RPGnet <http://www.rpg.net> 	
<http://www.rpg.net/slib/ads/forward-ad.php?nextURL=http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/comic/&imageURL=http://www.skotos.net/media/custom/lovecraftcomic3-728x90.jpg>


	Reviews <http://www.rpg.net/reviews/> 	Forums <http://forum.rpg.net>
News & Press <http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/press.phtml> 	Columns &
Info <http://www.rpg.net/columns/index.phtml> 	RPG Wiki
<http://wiki.rpg.net> 	RPG Shop <http://shop.rpg.net> 	
<http://www.rpg.net/members/>


      The Impossible Dream


    #8: True Death

*by Hunter Logan*
Jul 17,2003

	
In most rpgs, characters can die. Whether they ever actually do or not
is largely a matter of design philosophy, player skill and GM/player
desire. In any case, this installment is all about character death.

Defining Death
It's a good idea to begin with a definition of character death. On one
hand, a character is dead when he meets the conditions for death
according to the game's rules. That's when the character runs out of hit
points or fails the critical saving throw, or something similar. On the
other hand, death is not always the end. So, I thought about my own
definition for character death.

I think a character is only truly dead when he is permanently removed
from the player's control. Death is not really about the character's
mind or body; it's about playability. A character can be bent, twisted
or mutilated as much as anyone wants. As long as the player can still
play the character, that character is still alive. When the player can't
play that character any more, then the character is truly dead.

This definition may cause problems. If a character dies but only stays
dead long enough to get resurrected, then I say the character isn't
really dead. Yet, the player is inconvenienced and may need to play
another character to stay active in the game. Meanwhile, a character may
lose all of his humanity and become an NPC for the rest of the game.
Even though that character is still alive, I say that character is truly
dead because the player can't play that character any more. This
definition affects my approach to character death.

Approaching Death
Most designers (and GMs) have a philosophy on death for their games.
Sometimes, the PC's life is fragile and characters are easy to kill.
Other times, the PC's life is rugged and characters are extremely hard
to kill. Sometimes, death is serious business. Other times, it's a
source of humor. Sometimes death is permanent. Other times, it's a
doorway to character evolution. Here are some factors that a designer
may consider when forming an approach to character death.

*The Value of Life:* How important is the character? If the character is
important, then characters won't die very often - At least they
shouldn't die very often. If characters aren't that important, then they
might drop like flies. This works as a scale that runs from cheap to costly.

    * *Cheap:* It's not that the character is patently unimportant...
      Well, maybe it is. But really, the character's life is just not
      that important. It would be nice if the character could live
      through the adventure; but if he doesn't, that's okay because the
      character is easily replaced. This approximates the value of all
      the cannon fodder in any game world. A game like Paranoia is a
      good example. In that game, it seems the characters aren't that
      important. Each player has several clones of his character and
      half the fun is seeing how many different and creative ways a
      character can die.

    * *Average:* The character is of some importance, if for no other
      reason than the player spent an hour or more creating the
      character. Thus, the character is expected to survive for a while.
      From the designer's perspective, this is the default value. The
      character is important, but a character can be killed at any time.
      A game like /D&D/ exemplifies this attitude pretty well. It seems
      that characters are important. The whole point of the game is for
      players to keep the characters alive long enough to achieve
      impressive high level and do amazing things. And yet, a character
      is never important enough to truly cheat death. Under the right
      circumstances, wandering monsters in random encounters can always
      kill a character.

    * *Costly:* The character is extremely important - So important that
      his death simply can't be left to random chance. At this point,
      killing a character takes something extra. Maybe only an important
      NPC or powerful monster can do it; or maybe it requires the
      consent of the player. And on the flip side, maybe it's expensive
      for characters to kill. Maybe when a character kills, he loses
      something - humanity, sanity, whatever. Or maybe for a character
      to kill, the player has to do spend a resource or roleplay the
      kill in exquisite detail. Or maybe killing is illegal and the
      criminal justice system in the game world is frighteningly
      efficient at finding and punishing killers.

*The Causes of Death:* How can a character die or otherwise fall out of
play?

    * *Death of the Body:* Of course, characters can almost always die
      from physical trauma. Weapon hits and other injuries can usually
      take out even the most powerful characters.

    * *Death of the Mind:* If physical death isn't bad enough, the
      character can lose his mind. The classic example is /Call of
      Cthulhu/. All characters will lose Sanity and eventually end up
      insane, drooling and gibbering in the protective confines of
      Arkham Asylum or some such place.

    * *Death of the Spirit:* This is one step beyond death of the mind
      or body. Here, the character actually loses his inner spirit, his
      very soul. This can happen to /Shadowrun/ characters when they
      send their spirits into astral space. There, the character's
      spirit can get into fights and die. If that happens, the meat body
      is well suited for organ donation or medical experiments. On the
      other hand, a character in a game like /Sorcerer/ can lose too
      much humanity. When that happens, the character usually becomes an
      NPC in the hands of the GM. He's not necessarily dead, but he
      might as well be.

*The Nature of Death:* As in TV shows, movies, and comic books, death is
not necessarily the end of an rpg character. In some games, characters
can be resurrected or brought back. In other games, the character may
live beyond death as a disembodied spirit, an undead, or as some sort of
supernatural creature. In a few games, characters even have serial
lives. Here are some ideas about the nature of death.

    * *Death is the End:* This is the most brutal way of handling
      character death, and it's likely the most realistic. When the
      character dies, the character is irrevocably lost. The player has
      no way to raise, resurrect, recover, or return the character to play.

    * *Death is Temporary:* When the character dies, he is out of play
      until someone cares enough to recover the character's life. In
      this way, death becomes more like unconsciousness than death. This
      is especially true when the means to bring the dead back to life
      are cheap and plentiful.

    * *Death is only the beginning:* I think this was a tagline on the
      cover of the /Kult/ rpg, but it refers to the notion that
      characters do not really die when they are killed. Instead, the
      dead characters live on in another form and possibly in another
      place. So, when the character dies, he becomes something else.

*The Decision to Die:* Who decides when and how a character dies? On the
surface, this seems easy. The vast bulk and majority of games put the
conditions for death in the rules. A character takes too much damage,
and he dies. A character loses too much Sanity and goes insane. In these
events, the character dies; but who or what actually decided the
character would die at that particular point in time? Was it a die roll,
the GM, or the player?

    * *The Dice:* Designers usually let the rules decide the conditions
      for character death, and the decision-makers are often nothing
      more than dice. Sometimes, one crappy die roll at the wrong time
      is all it takes. Then the player must make a new character. This
      is considered somewhat realistic. After all, in life we never
      really know when or how we are going to die. It's even satisfying.
      Players play to the best of their ability and make the best
      decisions they can. Frequently, they don't mind the risk as long
      as they have the chance to make decisions leading up to the event.
      If the characters live, then it's a shiny victory. If the
      characters die, it's a learning experience and maybe it adds
      weight to the campaign.

    * *The GM:* Designers rarely give the GM sanction to blatantly kill
      characters. /Cyberpunk 2020/ does have a note about killing
      overpowered characters because the future is disposable, but that
      sort of advice is unusual. In practice, the GM almost always has
      the power to kill characters; and designers don't often address
      the point. When is it okay for the GM to simply kill characters?
      The answer for any situation will depend on the designer and the game.

    * *The Player:* Designers sometimes give players the right to choose
      when, where, and how their characters will die. Of course, this is
      grim business. Usually, players spend all their efforts keeping
      their characters alive. Yet, the opportunity to give a character a
      spectacular and worthy death appeals to some players. It's worth a
      designer's time to at least consider the possibility when crafting
      the rules for a new game.

Avoiding Death
Just as designers consider all other factors of character death,
designers also consider methods players can use for avoiding character
death. Here are some possibilities:

    * *Expendable resources:* Give the players finite resources they can
      use to cheat death. These might include plot points or victory
      cards. When all else fails, the player can use one of these to
      make the current problems go away.

    * *Manageable resources:* Give the players resources such as hit
      points, humanity, or sanity. The players then have a measure of
      responsibility or control over a character's life.

    * *Character abilities:* Give the characters abilities that players
      can use to avoid death. These include magic spells, special
      skills, and the like.

    * *Items:* Give the players items that can protect characters from
      certain causes of death. This might be the cheap way to get the
      job done, but it beats being dead.

    * *Saves:* Give the players an opportunity to save their characters.
      The ubiquitous /saving throw/ is one way to do this. When faced
      with something unpleasant, the player may roll dice to reduce or
      eliminate the effect on the character.

Integrating Death
Like any other part of a game, death can be integrated into the game
design. I don't think there's a play flow for death. When a character
dies, it's an outcome, not a process. Damage is part of the process;
death is a result of the process. Yet, processes surrounding death might
be part of a death flow. For example, a character is poisoned. The
player attempts to save against the poison. The save fails, so the
character is dying. Another character uses an item to stop the poison.
If the item works, the character is saved. If not, the character may die
after all.

Planning for Death
As a final thought, designers might consider their plans for character
death. often, the plan is pretty simple: When the character dies, the
player writes up a new character. While this is a perfectly valid plan,
it's not always well suited to a particular game. Here are a few other
possibilities:

    * *Character Tree:* The player generates a group of characters. The
      player then rotates these characters in and out of play. When a
      characters dies, the player usually has the option to create a
      replacement and add him to the tree.

    * *Improved Replacement:* The player creates a new character, but
      the new character gets advantages based on how well the player
      handled the old character. Of course, the player is encouraged to
      play well because frequent character death will lead to weaker
      replacement characters.

    * *NPC Replacement:* The player gets to continue play using an NPC
      as his new character. This may work out pretty well, especially if
      the NPC had a connection to the old character. In some games,
      players may create or improve NPCs with money and equipment, so
      the player has a vested interest in the NPC. Also, some GMs assign
      NPCs to players, so the players inherit a sort of character tree.
      The designer can always choose to formalize this sort of
      relationship in the game's rules.

    * *Serial Replacement:* The player gets a new character that is
      basically the same as the old character.

The End?
This wraps up character death. If you have questions or comments, about
the article, please post them. I'm interested in what you have to say.
Thanks for reading, and especially thanks for all your comments and
discussion.

Now, I have bad news. I don't like it, but this article wraps up my
column (at least for now). I haven't run out of words or topics, but I
have run out of time. I hope that after a few months, I'll be able to
pick up again; but I can't make any promises. Therefore, thanks to Aeon
and Allan Sugarbaker. Thank you for giving me the space to run my
articles. More important, thanks to everyone who has read my column.
Thank you for reading, and I really do hope you've enjoyed my articles.
Most important, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to write any
comments or discuss my column here in my little forum. Thank you for
caring. It's easy to ignore the columns, or to read without commenting.
It's something else to read a column and care enough to comment. I
appreciate the effort and your input! You have made this column all the
more worthwhile.


      What do you think? <http://trio.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110>

Go to forum! <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110>
 Go to Top <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110>  |  New Topic
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/post.php?f=110>  |  View Threads
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110&collapse=0>  |  Search
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/search.php?f=110> 

 Topics 	Author  	Date 	Latest Reply
 cooldog cotangent
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=98&t=98> (1) new
cranial_index  	01-31-2006 20:46  	01-31-2006 20:46 new
  CORONA <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=97&t=97> (1) new
corn_chamomile  	01-31-2006 20:25  	01-31-2006 20:25 new
 Fendi Spy Bags WHOLESALE@WizardReplica.com
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=95&t=95> (1) new 	514 
12-02-2005 10:55  	12-02-2005 10:55 new
 Designer Handbags Wholesale@WWW.WIZARDREPLICA.COM
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=94&t=94> (1) new 	868 
11-14-2005 19:41  	11-14-2005 19:41 new
 REPLICA HANDBAGS LOUIS VUITTON REPLICA WHOLESALE@
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=93&t=93> (1) new 	794 
10-20-2005 21:37  	10-20-2005 21:37 new
 Death/playing style
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=92&t=92> (1) new 	Searcher 
09-22-2003 11:35  	09-22-2003 11:35 new
 Death and actual immortality
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=89&t=89> (3) new 	Cpl Ferro 
07-19-2003 08:53  	01-13-2006 15:22 new
 Non-death death
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=85&t=85> (5) new 	Sérgio
Mascarenhas  	07-18-2003 03:07  	07-23-2003 02:38 new
 Thanks, Hunter
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=80&t=80> (4) new 	Allan
Sugarbaker  	07-16-2003 00:18  	07-17-2003 19:34 new
 Realism <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=74&t=74> (3) new
Robin  	06-20-2003 01:23  	06-25-2003 02:34 new
 Something you might have mentioned.
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=65&t=65> (3) new 	Yamo 
06-19-2003 16:13  	06-19-2003 18:11 new
 BTW, excellent column, Hunter!
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=63&t=63> (2) new 	flyingmice 
06-19-2003 13:11  	06-19-2003 18:13 new
 Armor and Damage Thereto
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=56&t=56> (2) new 	The Student 
06-19-2003 08:45  	06-19-2003 11:44 new
 Armor <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=54&t=54> (9) new
flyingmice  	06-19-2003 08:29  	06-20-2003 06:12 new
 Death spiral and unconsciousness
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=53&t=53> (7) new 	Torben
Mogensen  	06-19-2003 07:31  	06-20-2003 06:52 new
 lucky or skilled
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=51&t=51> (2) new 	rhyme 
05-12-2003 18:49  	05-13-2003 09:25 new
 Absolute, unopposed and opposed
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=48&t=48> (2) new 	Torben
Mogensen  	04-16-2003 02:19  	04-16-2003 09:26 new
 0-9 open ended = brilliant!
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=31&t=31> (8) new 	Vibropod 
03-12-2003 10:41  	07-18-2003 01:28 new
 Smooth rerolls
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=27&t=27> (10) new 	Torben
Mogensen  	03-12-2003 00:47  	03-16-2003 23:57 new
 Resolution Mechanics
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=110&i=25&t=25> (8) new 	Kyle
Schuant  	03-11-2003 22:14  	03-29-2003 21:28 new

 Go to Top <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110>  |  New Topic
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/post.php?f=110>  |  View Threads
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110&collapse=0>  |  Search
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/search.php?f=110> 
	
 Newer Messages
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110&t=98&a=1&>  |  Older Messages
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=110&t=25&a=2&> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------


      Previous columns

    * #8: True Death </news+reviews/columns/dream17jul03.html> by Hunter
      Logan, 17jul03
    * #7: Assessing Damage </news+reviews/columns/dream19jun03.html> by
      Hunter Logan, 19jun03
    * #6: Putting Theory to the Test
      </news+reviews/columns/dream12may03.html> by Hunter Logan, 12may03
    * #5: Resolution Mechanics II
      </news+reviews/columns/dream14apr03.html> by Hunter Logan, 14apr03
    * Resolution Mechanics I </news+reviews/columns/dream11mar03.html>
      by Hunter Logan, 11mar03
    * Player Goals </news+reviews/columns/dream10feb03.html> by Hunter
      Logan, 10feb03
    * Balance of Power </news+reviews/columns/dream20jan03.html> by
      Hunter Logan, 20jan03
    * Play Flow First </news+reviews/columns/dream01jan03.html> by
      Hunter Logan, 01jan03


      Other columns </news+reviews/columns.html> at RPGnet

[ Read FAQ <http://forum.rpg.net/faq.php> | Subscribe to RSS
<http://www.rpg.net/rss.phtml> | Contact Us <mailto:www@rpg.net> |
Advertise with Us <http://www.rpg.net/ads/info.phtml> ]

Copyright © 1996-2006 RPGnet & individual authors, All Rights Reserved
RPGnet® is a registered trademark of Skotos Tech Inc., all rights reserved.