Character Death and The Rest of the Night

[Reynard]

Inspired by this thread.

Here's the scenario: you have a regular 6 hour session of an ongoing campaign. Four hours in, in the middle of an adventure where the party is heavily involved and not able to stop what they are doing, a character bites the dust hard. Assume there's no immediate access to ressurection or the like, and no NPCs/mounts/familiars to hand to the fallen PC's player. There's two hours of game session left. What do you do...

...if you are the player of the slain PC?

...if you are another player?

...if you are the DM?

 

[Thunderfoot]

It depends:
As a player - I have to decide if I want to seek Ressurection/Raise, etc if possible. If so, I wait. If not, I begin rolling a new character and wait for the DM to insert me.

As a group member - do we have the time, resources to help our fallen comrade? If the answer is yes to time and no to resources, the question is moot. The outed PC is going to have to roll-up another character, because this is going to PC heaven. If the answer is nop to time and yes ti resources, the the player of the dead PC has to wait for "The magic moment" that he/she can rejoin the game as a living being.

As a DM - The question is whether or not "Deus Ex Machina" should come into play. IF the player and the party have an idea to re-establish the character, then stay hands off until a judgement of rules is needed or an NPC contact is required for assistance. If the PC decides, it not worth it and roll-up another character, then the DM has to figure a "believable" way to get that character to the party and introduced so they don;t slay the new PC as some random NPC. If the party/PC cannot do anything to assist the player in re-establishing contact with the decedant then the DM HAS to figure a way to bring about a resolution of some sort that leads to either character rez or new character intro regardless of the PC/party's wishes on the matter. Just so the player is not left out. Of course, prisoners are a great way to give the player something to do in the meantime - unless the party insists on slaying everything in their path, then its cak to square one.

The problem is so open-ended and situation specific that it is almostimpossible to answer without being slanted and opinionated due to a past or present situation to draw upon. (which of course nulifies the question as stated.) My two coppers.

 

[librarius_arcana]

Inspired by this thread.

Here's the scenario: you have a regular 6 hour session of an ongoing campaign. Four hours in, in the middle of an adventure where the party is heavily involved and not able to stop what they are doing, a character bites the dust hard. Assume there's no immediate access to ressurection or the like, and no NPCs/mounts/familiars to hand to the fallen PC's player. There's two hours of game session left. What do you do...

...if you are the player of the slain PC?

...if you are another player?

...if you are the DM?

Get him to play a npc/ now pc-ish
either a friend to the party, or better a baddie
(just for the course of that session though)

 

[shilsen]

What do you do...

...if you are the DM?

If I'm the DM in my current Eberron game, the PC doesn't die. He uses an action pt to turn the killing blow/effect into one that drops him to -9 hp (and stable), and if he doesn't have an action pt, one of the others gives him one of theirs.

I'm one of those nuts who figures I can challenge PCs without killing them, and it's worked well for me so far, in 39 sessions over 1.5 years. If not for that, we'd have had 20 deaths in the sessions.

If I was running a game where PC death did occur, I'd find a way to involved the player, perhaps by running an NPC ally if there's one accompanying the party, or by letting him run one of my NPCs.

...if you are the player of the slain PC?

Ask the DM if I can run an NPC, if there's an NPC accompanying the party, or maybe run one of the DM's NPCs if possible.

...if you are another player?

Make the same suggestion that I would if I was the player of the slain PC.

 

[EricNoah]

Sometimes the player can even run a familiar or animal companion if worse comes to worst.

 

[librarius_arcana]

Sometimes the player can even run a familiar or animal companion if worse comes to worst.

Man I'd rather let them play a ghost lol

But having a dead Pc 's soul bound in to the wizards Cat/Dog/Owl/Rat/Frog/Etc familiar could be interesting

 

[Glyfair]

Man I'd rather let them play a ghost lol

But having a dead Pc 's soul bound in to the wizards Cat/Dog/Owl/Rat/Frog/Etc familiar
could be interesting

A very good situation for those using the Ghostwalk campaign.

 

[der_kluge]

Yea, this is why having an NPC (at least one) is sometimes a good idea.

 

[librarius_arcana]

A very good situation for those using the Ghostwalk campaign.

Yeah true, was thinking one shot,

After a savage fight against gaint one of the characters "Bob" the Rogue lays dead,
the fighter stare in horror at his fallen friend,
suddenly the fighter catchers something by the corner of his eye, a GHOST!
if things weren't bad enough,

Fighter:
(jumping back, as much in surprise as fear) WWAAAaaa!!!!!!!

Ghost:
WWWWWAAAAaaa (also jumping back) What? What is it?!!??

Fighter:
(stopping to refocus)!!!!!?.......Bob....is that you?

Ghost Bob:
Yeah...What?...What is it?, whats wrong? (looks around for threat)

Fighter:
(points to Bob's slain body) Dude....you're dead.........

Ghost Bob:
(looks down at body).......Wa?....oh crap!...well that explains alot,

Fighter:
You're a ghost dude.........I'm so sorry........

Ghost Bob:
...... sheit happens.........bummer...

Fighter:
(doesn't know what to say)

Ghost Bob:
.....hey! but at least I can still help out while I'm here.......

 

[ThirdWizard]

There's always an NPC for the Player to play, because if there isn't one with the party, it can be introduced.