Why Do Some People Do Stupid, Stupid Things With Their Characters?

[Ayden Cater]

I'm going to preface this with the statement of this is not going to devolve into a mudslinging arguments. Names will not be named, nor will they be heavily implied. Do so at your own peril.

Now on the board, the general rule regarding character death is that a character may not be killed except when given expressed permission. This has even been carried to mean by some that nothing bad can happen to a character without their permission. Which leads to things like one person assaulting an entire military base or boarding an enemy ship by themselves. I understand that we, as the player characters, are naturally inclined to be the best-of-the-best, but does anyone else find it jarring by some actions that seemed to be performed without any heed to the consequences?

 

[Caulder Dune]

We should go back to the good 'ol days, when we didn't require no stinkin' permission to murder the crap out of people.

 

[Louise]

I seem to have misplaced my popcorn maker, give me five minutes before passive aggressive hell breaks loose!

 

[Domino]

We should go back to the good 'ol days, when we didn't require no stinkin' permission to murder the crap out of people.

Cuttlefish...

 

[Pravis Sharman]

[member=Evelynn]

Hey, could you get me some?

 

[J3C0]

Fight me irl bro.
[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Hazel Scheler]

I like to think I'm pretty well aware of the consequences to stupid situations and ready to take whatever hurt comes my way. All part of that development thing. This does not go to say that everyone else is this way ... because not everyone else is. Ain't no development without conflict. Ain't no conflict without consequence.

 

[Lord Eclipsion]

I have to sadly say their isn't a good answer to this, because if we allow the murder without approval, people will just break all the rules and murder everybody, but then if we continue on our current path, people will just be gods, without any injury. Ironically, this is how we really distinguish the really good writers, who evolve their PCs.

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

I have to sadly say their isn't a good answer to this, because if we allow the murder without approval, people will just break all the rules and murder everybody, but then if we continue on our current path, people will just be gods, without any injury. Ironically, this is how we really distinguish the really good writers, who evolve their PCs.

Exactly. Good writers know when to take a hit or die, bad ones just become invincible, removing all kinds of fun from RPing.

 

[Ayden Cater]

I'm certainly not advocating casually killing another person's character, but if they do something like storm a fortress world to sneak into a secret library or prison that they should have no way of knowing about after first crashing their ride, they should expect some serious consequences. It'd be like Han Solo leaning out of Millennium Falcon to moon the Death Star. You do something like that, you have to assume that something bad's gonna happen.

I guess what I'm really asking is when did it become all about winning instead of character development and story. Anakin and Obi-Wan didn't win all the time. Why should we be any better?

 

[The End Narrator]

I think there can be logic applied in some circumstances. Take a look at November, odds were against her and she was outmanned 7 to 1. She managed to take down three and even took hits from NPCs and a fractured rib (Which will be noted still in-character) and that was a "light" contingent. Had the Mandalorians unleashed everyone onboard, well *hands up* surrender it would have been.

If I assault a military complex solo, knowing full well the odds are against me 500 to 1, most likely I'm going to be severely injured or killed.

I for one am down for modification of the rule to the extent of limitations and staff judgement.

I don't believe a "Godawan" should be able to walk into a facility that outnumbers him/her by ten-thousand strong getting in and out through means of a frontal assault without a scratch.

I do not advocate or condone the *Aaralyn walks up to [member="Ayden Cater"], smiles and pulls out her Lightsaber, ignites it and stabs him in the chest...thus killing him* and forcing him to die, but if say Ayden is already badly injured and Aaralyn is healthy enough or whatever and brings down a mountain side on him...well you get the idea.

It's a character that can be written again in another form, that is the beauty of life and death in writing. When a character dies, another one is born through creativity. Yes, we become attached but we must let go.

Now, someone might counter and say "Well, kill Aaralyn off..." How do you know I haven't already written her off at some point and am trying to move pieces? Perhaps a love story, etc and then death? You don't. I'm not one who is shy to killing off characters without provocation. I believe it can inspire in many ways. (IC and OOC)

Anyways, that's my take on it...take it or leave it.

 

[Arage Bao]

IC decisions should have IC consequences.

That said you, as the writer of your character, should have say in your character's destiny. What I do think is that RPJs should reserve the right to be able to say: "Alright, look. You brought this upon yourself, better live with the consequences. Even if it means your character is going to die."

(If they don't have that right already.)

 

[Lira Dajenn]

IC decisions should have IC consequences.

That said you, as the writer of your character, should have say in your character's destiny. What I do think is that RPJs should reserve the right to be able to say: "Alright, look. You brought this upon yourself, better live with the consequences. Even if it means your character is going to die."

(If they don't have that right already.)

They Don't. No one can kill your character but you.

 

[The End Narrator]

They Don't. No one can kill your character but you.

IC decisions should have IC consequences.

That said you, as the writer of your character, should have say in your character's destiny. What I do think is that RPJs should reserve the right to be able to say: "Alright, look. You brought this upon yourself, better live with the consequences. Even if it means your character is going to die."

(If they don't have that right already.)

I think that is what should change.

 

[Arage Bao]

It looks like a fairly solid way of solving the 'He godmodded me!'-issue. If a writer is blatantly disregarding logic, like.. storming a Fortress all by himself, as if he is Starkiller or boarding a star destroyer on his own, as if he is the Chosen One himself.

Then I think it's only fair, that a RPJ can rule that he, in fact, can't just write himself out of the situation or pull a Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Alli Vern]

IC decisions should have IC consequences.


I have always agreed with this, I think if I storm your base and I don't pull it off, my char should be arrested/killed. The Republic wouldn't just slap my wrist and say next time don't kill our men and blow up our base. I however also respect people on this board. Perhaps they went in over there head. Perhaps they really love there char, I don't think anyone but them should decide if their char dies. I have experience working with people to keep their chars alive and out of trouble. I think however the problem is that if you do something impossible and get caught and leave unscathed cause.. you didn't want your char joe to die. I think you lose a degree of respect and that others will be more hesitant to rp with you. Because they know at the end of the day you will take the IC battle OOC and Joe will survive. Character loss sucks, I know no one wants to stop writing as their favorite character but if you work with the person trying to kill your character, I find you can have even more fun. I have had my character's death become far more fun because I helped write their death. It is tough to loose a character and even with my reservations I don't think even staff have the right to force a writer to kill of their character. I think that at the end of the day the writer should decide if Joe dies not anyone else.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

Spoiler

Don't exactly agree with character death in some situations ( high potential of abuse) but I do think people should be open to more IC consequences. Consequences have their own fun plot lines and character development and certainly shouldn't be shied away from.

 

[Beowoof]

It looks like a fairly solid way of solving the 'He godmodded me!'-issue. If a writer is blatantly disregarding logic, like.. storming a Fortress all by himself, as if he is Starkiller or boarding a star destroyer on his own, as if he is the Chosen One himself. Then I think it's only fair, that a RPJ can rule that he, in fact, can't just write himself out of the situation or pull a Deus Ex Machina.

I would support that absolutely. If the combatants are truly working together in your thread, they'll give each other a way out but also respect that, yes, he can actually kill me if I'm a bonehead.

Another option, instead of the RPJ declaring their character captured or killed, would just be to abandon the thread and consider it non-canon. And let the offending player suffer with poor rep. (Obviously, they can rebuild their rep by improving their writing afterwards.)

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

It looks like a fairly solid way of solving the 'He godmodded me!'-issue. If a writer is blatantly disregarding logic, like.. storming a Fortress all by himself, as if he is Starkiller or boarding a star destroyer on his own, as if he is the Chosen One himself.

Then I think it's only fair, that a RPJ can rule that he, in fact, can't just write himself out of the situation or pull a Deus Ex Machina.

We did decide that.

We were overruled.

 

[RC 212]

You know it's one thing to retire a character out of boredom. It's another thing to have another character hunt one person characters through numerous alts and harass them. Also another thing entirely to be GM'ed at every turn.

Yes in battle you should take hits, but on both sides. If character X is acting the god, then Im no going to take hits and let him kill me in one post. If I can keep coming up with clever solutions I will, and I have.

In the end this is what led to the retirement of RC and the rise of new characters for me. Boredom, Gming and a general hatred for his presence.