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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9548905" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Okay. I don't dispute any of that.Would you say these characters form even a plurality, to say nothing of an absolute majority?Even for these characters, would you say their ends are actually comparable to "died for stupid, pointless reasons in the middle of nowhere" the way almost all "old school" deaths end up being? Because I sure as hell wouldn't. Three quarters got interesting ends. Kyle was on loan from EarthGov to begin with, Winters was revealed to be a mole (and--believe it or not!--JMS even included a means by which she could be "resurrected", although it was never used), and Sinclair literally got promoted to alien Jesus.I'd say that's a pretty strong track record, especially since half of these were either pilot-only characters (Kyle, Takashima) or secondary characters--and none of them led boring lives. Further, an actor departing the show because they desire to...isn't that much more analogous to a player deciding to play a new character, rather than the decision being wrested from them by bad rolls? The actors for Takashima, Winters, and Sinclair all left the show for personal reasons, and Takashima is the only one mentioned who practically just disappeared. All of the others remain important, albeit unseen, characters well after their departure.Other recurring characters that faded out: Catherine Sakai (who disappeared when Sinclair left), Lyta Alexander (she got brought back later, but absolutely faded to the background between the pilot and her return), Lou Welch (promoted to the President's guard, replaced by Zach Allen), or Brother Theo (he just...doesn't appear again after season 3, no explanation). Such things happen in any show, and in most games too. I don't see how any of this meaningfully detracts from the idea that the reason most folks invest into characters in various media, including D&D, is because they have a reasonable expectation that that person will do, or be involved in, interesting things, and that their end will only quite rarely be pointless and random, without conclusion. Such is not true of the proposed easy-come, easy-go, "it's the party story that matters", "story is always retrospective" approach. Some folks are into that, certainly, and I think the rules should support them. I just don't think that the rules should support them while reducing or sidelining support for folks who aren't into it--and I consider "you only get levels 5-20 to play with" as a form of sidelining.</blockquote>

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