People said most of it already pretty well above.
1. Have you killed your character before?
I don't think I have yet in any game, but I have had to deal with it from other people (rarely). It was not necessarily always death, but something eventually pretty similar in terms of consequences, like disappearance, or just a character turning on mine and getting the hell out of their life.
2. How did your friends take it?
I'm not going to repeat all the good advice said above but instead will give a few examples I had to deal with. I took it like I had to, because eventually I had no choice on the matter.Â
The character I had for 8 years on eve online got at some point (somewhere in the middle) involved in a romance. The other party eventually disappeared due to lack of motivation and left the game... To get back in 6 months later, staying like 2 months, and got out again. We talked about it OOC, which was the thing to do. It turned tricky though since the player wasn't really departing as if he was leaving the game. It implied that he could return (like it's often the case after all). So it was not a death proper, but it eventually entered in a similar case. How to explain it? I feel even if we talked about it a bit OOCly, it wasn't enough eventually. I got stuck in a situation where the idea was mostly "they continue to see each other maybe". So all in all it was kinda the opposite of your situation, but I think it's still interesting, because eventually the player dropped off the radar and I was ultimately left with something, without knowing what that something was. Disappearance? Death? I could have chosen the later but then what if the player comes back? "Oh I thought you were dead!" works fine ICly, but still.Â
On FF I recently had one player with a character involving into something closing on romance (or something) deciding to move on another server (for totally legitimate reasons, but that's not the point). Same here, had to discuss it with the player. Death? Disappearance? It was left up to me. It's fine, but it also implies for the player taking the decision to leave or kill a character, to be 100% sure of the thing. And then, actually live with it, as said in all the posts above.
Again it boils down to discussing things to the bone with your partner(s), then deciding precisely what it will be and nothing else. Either if you decide to kill your character, or drop off the game, be sure to leave everything written covering each possibility, because otherwise if one side falls into a case that wasn't discussed properly, that side might get screwed...
3. Would you not want to RP with someone who may unceremoniously kill off their character? Why?
As long as it's made mutually agreeable and all.. No problem for me. But that's me, and not everyone else. That's the thing to keep in mind.
As people have said above, I would be annoyed if it was to come back to life a month later, or creating new characters to die again and again because the player is just being fickle... Being fickled is the bane here. It's also better if it has a real drama value, otherwise, what's the point? To fill up a whim? Fine then, but that's always nice to jump on the occasion and make it worthwhile for everyone involved!
1. Have you killed your character before?
I don't think I have yet in any game, but I have had to deal with it from other people (rarely). It was not necessarily always death, but something eventually pretty similar in terms of consequences, like disappearance, or just a character turning on mine and getting the hell out of their life.
2. How did your friends take it?
I'm not going to repeat all the good advice said above but instead will give a few examples I had to deal with. I took it like I had to, because eventually I had no choice on the matter.Â
The character I had for 8 years on eve online got at some point (somewhere in the middle) involved in a romance. The other party eventually disappeared due to lack of motivation and left the game... To get back in 6 months later, staying like 2 months, and got out again. We talked about it OOC, which was the thing to do. It turned tricky though since the player wasn't really departing as if he was leaving the game. It implied that he could return (like it's often the case after all). So it was not a death proper, but it eventually entered in a similar case. How to explain it? I feel even if we talked about it a bit OOCly, it wasn't enough eventually. I got stuck in a situation where the idea was mostly "they continue to see each other maybe". So all in all it was kinda the opposite of your situation, but I think it's still interesting, because eventually the player dropped off the radar and I was ultimately left with something, without knowing what that something was. Disappearance? Death? I could have chosen the later but then what if the player comes back? "Oh I thought you were dead!" works fine ICly, but still.Â
On FF I recently had one player with a character involving into something closing on romance (or something) deciding to move on another server (for totally legitimate reasons, but that's not the point). Same here, had to discuss it with the player. Death? Disappearance? It was left up to me. It's fine, but it also implies for the player taking the decision to leave or kill a character, to be 100% sure of the thing. And then, actually live with it, as said in all the posts above.
Again it boils down to discussing things to the bone with your partner(s), then deciding precisely what it will be and nothing else. Either if you decide to kill your character, or drop off the game, be sure to leave everything written covering each possibility, because otherwise if one side falls into a case that wasn't discussed properly, that side might get screwed...
3. Would you not want to RP with someone who may unceremoniously kill off their character? Why?
As long as it's made mutually agreeable and all.. No problem for me. But that's me, and not everyone else. That's the thing to keep in mind.
As people have said above, I would be annoyed if it was to come back to life a month later, or creating new characters to die again and again because the player is just being fickle... Being fickled is the bane here. It's also better if it has a real drama value, otherwise, what's the point? To fill up a whim? Fine then, but that's always nice to jump on the occasion and make it worthwhile for everyone involved!
Balmung:Â Suen Shyu
