RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Caspar · **01-10-2016, 04:25 AM**

(01-09-2016, 06:06 PM)Faye Wrote:
(01-09-2016, 07:01 AM)Caspar Wrote: I think that there is confusion over the distinction between frustration over lack of communication and bleed.

To clarify about my own post, there was no confusion, it was in response to seeing posts here outright stating that folks didn't want characters who are close to their own being killed off because it was "forcing" their character to mourn and because of the effects it would have on their own character. I think that's kinda silly. If you let your character get that close to another, then you should know you're setting your character up for the potential risks of heartache and loss.

It's okay to say "I don't want ____ to happen to my character," (though that's still a little iffy for more "hardcore" role-players, so I can understand why they might still call it "bleed") but if that's the case, the burden rests on that player to take measures to avoid it happening to their character, not to expect everyone they RP with to curb their RP to fulfill their wishes. In this case, if someone, for example, does not want their character to mourn the loss of a lover, they should make sure their character doesn't pair up with a character whose player is open to character death.

As much as I jokingly threaten to kill Val if he ever kills off his character, it's because I would be sad to lose the dynamic of Val and Faye that I enjoy RPing. I don't care that Faye would be sad. Characters being sad sometimes is a part of RP. I knew the dangers of my character becoming so heavily invested in another, so I'm ready to roll with the consequences (just as when Faye's adoptive brother was killed off by his player and she mourned him for weeks). If someone writes themselves into a corner where their character cannot function if something happens to another, no one is to blame but themselves. Rather than give the other person grief for killing his/her character, they should try to find a good way to retcon if they're not happy with the RP.

I get that it's not really about whether you personally are attached to the character or not, and that seems to be probably the best way to approach it, but I also think that the internal logic of people's stories can force a writer's hand. It's not necessarily only something like writing yourself into a corner. Maybe you had joined plans and they were ruined, so you're forced to retcon awkwardly. That sucks and I think a lot of players are looking to avoid being put in that position in the first place. For that reason, getting blindsided by someone dropping their character without warning is frustrating, whether or not you should have seen it coming in the first place, and I understand why players get mad about it. It's a legitimately frustrating thing to get flaked out on or worse. I just don't think people should nuke friendships because of it. It's not an IC decision to kill a character; it's the player's decision, because nothing happens in your story that isn't under your control. Just as well, it's perfectly legitimate to become wary of RP with that person if they prove themselves to really not care all that much about how that decision affects your RP. But a personal grudge over that is definitely unreasonable. They killed their character, not their pet kitten. And here also my attitude towards characters shows its other side; since they are a device designed to articulate a story, they can be designed with planned obsolescence in mind. At a certain point, the character can and should go.

As for the "curbing your RP for someone else" bit, I think that it goes both ways. By the same logic, a player who kills their character off purely for reasons that suit themselves may be inconveniencing the other players, and should consider communicating with them to mitigate that. They definitely have little ground to complain that others are being unfair to them by being disappointed by that plot development. Protecting the personal entertainment value of a RPer's "baby" works only so far as the realization that the other RPers are likewise protecting the personal entertainment value of their own characters, and your own character is not inherently more worthy than theirs. I think a lot of the problems in RP stem from the expectation that you shouldn't have to adjust to others. Every stem in the vase bends. To me "deal with it" is essentially the only wrong answer.

On the topic of specific mourning, I think it's probably that a lot of those players are fine with a mourning plot, but spontaneous character death can put the plot in the center of another more pressing and more interesting RP plotline, so you're given a choice between maintaining consistency of writing your character and participating in the RP you actually enjoy. I think it's decisions like that which frustrate people most. A retcon can fix it, and might honestly be the solution I'd pick in those circumstances, but not everyone considers it an option. An alternative would be to put the mourning plotline in a "floating" indefinite span of time outside of the ongoing unrelated plot, and RP it when you're feeling up to it later.

Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes