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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5468995" data-attributes="member: 4937">I don't think that this is that big of a problem, or at least no bigger of a problem than PC death usually is.  Assuming the PC is in any real sense important to the story and not a disposable character sheet from a large stack that has been photocopied and the story doesn't involve hiding behind the mound of dead bards, PC death is always awkward.   If a player invests time into imagining a PC, and if the DM takes steps to incorporate the character into the campaign world in a meaningful way, then when that plot thread stops abruptly there is pain and disruption and loss to everyone.  The more meaningful the character, the harder that is.   Some games take that to the point of offering hard plot protection to a character, but you lose something going that way.My solution is simply to say that the character fulfilled their destiny (or didn't, in which case, that may explain why they got raised from the dead).  The story is continiously unfolding and I don't know what it is until it happens, so if a character dies then in game terms that was 'meant to happen'.  Hopefully, the character died a good death.  And if they didn't, then we have a story about how life doesn't always make sense or seem fair.  And the replacement character who we now must find some way to weave into the story is destined to take the story however far that character lasts.Really, only TPK or 'agreed upon victory' means we know that the story stopped and what the whole story was.In my game, the characters are casual acquaintances that have been thrown together in the aftermath of a massive and tragic tsunami.  In the desparate times that followed, they've found that they each have skills that they need to collectively survive.  They've also discovered that the events that they are experiencing are all seemingly connected to some dark and sinister force which seems to center around some as yet shadowy names like - 'Keeropus', 'Esoteric Order of the Golden Globe', and 'Tarkus'.  These names keep turning up whereever the characters go, but no one knows exactly yet what they mean.  What do the cult of god destroyers have to do with this?  How are the Deep Ones involved?  Why is this necromatic cult keep digging up old tombs?  All the many things that keep happening, when they are tracked back, seem to have some central connection.  The character have just discovered a wall which has a warning on it that the thing on the other side of the wall represents a threat to the existance of all life on the world, so the players and characters are starting to get a sense of the scale of what is going on, but it will be as of yet some time before 'the game is really afoot'.  Nonetheless, the assumption of the story is that this collection of characters is THE ONLY collection of characters that is uniquely positioned with the knowledge and collective skills to oppose the bad guys.  If at least some of these characters don't survive to oppose the diabolical plot that is underway, then no one will.   The final group of heroes that is there at the grand finale might not be the exact group that is travelling together now, but there will be some thread that connects them all together (even if in the worst case no character there at the tsunami is there when Keeropus's true intentions are revealed).So yes, a death is awkward, but it doesn't end the story.  Boromir can die, but the story goes on.  Storm Brightblade might die, but some new general will arise to take his place in the story.</blockquote>

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