How do I deal with a player that kills his character on purpose?

[taliesin15]

A technical suggestion here: since the party is at an oasis in the desert, a simple device is having the new PC character walking by as part of a caravan, hired as a mercenary guard for chump change, say 5 silver pieces a day, and is only doing that until a better gig comes along

 

[Chimera]

I'm still working on my next campaign, which I hope to get rolling sometime this spring. But I'm trying to make it easy for people to experiment with different character concepts within the larger framework.

So far, I'm looking at it like this;

If you want to retire the character and you work with me (the GM) to do so in an appropriate place, you may start another character at the same level. The old PC becomes an NPC under my control and stays friendly to the party. This does not count against you.

If you simply drop the character without this, then the character becomes an NPC under GM control and may or may not be hostile to the party, much like a jilted lover. They will expect to leave with their fair share of the group treasure if at all possible, but if not, it simply adds to their hostility factor (they got screwed and they want revenge). You can start a new character at 1 level lower and this counts as 1 strike against you.

If the character dies and you don't want to continue playing them, I expect the party to raise him/her as they would any other member of the party. The new NPC "retires" with a neutral stance toward the party and still wants their fair share of the group treasure, but are willing to wait for it in many cases ("Adventuring was too dangerous. I died once, that was enough. Took my gold and got out.") This counts as 1 strike against you.

If you refuse to raise them, then it becomes a blood debt on the part of their family and other friends and counts as 2 strikes against you. Especially if you keep their stuff. You start a new character 2 levels lower.

If you go out of your way to get the character killed in an unrecoverable manner just so you can start a new character, it counts as 2 strikes against you and you start a new character 2 levels lower.

Three strikes and you're out of my game.

Heck, if you wanted to, you could play a new character almost every session if you planned it right and worked with me and the rest of the group on a reasonable way to do this. Play and retire a couple of PCs into significant positions around the region and you could find yourself with some pretty nifty NPC allies.

OTOH, if you throw away your characters left and right and don't work with me, you won't last long at the game table.

 

[Doug McCrae]

If you refuse to raise them, then it becomes a blood debt on the part of their family and other friends and counts as 2 strikes against you.

What if, like most PCs, they had no friends or family?

 

[Chimera]

What if, like most PCs, they had no friends or family?

That's one of the differences I'm planning. PCs WILL have families and old friends. None of this "my PC existed in a vacuum" garbage.

This will also come into play when wealth is aquired.

"Gee son, why must we live in this filthy hut while you have all this gold? Can't you help your dear old mother out in her time of need?"

"Hey Fred, you remember me? Your cousin Bob's half-sister's nephew Joe! Hey, have I got a deal for you...."

 

[apesamongus]

I would have let him retire the old character (taking with him all the equipment he owned and a fair share of anything in the group treasury, if any) and make a new one with same XP right away. No need to let someone play a character he or she doesn't want to.

Other than that, just let the new character in in the same way you would, if the death happened "normally".

Bye
Thanee

That all sounds about right.

Did he specifically want it dead, or just a new character. Not that it matters much, but I'm curious.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

I deal with things a bit differently, but then, I'm arrogant, and if you're a whiner, there is the door...

If someone comes to me and tells me that thier PC just isn't working out, or has gotten totally trashed due to campaign events (Like the Wizard getting his skull knocked in and his INT dropped to 5), we try to work it out. In that case, the PC usually retires and the player gets to bring in a PC with equal personal gear (wealth equivelant and I purchase the gear) with the same stats as the old one, just moved around to the player's liking...

Killed in combat? Hey, no problem, same as above, just roll the stats in front of me.

Suicide because you don't like your PC and won't retire him because you'd rathe throw a fit?

Level One. Base cash.

Don't like it? There's the door, don't let it hit your drama-queening, childish whining, Dialbo Playing butt on the way out...

But I'm lucky, the players I have (six of them) are more than happy to protect the level one PC, who usually bandages those dropped to zero, or administers coup-de-grace's to those opponents who have been dropped.

But if you want to throw a fit and be a drama queen...

Go back to playing NeverWinter Nights and don't forget to look up your cheat codes, loser.