Help me Kill a PC

[Allegro]

There is more than one way to kill somebody. I suggest construct a situation where the PC chooses between adulation and death. The precursor of this setup is the PCs get hired in a series of events that make them famous in the town. The first event could be to rescue a young doe eyed girl who was recently taken as the main feast at a vampire ball. When the PCs return the girl they are treated like heroes. The next event is lifting a blight being caused by a twisted druid on the local crops. Again the PC are becoming more and more famous. They drink for free in town are mobbed when they enter town with people trying to shake their hands and asking for autographs. Finally, have the PCs quest to find and restore the ancient statue of the town patron deity that was looted in an orc raid two hundred years ago. After the PCs return the statue townsfolk trust the PCs beyond reproach. They will gladly loan money, let the PCs stay for free, buy back loot at cost, or marry their sons and daughter to the heroes.

This happiness continues until cultists kidnap the original doe eyed girl and a hundred other townsfolk. The climax of the setting is an un-winnable situation. After defeating the cultists – the townsfolk are shackled to pillars and the central area has a ball of magic descending and will momentarily hit the altar and the painstakingly prepared doe eyed girl the central part of the ritual. The ball of infernal magic will eat the flesh of one person. The nearest PC and the only one who can reach the ball is the DM PC. Does he kill his reputation or does he sacrifice his flesh and save the townsfolk yet again?

Either way the hero of the town dies.

 

[kitsune9]

How does your "plot", complete with foregone conclusion of the outcome, further roleplaying and storycrafting? How does it further anything but a petty, petty vendetta between player-DMs?

Really, you decided to kill a PC, go ahead and do it. Don't bother with asking how, with in-game consistency or whatever, since for the PC it doesn't matter anyway... pointless game is pointless.

As an aside, if you want to step in as DM and "master" the dungeon, i.e. the game, for a 13th level party with above-average power - then you should really get reading and understanding the game's mechanics right now. Not being able to understand a character sheet (I'm assuming you're joking, but still) is a serious, even crippling defect if you want to DM, best do something about it.

[/RANT]

I was thinking along these same lines myself.

To the OP, I would more focused on getting on using the rules to tell the story in hopes that it will challenge the group. Just going out of your way to kill off a character because he's too powerful or uses rules that you don't understand wouldn't sound very fun to me. I know that if I did that to my players in my Pathfinder campaign, the player that I did it to would quit the campaign immediately.

I remember I had a DM once who ran a 2e game but he was combat aversive because he hated using dice. He never used any and I don't even think he owned a set. He had us explore some dungeon filled with goblinoids. Every encounter became the same deal--the goblinoids would threaten us, demand us to leave, we would attack. They would immediately flee or surrender. Combat over. We were first level and intimidating ogres in the dungeon. We finally got one combat using dice out of the whole two sessions he ran before we booted him and he was not a happy camper about it.

The point is that we had a DM who was solely focused on story telling and it didn't matter if our characters were weaklings with rusted weapons or uber power dudes with magical weapons. We won every combat before blood was drawn. He is the opposite of the DM who believes that there needs to be a character death every once in a while or a TPK to advance the story so someone just dies, DM fiat, he wins.

The best games for me is where the DM presents the challenges as they are in the rules and character death happens from poor choices or where the dice falls. A good story that goes with it is just icing on the cake.

 

[Greenfield]

If you really want to show your old DM something, do it right: Run a game that emphasizes good story and god role playing, and de-emphasizes raw power. Challenge their minds and imaginations, instead of their levels, equipment list and dice rolling.

Take the game in a whole new direction this way, and when all is said and done, make sure everybody has fun. Ultimately, that's what the game is about in the end.

DM v player vendettas always end badly. Rather than worrying about "how" to kill the PC, you should be asking yourself, "why". Why does that PC need to die? Ask it honestly of yourself, and the answer may surprise you.

 

[kitcik]

I agree with all of these posts that say work it out, blah blah. That really is the best.

But, I also sympathize with the OP's special situation and suggest that instead of trying to "kill" the PC, you rather try to gear up encounters that he will find challenging and potentially deadly. A near-death experience can do wonders for one's attitude.