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<blockquote data-quote="scott2978" data-source="post: 6243565" data-attributes="member: 6667922">I've found it incredibly difficult to make a Player want to sacrifice their PC for any reason, no matter what's at stake, and I've had games where the players would eagerly sacrifice themselves for each other. I think the best way to get there is to make the stakes something very personal to the PC. A player who will allow an entire civilization of strangers die may throw himself on a hand grenade to save their NPC sister. Another trick you can use is to NOT make it &quot;certain death&quot; but merely &quot;highly probable death&quot;. Plus, you can soften the blow by allowing the PC to have a &quot;death scene&quot; where they get to monologue right before their lights go out. &quot;Take... my sword... to my cousin... Hellwrathe... in Smallton. Swear it!&quot; could be the lead-in for a new PC and a hand-me-down favorite item doesn't hurt either. I guess first though you need to consider why you want a death in the first place. Speaking about this idea of PC self-sacrifice in general, not just this one circumstance that might already have it's reasons. A good reason might be because a player is tired of their PC and wants to go out with a bang, or something similar. In my mind, the worst possible thing is if the GM decides a PC self sacrifice would be cool. This sort of thing must ALWAYS be a Player decision. If you want your players to sacrifice their cherished PC, you need to give them the kind of story and environment where they will really want to do it for SOME reason, and every PC might have different reasons. Then find out through role play what that is, and start laying the groundwork.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="scott2978, post: 6243565, member: 6667922"] I've found it incredibly difficult to make a Player want to sacrifice their PC for any reason, no matter what's at stake, and I've had games where the players would eagerly sacrifice themselves for each other. I think the best way to get there is to make the stakes something very personal to the PC. A player who will allow an entire civilization of strangers die may throw himself on a hand grenade to save their NPC sister. Another trick you can use is to NOT make it "certain death" but merely "highly probable death". Plus, you can soften the blow by allowing the PC to have a "death scene" where they get to monologue right before their lights go out. "Take... my sword... to my cousin... Hellwrathe... in Smallton. Swear it!" could be the lead-in for a new PC and a hand-me-down favorite item doesn't hurt either. I guess first though you need to consider why you want a death in the first place. Speaking about this idea of PC self-sacrifice in general, not just this one circumstance that might already have it's reasons. A good reason might be because a player is tired of their PC and wants to go out with a bang, or something similar. In my mind, the worst possible thing is if the GM decides a PC self sacrifice would be cool. This sort of thing must ALWAYS be a Player decision. If you want your players to sacrifice their cherished PC, you need to give them the kind of story and environment where they will really want to do it for SOME reason, and every PC might have different reasons. Then find out through role play what that is, and start laying the groundwork. [/QUOTE]

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