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

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Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - LadyRochester - 01-08-2016

It's for research purposes.

Just kidding, I'm just curious. It's not like I'm trying to see who I could potentially murder or not, haha, that's silly.

Just kidding, I'm curious.

Really.


ANYWAY~

Personally, I got two characters. One could be killed at any time and by anyone (as long as it's arranged OOC beforehand and it actually makes sense.)The other, while she is open for death, she's currently under a "lock" where only particular characters can kill her while she's involved in a certain plot, and I will be a little more reluctant to kill her off than my alt. (Even though he's totally cool.)

Both characters can get severely injured by others at any time, however. I'm a lot more flexible with this than I am with death. I have zero qualms with someone hurting my characters as long as they reasonably understand that IC actions bear IC consequences.


What about yourself?

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - McBeefâ„¢ - 01-08-2016

All of my characters are up for being killed, and I've killed my main character before. 

HOWEVER

The last time I killed a major character it was all rather 'off the cuff' and it damaged all my RP and even several real world relationships. So I'll think twice about doing it again, and consider all the ramifications. It's not off the table though!

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - LadyRochester - 01-08-2016

(01-08-2016, 06:44 AM)McBeef© Wrote: All of my characters are up for being killed, and I've killed my main character before. 

HOWEVER

The last time I killed a major character it was all rather 'off the cuff' and it damaged all my RP and even several real world relationships. So I'll think twice about doing it again, and consider all the ramifications. It's not off the table though!

I had people threatening that they wouldn't rp with me again if I kill off my character, apparently it's something "too horrible" for their characters to handle and it ruins their rp as well, but to be honest, rp is rp, whatever happens, happens. People shouldn't be so sensitive about other characters dying. The only moment I can imagine people justifying their anger is if my character was their really close friend or lover and I killed them off without a warning, since it WILL affect their own characters.

Otherwise? Nah son, stop crying.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Aaron - 01-08-2016

Yep. My character follows the Yolo rule. Therefore you will never see him going about talking about he can beat anyone or isn't afraid of death.

Cause time someone calls him on it it'd be at that moment where he'd realize he fucked up.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Cato - 01-08-2016

I'd be willing to kill off my character under the right circumstances. I've done it before in other MMO's and I don't really feel guilty about it because I felt like it made sense and that their time had come.

If Garlemald ends up lacking any redeeming qualities when we explore it more in-depth in the future then I'll likely just kill off Graeham since a lot of his character development is based around highlighting Eorzea's hypocrisy...whilst also pointing out that not every Garlean aligned with Garlemald is a terrible person.

With that said, however, in my experience only a tiny minority of role-players are prepared to actually kill off their characters and even if they do they may end up coming to regret it and simply bring them back.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Warren Castille - 01-08-2016

(01-08-2016, 06:39 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: Personally, I got two characters. One could be killed at any time and by anyone (as long as it's arranged OOC beforehand and it actually makes sense.)The other, while she is open for death, she's currently under a "lock" where only particular characters can kill her while she's involved in a certain plot, and I will be a little more reluctant to kill her off than my alt. (Even though he's totally cool.)

(01-08-2016, 07:00 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: People shouldn't be so sensitive about other characters dying. The only moment I can imagine people justifying their anger is if my character was their really close friend or lover and I killed them off without a warning, since it WILL affect their own characters.

Otherwise? Nah son, stop crying.

Are these views compatible? It's something I never understood. What "makes sense OOCly" for your character to die? If you're caught unaware by someone playing a ruthless cutpurse or worse, someone trying to establish themselves as a serial killer-type person, do those things not make sense because they're not arranged ahead of time?

Characters dying will cause the people who knew them to mourn. It throws people into a weird position: Act completely callous and pretend it doesn't bother them? That's potentially forcing them to act in a way that's unbecoming of their character. Do they instead then have to derail their mood away to properly grieve the lost? That's not fun or exciting (though my biases as hating IRL funerals is certainly painting my opinion here).

Dying or being killed sort of forces RP onto people who might not be looking for that sort of thing. On the one hand, it's completely fair to do whatever you want to your character. On the other hand, it's not crying if someone would prefer to see that person, you know, live.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Maril - 01-08-2016

I am usually all for accepting the mortality of my characters, but for my main (Nailah) I have the reservation on her that she isn't kill-able without it being entirely planned out, because of her role in my FC. My alts are fair game though, and they will die if they genuinely can not get out of the trouble they have landed themselves in. E.G if someone stabs them a lot and leaves them to bleed out in a place where no one goes, they're unlikely to make it. I do prefer it not to be meaningless though, I think just randomly killing characters kind of takes away from the aspect of death in rp. In past games, I've always killed my mains when I left the game - through plots and other means, because I like to have proper closure to them. I've yet to kill off any of my characters here in FF entirely, but it might happen in the future, who knows. 

Injuries is a different story though, and all of my characters have scars and discomforts from the injuries they've sustained through not just story but also RP encounters. I prefer to have some leniency with scars in terms of where they end up, within the bounds of what I feel is realistic. In most cases I've started off my characters as a blank slate with no or minimal scars, in favor of letting their conflicts and encounters scar them.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - desmond28 - 01-08-2016

I love my character too much to kill him. I actually had him killed at one point, seemingly, but it was under my control and I was the only who knew it was going to happen. It was a pretty cool shocker to all involved, lots of fun.

That being said I am not open for random people thinking they can harm my character without explicitly going over it with me beforehand. So injury is the only thing that I would allow if it suited my story. I also don't do incapacitated states that will render my character unavailable for extended periods, unless I'm personally going to be out of the game for some time. On the other hand, I do some neat events with the FC I'm in that my character could easily be injured or knocked out, but again I join that knowing such a thing could happen.

Killing is out of the question.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Melodia - 01-08-2016

I have no issue with characters of mine dying. It's a risk in a world with Garleans, dragon wars, etc.

Friends and other players might mourn but its completely unfair to end or damage RL friendships over fiction. It'd be like me seeing a movie or reading a book and being so hurt by the unexpected death of someone that I boycotted that story forever and the author of said story.

Yes I know it happens, but doesn't make it right. Makes it stupid. *Hugs to McBeef for that happening to her*

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Warren Castille - 01-08-2016

(01-08-2016, 10:14 AM)Melodia Wrote: Friends and other players might mourn but its completely unfair to end or damage RL friendships over fiction. It'd be like me saying or doing hurtful things to other people, then not understanding how my behavior upset them.

You can't blame people you've made bonds with for being upset that one party decided to snip those bonds. It's not their fault your actions hurt them.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Cato - 01-08-2016

It's possible for people to get very attached to a character. Even if that character isn't their own creation. Kathy Bate's excellent performance as Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's 'Misery' is a great example of that. I've endured and witnessed my fair share of horror stories about people becoming completely unhinged over someone else's role-play not going the way they wanted it to go.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Unnamed Mercenary - 01-08-2016

Death within RP is complicated. When people say "the right time OOCly", I see that as meaning when one or more of the following can be established from the RP:
  1. The character's story has ended (whether planned or abruptly, but it "fits")
  2. There is some form of coordination with other related characters. (As in, if I've been planning all this other RP with people and suddenly decide my character is going to die, I've made the proper arrangements OOC and possibly IC such that I'm not causing damage to someone else's RP/fun because it came out of nowhere).
  3. My character is not in any other plots or arcs that hinge upon my character being alive or well. (Typically though, I like to RP as a side-character, so this is generally not a concern).
Now, to actually answer the question, yes, I'd say Franz is killable. That's not consent for someone's serial-killer alt who only comes out once a month and who's still got the "new player" icon to walk up and stab him to death because they need another increment on their body count. Part of the whole making a character thing is telling their story. And there are certain things I want to accomplish with Franz before he might be retired or killed off. (Why the obsession with RPing to death? Can't characters simply exit the narrative? Perhaps they live mildly-contented forever after. Or happy. Or unhappy. Or any combination of things? Most of these people are under the age of 30! There's so much more to life than getting a weapon and then getting killed!)

Likewise, if I'm planning on ending Franz's story one way or another, I'd rather tie up loose ends OOCly if not preferably, ICly. While other people do not have control of my character, I don't think it's completely fair to say I exclusively own a collaborative story I've developed with someone else. Especially with something as delicate as unexpected death.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Warren Castille - 01-08-2016

Similarly, not everyone who likes a character is an insane stalker-murderer. We're all culpable for our own actions, and that includes how our actions affect other people. Acting without thought or care of how we might impact our friends and peers is an incredibly selfish thing to do.

I'm not against killing characters, for what it's worth.

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - Melodia - 01-08-2016

(01-08-2016, 10:24 AM)Warren Castille Wrote:
(01-08-2016, 10:14 AM)Melodia Wrote: Friends and other players might mourn but its completely unfair to end or damage RL friendships over fiction. It'd be like me saying or doing hurtful things to other people, then not understanding how my behavior upset them.

You can't blame people you've made bonds with for being upset that one party decided to snip those bonds. It's not their fault your actions hurt them.
Editing my quote to try and make some point only confuses my initial one. The way you've written it makes it look like the hurt was malicious or intentional. The fact is, nobody owns each other's characters. if the owner of a character wants to kill off a character that's their prerogative. It's no different than someone lapsing their account and disappearing for months and months only to suddenly return. We're told in those cases to "adapt and try to find other rp." I say the same for folks who choose to have their characters killed. Act like an adult and understand that fictional character is no longer around and find new rp.

EDIT: I really just like debating an interesting topic, that of characters vs relationships. *hugs Warren* I see his point as well. Smile

RE: Is your character open for killing/death? What about injury? - allgivenover - 01-08-2016

I've done it a few times, with overall mixed results.

Despite that I'm still willing to let a character die, but I have no concrete rules about it.