Character Eulogies: The Last PC To Die in Your Game

[Reynard]

Just for fun: tell us about the most recent PC death in your current or most recent game. How did they die? Was it your PC? Were you the GM? Was it "deserved"? Was it up to the player? Was it up to the dice? Was it someone else's fault? Like that.

In my high level, almost done D&D 5.5E campaign, a few weeks ago the PCs faced down a great wyrm red dragon to bind it with a Orb of Dragonkind. During the battle, it managed to recharge its breath weapon more than expected and the poor bard just could not keep up with the damage output. She was killed -- but the PCs won and soon she was revived and back to singing goth-punk-metal ballads -- now with one about her own demise! It was not really anyone's fault -- the dragon just got a lucky with three rounds in a row of breath weapon.

 

[payn]

Im running a Traveller game and the ships pilot decided to finally go on a mission. Well, they got in a fight with a cybernetically enhanced thug. They did get the upper hand in the fight eventually, and the thug wasnt going to be taken alive. She activated a device on her arm that was ringing with a tone that was ever increasing. All the PCs backed away for cover... all except for Leon the pilot. "I got at least a few seconds too...."

The grenade implant sent him flying over a catwalk and down into the junkyard road. They turned the body but Leon was toast. "This is why he never left the ship!" the player cried. "should have named him Leroy," the others replied.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

It was a multi party death when our HEALER decided that he wanted to explore a hidden tunnel in the middle of a fight. Right after I got a hero point for doing some cool acrobatics and landing on a flying enemy and killing him.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I've had three little dudes die in the last two games I've played in, and I've got a fourth in my current game who's flirting with the great beyond. It's not really anyone's fault. Things happen and someone pays, usually my little dudes. They tend not to make things easy though.

Yoshimoto, my samurai in a Thousand Arrows game, died sacrificing himself to save his marines. He was navigating the remains of his fleet through some sea caves, had his marines abandon ship, and then blew himself and a large flock of tengu to bits and feathers.

Vahid, my seeker in a Stonetop game, died twice. The first time, he called a lightning strike down on himself and a hagr in order to let the other PC and our NPC companion and her dogs escape across a bridge. It worked -- he defeated the hagr, but it also turned him into a pile of ash. He came back as a ghost and died again -- after discovering his manservant was actually his maker (he was a clone), he manifested long enough (at the cost of a hell of a lot of damage) to grab a torch and toss it into his maker's house, igniting the naphtha and blowing him to hell and gone, which he frankly deserved.

Before that, Donal, my Marshall in the same Stonetop game, ended up in a fight with the Thunder of the Gwead's chieftain (who was wielding the same spear that let Vahid call lightning against the hagr). He actually died twice in the same combat, coming back from Death's Door after trying to grab the spear and getting jacked up and then dying with some finality after sending his crew to safety and taking the spear in the gut. It was a pretty metal sequence, as there was a rescue mission running in parallel to the fight. One of my favorite characters and a great death scene.

 

[R_J_K75]

I ran a d20 Modern game years ago. I had two players who had to traverse a short distance, about 3 miles, and chose aerial glider as their vehicle of choice. Why the heck they didn't just walk I'll never know. I asked them if they were sure, (as neither had pilot or navigation), and told them that if there were complications the results could be catastrophic. They weren't too concerned and after about 10 minutes of setting up the scene and them deciding their course of actions they were on their way. After determining who was actually "piloting" the glider, and I use the term loosely, I have the player make an untrained pilot check, comes up a natural 1 and they go down faster than John Denver, both perishing in the crash.

 

[Umbran]

It was some time ago. I generally find killing PCs to be the least interesting way I can do harm to them.

But, some time ago, in a Deadlands campaign finale, one PC made a daring attempt to stop General George Armstrong Custer's attempt to restart the Civil War with an army of monsters. Custer was riding a nearly kaiju-scale war mammoth. The PC succeeded, but ended up under that great foot... squish.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

had a fighter during a one shot a few months back die charging the final boss. and then right after a giant worm ripped open the earth and swallowed the boss.

so yeah, he's super dead.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

Symbaroum session 1: first encounter against tomb wraiths. TPK. Since all rolls are player facing, they botched their defence rolls and killed themselves. No more Symbaroum for us…

 

[Mannahnin]

Recently? I've had one PC death in one Shadowdark game I'm running, and three in the other.

The first was against an encampment of 10 goblins (in the original module they're

Spoiler

Xvarts

, where the party had a pretty good reaction roll and the goblins were just going to defend themselves and would be happy to let the PCs go or even negotiate, but it was approaching the end of the session time and the players oddly assumed hostility (I described the goblins moving into a defensive arc, not moving forward but positioned to encircle if attacked). The players pressed ahead with the attack even once they realized they were outnumbered more than 2-1 (at 1st level). Everyone dropped except the Fighter, who managed to kill the 5th goblin and force a (failed) morale test. He then luckily bandaged the Priest (only succeeding because he had rolled a 12 on one of his 1st level Talent rolls and used one of the points to increase his Int and eliminate his penalty on that stat). The NPC they had recruited in the dungeon was also stabilized. The Thief could not be saved.

The second was again due to a group deciding they needed to kill a giant (but very slow) antagonist which clearly overmatched them (

Spoiler

the maggot god from Curse of the Maggot God

. I had let this party start at 3rd level, as relative newbies, most of them more familiar with 5E. The module is designed for level 2-3 OSE characters and the expectation is that this foe will be evaded/robbed if the PCs are smart. Mine got too aggressive. The Fighter, Thief, and Priest all got devoured, the Wizard escaping back to the surface and eventually recruiting a new party (I had the new PCs start at 2nd) to go on different adventures with.

 

[John Dallman]

I haven't had a PC die while I was GMing for a long time. PCs have thought they were going to die plenty of times, but survived, which is the way I prefer it.

The last PC I remember seeing die was a Norwegian Sami shaman who got killed in a skirmish with a Waffen-SS magical trooper about 20 miles east of Stalingrad, shortly before the start of the Battle of Stalingrad in the first strand of our GURPS occult WWII campaign.

Ola Nordmann had the Impulsive disadvantage. The opponent had hit him with one round from his MG42. That's a serious wound, but often survivable if you don't get hit again. It was considered best to stay down and avoid attracting any more fire if that had happened to you. But Ola couldn't resist another rifle shot. at long enough range that he needed to aim before firing. He was spotted, took two more hits, and died a couple of minutes later. He might have survived, had we a surgical team right there, but we didn't. His ghost became a recurring NPC.