This is The End

[Unblessed]

So one thing that I have become very much in favour for when creating a character is not only creating their back story, but also creating the end story. The back story of course is always listed in the profile while the end story is kept in mind alone.

I grew tired, after a while, of writing characters that had no end in sight, because the finite nature of life really gives each day purpose...and the finite nature of a character can bring each thread purpose.

As this is a writing site, and not a stats based RPG, we are writing characters and not really levelling up characters to max out their power. For me this means I need to have a beginning sorted out, and an ultimate vascilating end point set as well.

Ultimately this means, all of my characters will die one day.


Are you afraid to kill your characters? Character death can bring so much life to stories, meaning to threads, and memories to the writers. Some of my favourite RP memories are of characters dying or killing another player character. It makes it feel so real.

How do you feel about character death?

 

[Alric Kuhn]

MFW Character Death;

On a serious note, I love characters death. I was/am incredibly well known for it on this board and I've probably killed off more of my own "big" characters than most people. It got to a point where people told me it annoyed them so I had to tone it down a bit. I just like telling the story, and I love the ending of death for characters because sometimes it can just be so utterly perfect.

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

I feel the same as you, [member="Araceli Rimb"]. By making your character finite, it adds more meaning to what you do with them. I've already got a plan for Xavka's end written out, one that I have edited numerous times already.

 

[Davin Jusik]

[member="Araceli Rimb"]

All of my major characters have died so far.

Don't see that ending anytime soon.

I'm a fan.

 

[Liliane]

I never plan my characters' future about because it limits my writing skills, story potential, freedom, and makes me want to leave this forum. Did that once and will never do that again, because really, I was on the edge of just leaving everything behind and leaving the community.

But I do love killing characters. Only if I think they've reached the state where they could die or if they are in a situation where it's impossible to leave alive. Of course, I don't kill my character off in some thread where the initial purpose of the duel was not about death. But in Invasions, if that happens, it happens. I won't go running away if it's impossible to survive.

And sometimes characters just die. Like Darth Malificete did. I handwaved her death and am not going to bring her back as a character.

 

[sabrina]

Other than my main, character death is not an issue

 

[Ellie Mors]

Character death is great, but to build on someone's statement above, it is best to be done with a brief discussion with the people involved/invested with those characters. For example, it doesn't make a very happy writing partner if someone were to, say, kill off that person's husband.

 

[Davin Jusik]

Have yet to die in a gunslinging duel

*marks list*

 

[Jsc]

I like writing a happy ending for my characters and then making it a challenge to get there. Suddenly it makes all of my threads into a game of survival with a sort-of... 'Happy ending' at the end of the rainbow.

Naturally, not all of them make it.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Death happens. I've killed off characters before, myself. Just a day or so ago I officially ended my longest active character and have a new one to take up his mantle. It's tough, sometimes, because we become invested in our characters, but that just makes the character's death more interesting.

 

[Vexen]

When [member="Cira"] think she's safe!

 

[Amz]

To me, roleplay is about character development, and a natural development that takes place at some point for every character is death. The problem is that a lot of people get so invested, so attached, that they take ridiculous measures and go to extreme lengths to keep their character alive. Whether that is cloning, reincarnation, spirit transferring...whatever. I've been guilty of it. Chiara is my best example.

Seemed like a promising student within the Jedi, she'd been written from a youngling and had built some meaningful connections...my rising star. Then POOF. Shuttle explosion/meaningless death.

Looking back, I probably should have let her story end there. Not because I don't love her character, but because that is LIFE. Unfair, sometimes meaningless, not always expected, and gut wrenching. Instead, I jumped through all of these hoops to where she really didn't die in the explosion, there was some soul transferring, an alternate personality was implanted into the survived but soulless body/fake identity/Alida Ember was born. Had fun writing the stories, yes..but looking back, I would do it over and just let it be.

So yeah, I've been guilty of fudging things just for the sake of game play, but the experience helped me grow as a writer. I started to see my characters more realistically, realizing that any of them can die. And given the lives they lead, those death's probably wouldn't be pretty.

As far as starting a character with the end in mind? I think it's good and gives direction, I enjoy implementing an order for characters. Beginning, middle, and end. But I do think that any writer worth their salt understands that no one is immortal, and will know when it's that characters time to go, even if they didn't start with the end in mind.

 

[Mak Manto]

I guess I'll be the malcontent of the thread...

I don't see Mak dying...

Mak's been alive for over two hundred years IC and I've been RPing him for over a decade now. In that time, I've never gotten bored with him because somehow new ideas and story lines are always coming that reinvigorate the character as well as the RPer.

Now, there's a negative aspect to all of this...

Mak has become extremely bitter at the galaxy, pretty much an alcoholic at the point where he is and has gone off the deep end too many times to stop the wave of darkness that he has alienated friends and family to the point he was discarded by everyone as just a failure.

So why does Mak continue on?

Just because...

He's always been a Jedi and there's no other future for him, and while he doesn't have beliefs of living forever, he's certain he won't be dying anytime soon, in the sense of decades if not centuries. However, he'll have to watch everyone he knows pass on and he'll just keep slithering on, becoming even more jaded than he is now.

In a way, Mak is dead. If you know his character, this wasn't just because of what happened with the Clone Wars and Order 66 but because also of his previous history at his first RPing board, and while the characters of this site won't know of them IC, Mak does since he came from that universe. It's just a lot of pain and anger, and while it won't send him to the Dark Side, he's just a bitter old snake who continues to do what he thinks is right,

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

The day is kill Kezeroth is the day I can finally finish his bio!

Soon my friends..

 

[Unblessed]

[member="Kezeroth the Beholder"]

Pretty sure we would get along famously.

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

Vessel of hate meets the Embodiment of Darkness lol. Im sure it would be a meeting worth remembering. [member="Araceli Rimb"]

 

[Unblessed]

[member="Alric Kuhn"][member="Darth Atrophia"][member="Teyla Ee'everwest"][member="Elian Sarcos"][member="Lilin Imperieuse"][member="Mak Manto"]@Vexen@Jay Scott Clark@sabrina@Xavka Duquo

I would be honoured to kill any of you.



[member="Kezeroth the Beholder"]
Enough talking, more meeting Araceli in the sewers of Nar Shadda I say!

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

tomorrow im too tired to write a RP post and!... im watching the Goonies!

 

[Nyx]

What is RP? Stories. What's one of the best elements of a story? Death.
I have no problem killing my characters, provided their death is meaningful and relevant to their arc.
I haven't killed any of my characters since I joined this board, but before that, when I was just writing fanfiction, I did it quite a bit.
For me, the best stories are the ones without happy endings, bittersweet to downright bad-guys-win. And that usually ends with the main character face down in the dirt.

So one day, when I have decided Nyx's story has reached it's end, she will die. She will die spectacularly, and everyone will love it.
As long as my writing partners are cool with it.

 

[Liliane]

For me, the best stories are the ones without happy endings, bittersweet to downright bad-guys-win. And that usually ends with the main character face down in the dirt.

I love you. Or something.