What would you do if someone died?

[sckeener]

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

That is how I would feel. Shelve it. Maybe have a 'game' day where you just talk about what y'all all did in the game...essentially a wake for Jessie.

And then play something else as a group (whether it is video games, boardgames, or games at an amusement park. Come back to D&D again after a month (or more) with a new campaign....maybe even a new DM to give it a new feel.

 

[Numion]

Personally, I couldn't keep playing D&D at all after something like that. I'd have to take a break of at least several years, maybe indefinitely.

Just out of curiosity, would you stop any other activities you did with your best friend? (Watching movies, jogging, whatever..)

 

[Agamemnon]

Just out of curiosity, would you stop any other activities you did with your best friend? (Watching movies, jogging, whatever..)

An intensely hypothetical question, but yes, I believe I would. That's just the way I'm wired.

I.e. wrong. And no, I don't have any friends, so the point really is moot.

 

[Henry]

First, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I know how hard it is to be "normal" again after the death of someone you love.

If it were me, I'd shelve that particular campaign. If everyone really wanted to start back Age of Worms, I'd re-start it, let the DM make some changes to throw curveballs, etc. but continue. Alternately, we'd just save all the campaign notes in a special storage, and start something else. (War of the Burning Sky comes to mind, and it's a brand-new mega-campaign, as is Savage Tide.)

Only your group can decide the "right" thing to do. And again, sorry for the loss.

 

[Aeric]

I know if it were me, I would always associate the game with him, so I would have to retire it even if everyone else was okay with continuing. Sounds like your GF isn't okay with continuing, so I would say the decision is made for you.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

My condolences.

I concur -- don't stop gaming, but I do suggest it would be respectful to stop that particular campaign.

 

[Doghead Thirteen]

I've lost a friend, but not an RPG friend.

If one of my players died, that'd mean another player losing family. That would mean the whole group losing someone who's as close as a brother.

What we'd do in that situation is, we'd carry on at full steam ahead (hell, slam her up to 110% military and to Hell with the rev counter) in memory of the lost player, and that player's most memorable character would become a fixture in every campaign we played.

... just the way we'd do things. Our friends wouldn't want us to lose the plot; they wouldn't want the campaign to disintegrate. They'd want our characters to gain bloody vengeance for them on the hide of our foes; they'd want us to celebrate them, not weep for them.

Sorry. Two friends of mine died in a road accident less than a month ago; one of them's mother asked me to write her son into my stories, and I'm still shaken up.

EDIT: Look at this way; your friend is now a part of the biggest gaming group in the world...

 

[BOZ]

i doubt your friend meant to not continue on without him, under such unexpected circumstances.

when your group is ready to meet again, you should discuss whether or not you wish to continue (probably either "he would have wanted us to carry on" or "this campaign is better as just a memory", or mixed reactions). you may decide to continue and find it hard to go on, or you may decide to drop it and then miss it and pick it back up again in the future.

also, of course, it depends on how involved in the campaign your friend was. regardless, i would retire the character permanently - carrying on would just be too weird, and sad.

 

[William Ronald]

Sigdel, I am deeply sorry for your loss. It is hard to lose someone dear to you.

Perhaps the best thing to do is consider what your friend would have truly wanted and honor those wishes.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

This happened to me. My group and I decided that John's character caught a fatal curse/disease from one of the many demon lords he managed to tick off (in RL John died from Hepatitis after several liver transplants). Said disease could only be cured from a very, very high level wish of which there were none available. Then we roleplayed the wake and the funereal.

It was both painful and cathartic at the same time. We the geeks dealt with John's death in the best way we knew which was to roleplay it though D&D. It suited us a lot better than the RL wake and funereal. After all, it was the only way we knew how to give a proper Viking funereal!