[DL] Character Death

["qusoor@monkeybrains.net" <qusoor@monkeybrains.net>]

Players' definitions of fun vary radically from campaign to campaign.  With the astounding screwed-up socialization we receive in schools and on television, some people are only happy when their characters are on top, whaling the snot out of the bad guys and winning hands down every time.  Some people really don't understand how to take a challenge: how to work together to overcome something that could take the posse out individually.  

If you have a posse like this, you get to teach them (for your own sanity) how to take on a challenge.  Lucky you, you're changing a life!  You're doing what the best stories do; teaching someone something about themselves, making the story more than just entertainment.  

Once the posse learns how to take on a challenge, tyou have to back up the consequences of failure.  Ultimately, this may mean killing off a character.  

I wrote an article in the Unspeakable Oath about killing characters in Call of Cthulhu, and while much of it applies, it's a little different in the Deadlands setting.  Ultimately, it depends on your campaign.  Killing characters (and not having them come back Harrowed) makes the campaign a little darker, and a little less divorced from reality.  On the other hand, with higher stakes--with the characters' lives known to be on the line-- the rewards are that much greater.  With the possibility of failure, our accomplishments become greater.  

Anyone who has read traditional heroic literature--Beowulf, the Illiad, any of the Icelandic sagas, knows that the hero generally ends up the same way--dead.  True heroism is in the way that the hero faces death.  Even in the face of insurmountable odds, the hero stands unbowed and ransoms their life dearly. 

I favor letting the dice do your dirty work.  The Wierd West is a dangerous place, and Lady Luck is fickle with her gifts  One bad die roll, and that can be it for a hero, barring Fate Chips.  But sometimes, there just isn't enough luck to go around, and somone catches it.  This is a wonderful role-playing oppportunity-- survivor guilt can be role-played out, if the players so desire.  I advocate letting players make out a will, and setting up a funeral.  Character deaths, if not too frequent, can make a lasting impression on a campaign, and 

Other people find character death acceptable only if they are allowed to die in a big, heroic fashion.  I find this to be unsatisfactory.  It takes away the sense that death could be luring around any corner.  Carrying a gun or treating with manitou is not a safe way to make a living, after all.  And sometimes, that point needs to be emphasized.  

The only time a Marchall should go gunning for a character is if that character is disrupting the game, and ruining the fun for other players.  Antyhing less is your own problem.  You're the Marshall, figure out a way around it.  If your players are having fun, then you're fulfilling your role.  Balancing their desires to have fun and your desires to tell stories is just part of the game mastering experience.  

Sorry to go on so long, 

John Goodrich
Tentacle #9  

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