Character Deaths

[SinkMarylandSink]

I'd argue in favor of decapitation and heart theft to prevent a res. I say this because it can make for a really good storyline, your character's friends have to go and hunt down your heart or head, and get it back from whoever took this. Now, I think this is a great idea up until the point where the person holding the head is being an ass about it, or the people trying to get it are being godmoding jerks. Visa versa. So if people can agree OOC to the decapitation to prevent a res, in favor of a storyline and a chance at returning from the dead, it can actually stimulate some very good role-play that will further the progression of a natural player inspired server storyline. The key here is OOC maturity.

I'm only defending this point because usually I'm the asshole blasting on people with a shotgun. It's nice when people stay dead for longer then an hour, and their guild mates don't magically appear out of nowhere and blow it all to hell. So villains, victims, heroes, have good OOC communication, if you die, discuss the possibility of mutilation to prevent a res, or kidnap of the body, as Touchseed opted earlier. It can have a great influence on the server, and actually produce positive drama.

I know I don't really play here anymore, but I'm bored as piss.

[Harmonic]

Actually, I'd argue that dismemberment would be a proper course of action. Characters in the world do ICly know that resurrection is very possible and if you killed someone it is certainly not to your advantage to leave it possible for a person to come along and bring them back. The obvious solution? Make it a little more difficult by chopping them up and tossing them in a river (Which does happen in real life, which is rather disgusting).

That being said, obviously you are capable of being resurrected in some fashion, though it would be rather annoying for you to kill someone for seeing/knowing something, with no possible way of stopping them telling everyone they see about whatever event you seek to hide after they come back. I heard some rather wacky resurrection ideas coming out of some people, and while I do agree it's fair for everyone to have their resurrection, I think it severely defeats the absoluteness and purpose of death if they can run around spreading whatever information they were killed for knowing.

Anyway, just my two cents.

But that's just such a cheap way to go about it. It's really just making the RP something that's limited to a close knit group of people with murderous intent and so forth. In my opinion, like what Siv said, it's something that should be OOCly communicated between people rather than someone just outright saying "Okay, I'm going to do this to your body, so that you aren't able to ever do -anything- with this character again".

When OOC communication breaks down, and one person is just doing whatever they feel like so that they other guy gets stuck with only one option, it sucks. Not only does it suck, but it's telling them that they can't do something after -we GMs- have told everyone that it's okay to have the one Rez.

I'm not saying you shouldn't find a logical way to come back to life. I'm not saying that people wouldn't take the heads off of bodies, what I -am- saying is that you cannot do it with the OOC motivation of stopping someone from playing a character. What that means, is that if someone can do it, you damn well better let them.

ALSO, remember, the OOC warning that you give to people about possible death/character harm. THIS IS A HUGE FACTOR. Do not forget this, ever. And a big part of that is communicating what will happen after Death, since a person should still have a say in what happens to their character.

[SinkMarylandSink]

Edited because I KNOW you meant to be more classy than that, right, Siv?

I'm a classy guy. Also a shock value terrorist.

[Kaghuros]

I completely agree that some things take away the ability to be resurrected (Through means that don't involve Necromancy, of course. They don't have stringent requirements like most other sorts, though I think the head/skull must be intact for that. There aren't any headless Undead I know.). Holy magic or Reincarnation is NOT a cure-all for every single wound possible to a person's body.

I like to look at it with the Law of Conservation of Mass/Energy. A full-on Human body can't be regenerated from a piece of dust, you'd need every other piece that makes up the body as well or at least a suitable replacement of mass/energy. In my opinion, resurrection spells would require enormous amounts of the player's energy, if not kill them entirely through the energy they'd need to put into rebuilding an entire body.

TL;DR: Some things you should never be able to recover from. A corpse need at least be assembled for a resurrection spell lest the caster risk their own death, or severe damage to their mind or body.

[MoonlightBlossom]

Character deaths have always been a horribly subjective topic in roleplay.

I've always shied away from the concept of resurrection, because death just simply isn't something that should be taken lightly. Period. If your character is gone, it's gone, and the book is closed. However, this isn't nearly as strict as it may sound.

I believe that a character should ultimately begin, and end with its creator - consensual death, when the player is finally ready to let the character go, once the player has established closure, is ready to move on, things of that sort.

Perhaps it's because I've seen so much drama in the past regarding non-consensual character kills. Yes, there is a warning; but there isn't always a means to escape from that warning. (Such as, being ganked by 2+ opponents without any form of provocation.) And your character is forced into retiry due to a bad roll that the player didn't want to make to begin with. Things like that have irked me personally; when there is a forcible kill without any form of closure - and in sets contempt for the opponent player(s) that simply broods over time.

Course, then comes the two sides:
The Victim, who isn't willing to let the character die because they haven't played them out yet.
The Attacker, who isn't willing to let the character live, because they want to put a notch in their own character's belt. (The whole 'I'm a badass' factor.)

Decapitation, mutilation of someone's character after the fact, to prevent resurrection seems like insult to injury.
Information spreading, RP/Blocking is just another form of metagaming. But this is a lot of ramble.
However, I do believe resurrection can apply to integral storyline/lore characters, especially if it gives the opportunity of a collaborative event.

Summary for TL;DR - Both parties need to be absolutely, positively okay for a character death to happen. The player needs to be okay, with no form of reluctance, with that character dying; because when that character dies, is gone for good. The one that ultimately decides a character's death, is its creator.

Hopefully this didn't sound too outlandish. I just hate seeing contempt for other players because they were forced into a situation that they didn't want to get into to begin with.

[Kaghuros]

I'm going to agree completely with what you said, though I'm adding a single caveat:

If you do something utterly stupid IC that leads to a fight, and then you decide you don't want your character to die when you start to lose... Tough luck.

I agree that death should be at the person's consent, but if they do something completely off the wall and expect a character to bend over backwards and not kill them... Well, I honestly don't think they should be let alive. This hasn't really happened to me in particular, but it can and will happen somewhere and should probably be addressed.

[Nostra]

Aye, I agree with Kag and Moonlight, if you are warned about IC death/maiming and does not remove yourself from the situation (rather in a good, orderly IC manner) you have given your consent to let your character die.

Personally I play my characters after their personality, if they would get themselves into a situation where they are about to die I will go with it, since that´s how they would act IC´ly. It makes things more interesting, for me, to play a character and see what happens. ICA=ICC. Instead of playing it and avoid certain things, OOC, becasue you don´t want to risk losing the char.

Not to say all my characters rush into every battle they can, quiet the opposite, all my characters so far shy away from battle if possible, if the have to personally fight they´ll do it on their own terms (the exception would be Chan, he would just hide somewhere. Or run. Far.)

[Harmonic]

Again though, attempting to remove that one ressurection is a problem. If someone mentions after they die they want to res, DO NOT SAY "well, you can't. You're dismembered."

That's really what this post is about.

[grembomb]

Again though, attempting to remove that one ressurection is a problem. If someone mentions after they die they want to res, DO NOT SAY "well, you can't. You're dismembered."

That's really what this post is about.

^I did that and I apologize to the person I said it to, The opening of this thread has really opened my eyes more to the whole subject.