and he was replaced.

His duplicate was found out and the rest of the VG decided to keep him alive to torture him for information. Well, during the course of that RP, his programming became mucked and he began thinking he was the real thing. Does this story arc sound familiar? ;D

But it presented some very hard choices for the rest of the gang, who found it increasingly difficult to go through with their course of action. He looks like him, he sounds like him, he thinks like him, and he doesn't know WHY his own family is torturing him. But he had to be killed off, because looking ahead to the end of the RP, there was simply no room for him and the real thing.

It was a very emotional RP, not only for me, but for everyone else. I played him exactly like the real thing, so they couldn't help but see their leader, their lover, their father-figure expire. I could almost visibly see their resolve to find the others strengthen ten-fold. They vowed "never again."

But as for me, I found out that I am quite attached to my character, so if he dies, it will probably be years down the road and off-screen. But this gave me a chance to explore what that might've looked like without permanently affecting my main's ability to breathe.

I will probably be killing another toon later this month.

Looks like Psycho Boy is my latest victim. He's only 24th level, but I did dedicate some energy into him.

Killing him will turn Chaos Red to a hero, and make that character active again (he hasn't been played in two years).

Fun what the new Going Rogue, will make us all do. I predict it will be a great expansion for that reason.

It won't be for a few weeks, but when it happens, I'll be sure to post to the names thread, that "Psycho Boy" is up for grabs.

Can I be the one who does him in? Can I, please? I want to have a running resume of the characters I've done in, so that when I try to re-apply for the Evil League of Evil, I'll have enough references.

Sorry Count, when Psycho Boy dies, it will be due to the aftermath of a reckless crime performed by Chaos Red. The very catalyst he needed to turn "hero". Kind of a weak fusion of the Spider-Man/Batman origins I guess.

When "Going Rogue" is launched, and I perform the in-game story-arcs to perform, I could use your help. I have a hero named Cobra Fist, who will become a full-time villain. He's a meat and potato scrapper-villain, but with a small army of snakes at his command.

The kind of "B" grade villain, that would gladly take orders from an "A" grade villain who needs pigeons, uh I mean recruits, to do various villainous tasks considered beneath the dignity of someone like Count.

You know send him out to beat people up, rob stuff to gain access to new technology etc. etc.

Don't encourage him.