Re: [DL] When Do you know...

["Daphne Brunelle" <dbrune4@po-box.mcgill.ca>]

> Just simply enough, when do you know it is the right time to let a      
> character die?

It's essentially the Marshal's call, I think. Sometimes the dice are against a
character, sometimes the player and/or the character does something so
unutterably stupid that it's impossible for them to get out of a situation
alive, and sometimes a player/character makes a noble and heroic decision to
sacrifice themselves for the greater good. (Okay, so most of the deaths in our
posse were due to stupidity and a few unlucky rolls, but a girl can always hope
for more, right?)

As the Marshal, you have to be the bad guy ‹literally. Sometimes Good doesn't
win right away, or even at all, and this is what the Forces of Evil want. So, if
one of your heroes is lying prone and unable to move at the feet of an
abomination or some other such servant o' the Reckoners, the odds are good that
that person is going to die.

There are of course less clear­cut cases. At that point, you have to ask
yourself whether it would be logical for the bad guy to ease up on the people
he's been trying ever so hard to kill for the last few minutes. If he's been
shooting or otherwise focussing on one character who's made a target of herself,
is it reasonable for him to suddenly start shooting at the other characters who
have almost complete cover? Not really. If that means the character will die,
then that's the price she pays for being in the open.

If you've been consistently easing up on your players so their characters won't
die, I suggest you talk to them about it first. Tell them that up until now
you've been handling them with kid gloves, but now you feel they're seasoned
enough to take the blows as they come. Deadlands is a game in which people die,
and die pretty frequently: they've probably been playing long enough to know
that, and they'll respect you the more for giving them real challenges rather
than mollycoddling them.

This isn't to say you can't cut them some slack either. If your heroic or loyal
but bookish hero throws himself in the line of fire to save someone else, toss a
chip his way for good roleplaying. A chip often means the difference between
life and death in combat, and it'll encourage your players to roleplay their
hindrances more, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

Anyway, just my two cents Canadian.

Daphné
--
"I may be dead, but I'm still pretty."
                                -Buffy the Vampire Slayer