Loss of Innocence, A new GM's question Options

[Jrayjoker]

That guy sounds like a real punk. Or was it fun for you? :D

[frostPDP]

The definition of Irony: Night-time, practically full cover (poking one's head out to get a lookat a citymaster), you do the TN math yourself. Its upwards of 10.

Rapid successes on a spot check.

So to hit with the Citymaster's LMG, it had to roll a, what, 16? The GM scored about 6 successes.

My character's damage? Probably upwards of 20D. The choice was easy - Roll for it or lose an eye.

So Dragon now has an eyepatch and is looking for a medical contact good enough to get him a cloned eye. (He's a mage. He was looking to get LOS on the citymaster to hit it. From a block away.)

[Supercilious]

I laugh, I enjoy killing my PC's more than anything else in the game. My current storyline will have them all killed by mission 5, just because I want them to fear Knight Errant more than they do (They killed a lone KE scout, so now they think they are super badass. That campaign ended and we are in a new one, so I intend to have them walk into a KE setup as ares tests out a new team of KE supersoldier badasses).

The fools think they will survive.

[fistandantilus4....]

It really depends on the circumstance. I've ran games wit hcharacters that were such a pain, it was a relief o put them six feet under. Others I've felet very bad about. We make a point to all go outside and solemnly burn the character sheet if the character can't come back.

Except for the death of one character, in the game of which I was actaully a player. It was a mage that had consistently managed to fireball OUR group. Happened three or four times. We alsmot did it ourselves until something ate him. We burned it out side, then everyeone took their turn going back out to piss on the ashes.

[Vaevictis]

If your characters die in the normal progress of the story, that means that they weren't smart enough. Take it as a lesson in appropriate caution. If you die, you either had poor strategy or poor preparation, or failed to say, "Man, I'm not getting paid enough for this."

I learned this waaay back in 1992 when my AD&D 9th level elf assassin walked towards a red dragon instead of the other way. That bugger toasted me like a marshmellow. Lesson learned: Run from dragons.

Almost had a similar example recently -- my mage was walking in the Canadian forest with his group, investigating a helicopter crash site when a big paranormal bear of some kind whipped out of the snow and damn near killed me. I figured I would at least get a perception test to see him, as I had explicitly stated I was patrolling with my assault rifle at the ready, and he was in the goddamn snow after all -- but nope. Just whacked. Managed to stage it down. Previous run, damn near got offed by a katana wielding elf. Lesson learned: Mages should always walk around with a sustaining focus and a 10-success improved invisibility active unless they've got a very good reason not to.

But there you go, sometimes you learn the lesson, sometimes you don't. But dying (or coming close) teaches you something fierce.

[Capt. Dave]

[Critias]

[Qillin]

the worst pc death by a gm in my groups games (I'm not the gm btw) the gm and myself were hiding out in a vacant house in the bad part of the city waiting for another member who was trying to get the news copter off him. when he got to the place where we were he knocked. identified himself and we asked if he was alone. he said yes. being in the bad part of town we still has our guns out. the gm had a AR and i have a HP. we pushed open the door and the guy coming in said " I'm going to commando roll in let me roll athletics" and rolls in the gm's character panic's and fires a burst into him. he takes a s+3 and my character fires 2 shots and kills him with a lot of overflow. the gm's character we a doc and had a vary good med skill and we had a vary good med kit on hand but he still died.

We had played these characters for over 6th months and had a good 150-250 total karma earned and well over 2 mil :nuyen: earned. it was a sad day but what could we do? he did the stupidest thing we could think of in that situation.

hehe the rest of the group kind of retired after a run or 2 more and we all started new characters. it one thing if you do something dumb like running into a room with 6 guards with shotguns or just bad planing and someone gets kills by npc's but to roll in on you friends and die by there hands one being the gm's pc character after a long history it was rough

[fistandantilus4....]

[mfb]

[DocMortand]

Actually recently I had my first PK in my game - it's amazing how helpless you feel when a new guy comes into the game and gets whacked after one word.

To set the stage: Renraku Arcology shutdown happened 12 hours ago. Everybody has had little or no sleep, gotten seperated, and now half the group is in a cubicle maze. After dueling with some controlled Red Samurai (fairly easy, they were low on the totem pole) the new guy says "Hello?" to the group from behind a desk. The combat monster troll (who admitted afterwards he was playing it wrong) then proceeded to use a claymore on the unfortunate soul, and carved him into two pieces.

I just sat there in shock - I'm not the type of GM to foster inter-party kills myself. So I just said "Okay, not much I can do. You now have a twin brother who is also in the cubicle maze - your brother just was killed and you don't know his fate. Work from there."

Things worked out well, fortunately...but still was kinda bizarre. We now joke about how you never should say "Hello?" when introducting yourself in stressful situations...

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Saw something like that happen once. Starting PC had to invoke Hand of God in the first pass of the first combat encounter he ever saw, and then proceeded to get killed in the second encounter. Shame.

[mfb]

haha, yeah. poor guy. "welcome to SL, buddy!"

[Critias]

Heehee.

[Akai Sokata]

ah yes my fist Pc kill. I remember it well. It was the day after the my first run with a enemy that caused more headachs for my Pc's then anoying ork kid that follows them around. Lamagra, a fledgling vampric dragon. we defeated him with alittle persperation...and a hole army of dead Npc's. the next day lacolith steps out of his strong hold and Punk Lamagra disciple geeks him with a sadler tmp.

deep down I felt bad for this it was my buddys first char, he felt so good about slaying the dragon, then geeked by a punk with ex rounds in a peice a drek smug. it was kind of a shame. but in the shadows its here today gone tommorow right

[Jrayjoker]

[nezumi]

I can't say I enjoy killing PCs, but I like knowing it can happen. I generally believe in letting the dice lay where they fall, with two exceptions. I want the story to progress, so if it's something little, like noticing a clue that they can't manage without, I'll nudge the dice, and with new characters doing something dumb, I give them their one chance to avoid death (as in, they stabilize and the gunner moves on to the next target).

Unfortunately, I can be a bit of a patsy when it comes to the enemy's tactics, since it isn't always clear what the best route is, and subconsciously I DO want the good guys to win. *sigh* But that's why most of my plots are more than just point and shoot games.

[fistandantilus4....]

I think a mortality rate is important in a game. If no one ever buys it.... or at least comes very close sometimes, well, no really believes it will happen.

Good example, had a group of players turn on their employer once (Axtechnology), and work for the opposition instead (rebels). Characters got back to Seattle ok. A month later, the troll mercenary character is in his favorite ar , when a pair of human and elf gilettes come in, and move straight for him. Well, he mopped the floor with them, but beat feet when he saw the doc wagon bracelets. Next few moments went like this:

Player:"I go out the front door, and get on my bike."

GM (that's me :D )"Resist 16D, half ballistic "

pl: "uhh.. ok *rolls*... nope!"

GM" ok *rolls more dice* resist it again"

pl : "*rolls* nope!"

GM" ok, that's 20 boxes of damage"

pl: "Huh? you were serious!?"

GM: "Yup, sniper across he street with a Barret 121. Should have gone out the back chummer. "

The player was smart enough to know who sent them though. Luckily, he was a troll with a 13 body, and he had Doc Wagon too, and they were already on the way, so he pulled through (barely). A good lesson though.

[Jrayjoker]

That I can see. But he only came close....

[The Stainless St...]

I honestly don't remember the exact details of the first time my PC's died, but I do remember that for some reason they hired themselves out as mercs, and were assigned shock-troop duty on the front lines of a major land battle in some eastern-European hellhole....

The most recent PC death in my game: "SGB" is a cousin to a Finnegan family lieutenant, and he gets himself arrested for mugging some random Joe Citizen on the street. While in the hospital (he was badly injured during the arrest), he offers to turn state's evidence against his cousin and the whole Finnegan Family in exchange for immunity. So Lone Star implants a ton of surveilance headware in him and turns him loose. The first thing he does is go to Finnegan HQ and writes a note to Uncle Al detailing the whole thing. Al directs him to an elevator ride up to see Rowena, and on this elevator ride he is gassed. So long SGB, it was good knowing ya.

[fistandantilus4....]

[Arz]

Most of the time my players die because of dumb luck. When I roll for firearms I notice a 90% success ratio but when I roll for resistance I'll see a 10% ratio. This often results in a 75% kill ratio on both sides within 2 rounds. So I fudge quite a few rolls. I agree that killing characters outside of major stupidity or dramatics is bad form. Especially when a good maiming is much more character building. :P

[Supercilious]

[tisoz]

First PC deaths for me occurred during the module Dreamchipper, in the bar when "Junior" Martelli decides to kill the party. The party is sitting there armed with nothing more than pistols and melee weapons and Junior comes in with a couple buddies armed with SMGs, shotguns, and grenades.

After the initial barrage when the team has taken cover behind some overturned tables, they get opened up on from behind by three guys with ARs. Total party kill in the first game ever played. :(

Also learned about the value of armor a little earlier in the game.

Did make new characters and tackled Dreamchipper again. Used a bit of metagame knowledge, figuring if the orks from the backroom were able to get Assault Rifles in then the party should be able to get at least some SMGs and grenades past security. The party gave up their obvious ARs and PAC (before we realized how availability worked) along with a discreet bribe.

A bit off topic, but I kind of miss the tone of the early books. Like how Juniors motorcycle had AR(s) permanently mounted. Seems like it was a wilder and woolier setting back then as compared to the current setting that closely mirrors todays attitudes toward openly carrying weapons in public. It always hit me as a GM crutch to limit the lethality of weapons people could tote around. I could easily see a dark future where carry laws more closely resembled the old west, especially with the early game descriptions of how everyone carried weapons and wore armor. Oh well, it ain't to be.

[U_Fester]

ummm..... ouch :eek: