Have you ever had a PC die of natural old age?

[lukelightning]

Have you ever had a PC of any standard race die from old age naturally? As in: has enough campaign-time passed that the character got really old and died? I don't mean aging effects from previous editions' ghosts or wishes that drain 5 years or any other magical effect or curse, or alternate-time planes of existance. I'm also excluding "retired" characters or characters who were effectively out-of-play until they died (e.g. imprisoned so you rolled up a new character, etc.)

 

[francisca]

No. Paraphrasing Fritz Leiber: "Heroes are meant to die performing great feats, not in an easy chair of old age."

 

[Henry]

I've had DOZENS die from lack of interest, but NEVER of old age.

 

[Aus_Snow]

. . . aaaand the resounding NO's come flooding in.

Well OK, it starts with a trickle maybe.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

You just need to play a Pendragon Campaign long enough and it can be done.

Though what happens is that your knight gets old and his stats start to drop, so you start playing the eldest son, then one year over winter you make that fateful roll: Father dies!

 

[painandgreed]

Only because I managed to get some potions of longevity in time. My character got to the point where I technically could die from old age so the DM made me roll. I rolled the abosolute worst I could and turned out to be minutes away from dieing of old age when another player teleported in with some potions of longevity to feed to me on my deathbed.

 

[lukelightning]

I figured the response would be mostly "no" but I would love to see some "I played the same character for years and years and years and finally, well, she just got old..." stories.

 

[adwyn]

For a character actually currently in play only once, and that was in a hybrid D&D/Blood Royale game. I just can't imagine it in most games, though one of my players took a venerable character recently (inspired by a thread here) and I've been using the threat of death by old age. I can't actually imagine going through with it.

 

[Sejs]

Voted no, but upon further review I suppose my answer is actually 'kinda'.

I've had a handfull of characters retire for whatever reasons, and I suppose they'd qualify as dying of natural old age, though Henry's mention of dying from lack of interest fits just as well. I don't really know what happened to them after they settled down, aside from one; a monk way, way back in the day who settled down and became a farmer. I doubt he ever fell prey to any of the standard commoner woes (sickness, hunger, marauding orc bands), so I imagine he'd have eventually passed on quietly.

I just never gave it any thought, myself. Didn't dwell on it and moved on to new characters, new stories, and new adventures.


World's always going to need savin', after all.

 

[Mercule]

The only PC in my game that lived (on camera) long enough to even think about it was also the only PC in my campaign to earn 20th level in 1E. Likewise, he is the only PC to have earned godhood.

So, no.