What would you do if someone died?

[Sigdel]

This is a hard topic for me, so please bare with me.

Last year, my girlfreind Kim, my bestfreind Jessie, and myself started the Age of Worms adventure path with me as the DM. Now, we played on a near weekly basis. Then life got in the way with work and things like that. Jessie as an off handed comment said, "Now don't you guys continue without me." So we didnt.

Now for the tough part.
Last sunday (2-18), Jessie was killed in a car crash. It's been tough on all of us who knew him. I have known Jesie since we were both 9 years old. As kind of a morbid thought I said to Kim, "Now what do we do about the AoW? Do we keep playing or what?" Kim reminded me of what Jessie said and that we should leave it be.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else been through something like this?

 

[TheYeti1775]

Don't know what to really tell ya.
If noone is comfortable with it don't play it. Retire the campaign move on.

Or if everyone is ok with it, continue on Jessie's character becomes one of many NPCs in the world.

Or depending on your campaign's flavor, Jessie's character is drawn to immortality in some way that the others can't follow. Forever writing itself into the weave of your campaign world.


Everyone deals with it differently, I know when my mom and grandfather died I disappeared into a dwarven holy bottle for a time after each. I've since quit (3 months and counting ) on my own.
So do what feels is the right thing to do, hope that helps I know it isn't much.

Yeti

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Retire the campaign. Save his character sheet.

 

[Harmon]

Thankfully, not lost a gaming friend (yet) to the final...

Sorry to hear about your lose. A friend lost is sometimes hard to deal with, I hope you are doing well enough.

About your question- I would stop. Explain to the others why- Jessie asked you to not continue with out him.

Make new characters, form a new party, and restart. Why? Because life, hard as it is, must go on after the passing of a loved one. If you think it won't be fun- I ask you this. Have you ever finished a video game then gone back and re started it? Its still fun.

If you feel guilty about continuing when Jessie asked you not to, don't (feel guilty). Jessie was asking you to not continue with the characters he knew, without his character, you arn't, you are restarting. Jessie will understand and respect that much.

I am truly sorry for your lose, I really am.

 

[Treebore]

It is small, but honor Jesse's request. It would probably be too rough for you to play it without him anyways.

At the very least start it over with new characters.

Sorry for your loss. That has to be close to the same as losing a brother.

 

[Sejs]

Condolences.

Shelve the campaign. If you went on with it, it'd just gnaw at you.

 

[Sir Elton]

Make his character a god, and go on. Hey, think about this. It's awesome that he died, now he can communicate with the others who have also died. It's like a party for them. And who knows? He may be happy to see you one day (if he decided to stay where he is, that is).

It's awesome. Don't dwell on it, make his a character immortal in your campaign and start a new game.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Only you can really answer that.

Me, I'd finish it. I'd know that my friend only meant 'don't get impatient waiting for the next session and start without me', not 'If I die, I never want you to look at the game again. We'd find some way to work it into the story, and probably every session we'd get a little teary-eyed at something that our friend would have especially liked.

But that's how my friends and I are; everyone has to deal with this kind of thing the way it makes sense for them. But I'm sorry that you have to go through this at all.

 

[Korgoth]

This is a hard topic for me, so please bare with me.

Last year, my girlfreind Kim, my bestfreind Jessie, and myself started the Age of Worms adventure path with me as the DM. Now, we played on a near weekly basis. Then life got in the way with work and things like that. Jessie as an off handed comment said, "Now don't you guys continue without me." So we didnt.

Now for the tough part.
Last sunday (2-18), Jessie was killed in a car crash. It's been tough on all of us who knew him. I have known Jesie since we were both 9 years old. As kind of a morbid thought I said to Kim, "Now what do we do about the AoW? Do we keep playing or what?" Kim reminded me of what Jessie said and that we should leave it be.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else been through something like this?

I'm sorry for your loss. I'll pray for your friend.

I think that, to give honor to your friend and thanks for your time together, you should abide by his request. Now, if you could talk with him, perhaps he would say to continue. But as sacrifices go it's a small one to make. It would stand as a testament to your friendship.

In the future, if you feel so inclined you can always start the game over with another player or players.

With death, there is a partial element of "moving on" and a partial element of stasis. In one sense, you can never "get over it" because you've run up against the finitude of mortal relationships and the dynamic no longer exists in a material way. But in another sense you have to continue with your life despite the loss. Figuring out how to both go forward and stand still at the same time is just one of those difficulties of life we have to cope with.