Death and Shadowrun, Grim Reapers Toll Options

[ornot]

A shaman in the game I play in knocked herself out trying to bind a force 5 spirit. Very unlucky dice roll. Fortunately it was an air spirit, and she has an affinity for air spirits, and she has not in the past attempted to abuse spirits, so what with the player being a noob, the gm let it slide.

[Ophis]

I voted depends on the players.

I have found SR4 more lethal, no actual deaths yet but quite a lot of edge burning has gone on.

[Kyoto Kid]

[odinson]

[fool]

I almost never kill off pc's. Forcing them into retirment is a different option, but only if they give me a good story as to how to do it.
Of course going inot overflow happens on a semi regular basis.

[warrior_allanon]

Twice i have had players or characters die on me mostly because of stupidity.

case 1, (he should have died but somehow survived) GM is running DNA/DOA module and new kid joins the group just as we're entering the sewers to access the lab, i forget what the kid was running except that it was a street sam that was just out and out insane and he took risks that while it didnt put HIM in direct danger, it endangered the rest of the group. We narcojetted him and left him in the lab with the creatures running about. somehow he survived.

case 2, (this one was my character, an aspected wolf shaman) we're pulling a raid through the andes mountains into the interior and its through an underground access through the entire mountains, (Think the orc caves of "The Hobbit"), we have gone in to rescue the scientists and recover their data and have been facing wave upon wave of semi-intelligent ghouls which of course we have laid waste to. But in scrounging ammo and grenades from the Ghouls i manage to become somewhat infected and unknowingly get astral perception from the disease. i catch a flicker in the edge of my vision so i go full astral perception and see the forece 10 fire elemental approaching. Screaming out fire elemental i hit it with the most potent spirit blast spell i can, which does nothing but get its attention. Then with my character standing in a pile of ghoul bodies with white phosphorus grenades on their harnesses, the fire elemental manifests and engulfs me. The GM asks if i want to roll to fight it, i tell him, Whats the point, the minute one of the grenades goes off i'm toast anyway, not to mention the 50 round drum of EX Explosive ammo on my harness. He responds, "Oh Yeah i forgot about that" and allows me to crumple the character sheet. The character was just a trial for me though so i didnt have much invested in it.

[YQM]

This is not DnD you shouldn't feel its your job to kill players.

[mfb]

...? i don't feel it's my job to kill the players when i do run D&D.

[YQM]

[Ravor]

[eidolon]

[Redjack]

[Grinder]

I agree - as a GM I try to give the players the feeling that the setting is alive and realistic. I don't fudge rolls to keep characters alive and I try to base the reactions on realism - most of the time, at least. Sometime I run games that are based along clichés, that needs Evil Villains with a megalomanic side and "I'll die before surrender" tattooed on their chest.

[Kyoto Kid]

[hyzmarca]

That's really the point where you want to use [Insert highest social skill] on it. If it isn't following orders that require it to kill you immediately, talking to it can at least buy some time. Plenty of people forget that Shadowrun isn't like a CRPG where you can't talk to anyone who is hostile. Using a social skill during combat wastes actions that could be used for fighting, but if you can't possibly win then there is no harm in trying.

[sunnyside]

In my opinion death should always be looming. You definitly should be willing to let it happen. I always felt (and know from being a player), that psychology changes when players know/suspect the GM isn't likely to kill them.

I actually rather like the whole burning edge thing because it really lets you "let the dice fall where they may". And really makes the chars think about what they're doing. However, as above, typically I think what happens should be cinimatic and not go their way. i.e. they can't just use it as a deflector shield when some LS yellowjacket gets the drop on them. I'd have the vehicle explode throwing them into a flooded drainage disk sans a limb or two.

[Bigity]

I once played 'another game' with a kid whose entire RPG experience came from playing with his parents (which is scary).

Our group runs some lethal games, we don't feel the need to save a character because a player doesn't think.

So, when this idiot died because his character didn't run when it was appropriate to run, he got mad and stopped playing for a good two months because it was the first time ever any of his characters had ever died, ever, period.

Slightly too much deaths are far better than not enough, IMO. Especially for a dark game like Shadowrun.

[Shev]

I voted "When they deserve it." We all have our characters that we love and we want to never die, but playing them becomes meaningless if they simply CAN'T die.

So, when the player goofs, and his character dies...that's it. That's life in the shadows, omae. There ain't no fairy godmother who's going to give you a second chance or any of that drek. Just you and the worms.

It's when a player is rolling 13 dice on his Fireball and it comes up all 1's that I'll allow a character to live, ironically enough. Runners can survive impossible odds. What they have a harder time surviving is their own stupidity.

[bibliophile20]

[Kyoto Kid]