Player character suicide Options

[Tiberius]

[ Spoiler ]

So at Today's game, half the characters committed suicide...

I'll rewind

I got this great idea for a game. it started out normal, and then took a turn for the Phillip K. Dick.
They went to bed in 2072 San Francisco, in their new apartment. They then woke up on mars, in the year 2152, having just been through a hyper real simulation.
Total Recall as an opening, basically.

I described all this to them like they were familiar with it. They then returned to work as special security force operatives for Horizon.

They did a mission, that went well. it was an easy one. good rolls, and smart planning really helped them. especially the smart planning.

anyway. questions came up about whether anything was real, or if they were in a simulation.

one player decided to go question an ex-pc npc, who had become famous. long story, the npc in question was the first mage of the group who was in fact the original character of the player going to visit them. since she was in the supposed simulation, asking her questions may shed some light.

one character spent time with the child they were searching to find in the 2072 reality, but was not lost in the 2152 reality.

4 players decided to try breaking the world. they went to the total recall place. they went into simulation, and in that simulation, they went into simulation, and in that simulation...
They tried to overload the system by running simulations inside simulations. it didn't work. it was fun though. we played the inception theme whenever they went into a new simulation.
to go back they would kill themselves. this would set off a safety feature that would kick them from the simulation. so that's how they quickly left the simulations to go down a level.
so after they all returned...

...it began...

first the ninja committed sepuku
then the generalist killed himself. leaving a note "I don't know what's real"
then the smuggler drank bleach. got 1 hit on his body check.


after the remaining characters panicked, for good reason, they talked. and got emails. the emails told them to go to a specific apartment on the space arcology. They went, and met a guy they had just met before they woke up on mars.

He told them "none of this is real".
and that if you die here, you die in real life...

So... thoughts?

[BishopMcQ]

I would title this Character Suicide--the characters did it, not the players.

[Tiberius]

true. is there a way to edit thread title?

[crazyconscript]

Honestly from the sound of it it strikes me as an amazing role-playing experience, but only as long the players at least understand what ultra-real simulations are like (which if they tried inceptioning then the probably did).

[Glyph]

Where you should go next depends on the motivations of the character-suiciding characters. If they were rejecting the premise of the game (too much railroading, or just no interest in the game), then you have to contemplate either finishing the game with the remaining players, or starting a new game.

If they thought suicide would somehow "break" the simulation, you have to decide whether to make it stick (again, cutting your players down by half), or do something else with them. Maybe they wake up back in 2072, and have to try to break the others out (or maybe they are back in 2072, but in some bizarre captivity - think shows like The Prisoner). If you go the "Tough, your characters are dead," route, then you might have those players leave the game completely if they don't agree with how fair (or not) the situation was. Sometimes answers that seem logical and obvious to the GM are not that way for the players.

[Seriously Mike]

Dude, I don't know, but that adventure is fucked up.
I mean, what's the chance of the guy flat out lying to them? On both counts, namely "this isn't real" and "if you die here, you die 4realz".

[Mach_Ten]

I love this idea !

and you can easily go full MEMENTO / GROUNDHOG DAY / MATRIX / INCEPTION on their asses !

IF they are enjoying it .. and the mass suicide was just to "test the Boundaries" rather than to end the game and play something else
(try asking the players OOC)

Then it is simply resolved (depending on your version of what is real)

1) they commit suicide
2) they wake up in a sterile environment surrounded by DocWagon medical staff (NO SECURITY)
3) they notice multiple scarrs on their bodies in various locations
4) they escape easily and are still in the future, the facility is just a downtown office building, nothing remotely sinister .. honest...!

opens up more questions, is it a VR ? are they immortal ?
it also (if it keeps happening, gives them a hook to investigate more AND a reason to stop commiting suicide

[cndblank]

Well the game needs to be fun for the GM and the players.
So the big question is how are the players taking this?
Are they in to it or has it peaked and they are getting really frustrated?

Some times as a GM, you have to tell the players to just trust you. It will make a better game.
So unless one of the players is just trying to break the game, I'd do what is most fun for everyone.


Different people find different things fun too, so a little one on one can be helpful to take a reading of the player's reaction and get some buy in from a player that is finding it frustrating.


You could let suicide be the way out and the PC that have "escaped" can pull the plug on the other PC and they all wake up and go on.

Or you can do the "and you can easily go full MEMENTO / GROUNDHOG DAY / MATRIX / INCEPTION on their asses !" thang, but you need to have a clear idea where this is going and buy in from the players.

[DnDer]

Don't forget a lot of gratuitous "Serial Experiments Lain" references, on top of it all.

[ds1138]

Don't go Memento/Groundhog Day/Matrix/Inception on their asses. Keep going Philip K Dick on their asses.

[Draco18s]

[ Spoiler ]

4 players decided to try breaking the world. they went to the total recall place. they went into simulation, and in that simulation, they went into simulation, and in that simulation...
They tried to overload the system by running simulations inside simulations. it didn't work.

If you've got enough computing power to realistically simulate reality, then you've got enough to realistically simulate infinite realities. That's one of the great things about abstraction of data layers. The realities that aren't being directly observed don't have to be rendered in as much detail.

[Stahlseele]

Nobody mentions the obvious: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/ ?

[Lionhearted]

Was expecting Total Recall, you're a twisted man Stahl...

[Stahlseele]

Thank you! ^^