Personally I get really into character creation, where I plan how I want to build the character mechanically and how it all ties to my character's backstory. I haven't had a character die yet, but I'd probably be upset, even if I had a backup ready.How do you feel when your character dies? I feel like its good when a player is at least slightly upset about character death, but I understand if someone just only cares about the game mechanically and just rolls up a new character.
>>97086553It's a game. It sucks yeah but get on with it.
>>97086553>How do you feel when your character dies?You get bored doing nothing the rest of the combat.
>>97086553Really depends on my level of investment in the game, cause that leads to investment in my dude (doesn't work in reverse though)When one of my guys dies I usually just get excited cause that means I get a whole new guy to play UNLESS that specific character was very entwined with whatever is going on like if the party goal is pursuing personal goals, it's kinda hard to fit a new guy in as anything but essentially an employee/merc/tag-along, but if the game is about a bunch of dudes forced into a shitty situation then any new character can be slotted in ezpz
When I first started out I was very attached to my characters, because I'd spend ages making them and writing background details. These days I use tables to randomly generate them and come up with a short backstory afterwards. If they die I get to reroll, if they live it just makes their inevitable death/retirement all the sweeter. WFRP 2e is great for this.
>>97086553Character death is always a significant moment, especially if you're particularly attached to it, i really don't get all the bitching there's here about the notion unless it's blatant ass baiting.>inb4 it's because the character's death caused by stupid, anticlimatic eventsSkill issue, presumably both from the player and gm part. You always design you character accordingly to what the system gameplay tries to emulate: the system is very detailed in chargen but also very deadly and with granularity of consequences (eg: lingering injuries, psychological scars), like rolemaster or runequest for example? The character getting screwed from his initial position of "comfort" is the point of the game alongside dealing with these situations, the game wants you to feel the pressure of your investment getting damaged and/or destroyed, that's what you (player) should engage with using the character as your vehicle. The system is very simplistic and expeditious in chargen and just as well in character death, like old d&d? The game wants you to start from a place of nihilistic desperation where hope starts accumulating the more successful you get raising the stakes accordingly like walking over the edge of a blade and seeing your goal getting close, you design a character in this context with (dark) levity that is one among any in its initial state (bob the fighter and melf the male elf) which you get to discover as you succeed in your journey, at the end of which you generated spontaneously a story fitting the, gallow humor, brutality of this world.
>>97086553I can get quite decently attached to them, to the point where I tear up when they finally go out. The secret sauce is: I give them a trauma I can relate toAlternatively, I make them cute girl
>>97086553>How attached do you get to your characters?Depends on how deadly the game is expected to be.If it's the "make a new character every 3 or so sessions" kind, not at all. Those are expendable resources.But usually, in an usual game, I get pretty attached.I was REALLY bummed when my Cleric died in a 3.5e game I've been playing for a couple of years. It only lasted a single session before he god brought back though.Although not without consequences.There's some god shit going on and my character is branded somehow, so there'll be some comeuppance.
It depends but usually when I get attached to a Character the campaign I play it in dies in tmtwo or three sessions
>>97086553On the flip side, I really hate playing rpgs where it’s near impossible to die. Like if there’s zero actual threat or tension in a game and the other players just want to baby their characters and succeed at everything, it’s so boring you might as well not play
>>97086553I usually get pretty attached even if the character doesn't have a lot of backstory. If I made that character that means that I want to play a character like that. If the character dies, I have to make a new character, and I can't just make an identical one, so I may be forced to play a character concept I'm not as interested in.
>>97086553Without death, what doth life?
I write characters with the assumption that they will die in horrific fashion.
>>97086553I get deep into character creation too, but I always factor in that my character is ine of many adventurers and can die at anytime on their journey, makes for good world building
>>97086553Games never seem to last, and every group I'm in seems to have a competition going to see who can care about everything the least, so I rarely have much of a reason to get invested.
>>97086553I always put effort into my characters, I can think of no greater waste of my time than showing up to a session with nothing but a set of combat stats and nothing worth sinking my teeth into. If they die before I have had a chance to do the stuff I wanted to do with them, I'll be disappointed. Especially if they died to just random bullshit like an instant kill trap or a poorly balanced random encounter. But I have zero problems with my character dying if they went out on my terms. Like, my last character got fucking murdered by one of the major villains of the campaign because while I, OOC, knew that this fight was above my level I came to the horrifying realization that despite how badly the world was getting fucked up by the bad guys my character in specific had *yet to lose a fight*. He had no reason to flee, he was an idiot who genuinely thought that he could power through this and win like a shonen protagonist because up until now that had literally always worked. It would have been against his character to flee the field when there were people who needed protecting and he thought he had the power to save them. So yeah, he got fucking destroyed trying to fight a boss too early. And thats fine with me, because that sets the tone for the rest of the game: we can't go after these guys until we have a plan. That character's death serves an important role in the campaign's arc now, and thats fine with me.
>>97086553It's often best to have two teams of player characters,One group as administrators and company owners,The others as the expendable frontline operatorsThis format allows for players to have long term investments in some of their characters, and the freedom to run their other characters like a stolen car (imo the best way to roleplay).In my experience folks who get too attached to their characters start being too protective with them, and too reserved in their actions and RP.It's good for a game to keep the risks and stakes high, players who engender passivity and avoid risk do not contribute well to this dynamic.I believe this is a contributing factor to the frequent slow and disappointing deaths of long-running games.I have found the home/away team dynamic works fairly well at both preserving the high risk excitement of new games, while also keeping the long term RP relationships and company goals of older gamesIf that dynamic is unavailable, I would always recommend playing characters you're not attached to, over players that you are.They're a stolen car, run them too fast, too hard, seek enjoyment out of breaking them to pieces. Make them live fast, burn bright, and go out in a dramatic bang
>>97086553A good fight, a good wound, a pile up of good life changing injuries, and a good death can all be part of a good story for a character. So as long as it's fun and the story is interesting I'm not bothered by it.
Everyone goes through grief on their first pc death.It gets easier after that
>>97086553I can't enjoy a game if I'm not really attached at my character.
>>97086553I make my characters with the expectation that I'll retire them or let them die but yeah, it's only natural to get attached a little bit especially if you had a story arc and changes cooked up in your mind
