Most Spectacular PC Deaths, PC's "Not" going out like punks Options

[TeOdio]

I was running my game last night and a long time friend of mine had the most spectacular and stunning deaths I had everwitnessed in my 13+ years of running.
He was running a Shaman that had poored in a lot of cyberware and thus had a fairly low Magic rating despite having initiated a few times. The team he was a part of was attempting to gain access to an underground tram to a magical research facility. They were engaged with the warehouse/station security forces when the security rigger popped 3 roto drones at them. Most of the team had managed to make it to the "relative" saftly of the tram, as the security forces did not want to destroy it. My buddy, however managed to inadvertantly get himself hemmed in by the drones. He had already been smacked with a serious wound and felt if took a run at the tram they would cut him down. He also feels that the drones still pose a very real threat to the rest of the team. He decided to lob 3 force 6 Lightening Bolts on his next turn at Deadly damage. Each one would be lobbed at a different drone. Needless to say it was all physical drain.
The floodgates of Mana were openned and he nuked himself like a microwave burrito. His last words were "Make it count" to the rest of the team. Very awsome. The damge jacked up the target number high enough that the last member of the team was able to make it to the tram before being mowed down by the drones. Stormcrow did not go out like a punk.
:nuyen: :nuyen: :nuyen:

[eightball1011]

Very cool. Im glad you have a supportive group.... had that been my group, you would have heard something closely related to "Everyman for himself!"

sigh...

[Enigma]

Probably not strictly what you were looking for, but still ...

I had a player once who really liked having a character with the latest cool new things. He had an existing character (yet another street sam orc, from memory) and then some new gear book (might have been Shadowtech) came along and he said he wanted to play a new character because it would take him years to get together the cash to put in all the new cool gear into his existing character.

I, as the GM, said "alright, well let's engineer a cool or spectacular death". He said nope, and then said "my character's walking along the street, and he takes out his HK and shoots himself in the head. Right, here's my new character."

His mate said "ok, I go to that guy's place and loot all his cool stuff before anyone else does." I said he was walking along the street by himself, so you don't know about it yet. The player said he'd wait to hear about it on the news and looked smug. I say that I will advise when it appears on the news, probably that night or something.

The fixer calls, and he says I've got a new run and a new member of your dynamic crew. They all turn up and the dead character's sitting there, looking smug and getting pissed like he always is. I remind all the players, especially the one who has a new character, that any use of player knowledge will get them beaten to death.

They spend three games looking at this 'dead' character, being run as an NPC by me, in increasingly alarmed and freaked out ways. I made a point of the character not doing anything that was out of the ordinary. He acted in exactly the same way, without exception, for three games with all of them desperately trying to protect themselves, hide their real safehouses, never let the guy in on planning while trying to make it look like that wasn't what they were doing.

Finally I let them off the hook and the wierd spirit materialised at one point when they were about to go through a massive ward and there was a nasty fight. I'd like to take credit for the first appearance of a shedim before cannon but I'm sure many other GMs have done the "dead person animated by spirit" thing before.

[Kremlin KOA]

Well.
Try this
Election year 2057
The run: The second Anne Penchyk run... the one in Shadows of the underworld. The party do the usual meet

[ Spoiler ]

As per in the plot they get set up by the mantis spirits, and are on the run from the secret service for whacking a presidential candidate. After a day or two they get the call for the meet with the fixer... but somehhow derail the plot and have the fixer brought to a spot they were hiding out in. The area was a garage with refueling capability. Petrol and LPG tanks on the walls.

The bugs folow and try to take the fixer, of course. The Secret hive comes in to whack the mantids and the runners, of course...

...and one PC decides to Shoot the LPG canister with an EX round

Total Party Kill

[Dogsoup]

[Catsnightmare]

[Supercilious]

Team meets Mr. J, they get a job to kill a small-time corp exec before he can join the PPG. They know which hotel and what room he is at, and they deicde to put a sniper on the adjacent buildings roof. Anyways, the sniper is on the other sides roof, the mage is projecting himself and looking at the room, his plan is ot jump back to his body and tell everyone what the deal is after they start their attack.

The third player, a street-sam who has a super-modified SMG and he is going to be going in the front door, and up. The plan is to try and scare the exec to the roof for an air evac and then pop him with the sniper rifle...

Now, all goes according to plan, and as the target boards the chopper the sniper takes a shot, and misses. The street sam, who was in close pursuit decides to go up onto the roof and try to finish him off. The sniper is switching his ammo to the explosive rounds he brought along.

Chopper takes off right as the street-sam comes up, so he jumps over and onto the side of the chopper, holding on to the inside part of the open door. The street-sam made a big point about grinning madly as he pulled out a combat knife, intent on cutting the target... The helecopter is just now about to pass out of sight of the sniper so the sniper calls the sam over their commlink, tells him to drop on the roof so he can take the shot. The street-sam drops, the sniper fires. Helicopted explodes, and then lands on the street sam.

It was a good plan, sort of. The street-sam almost got his ear, too.

[TeOdio]

That was a great one Supes. That is true street samurai mentality. "Finish the job at any cost". If you have already replaced half of your body with machine parts you should be a little more care free with your mortality.

[Sabosect]

Ever seen a street mage try to outrun an aircraft carrier in a rowboat?

During one run the group had just stolen a prototype from the Azzies and were headed to UCAS to sell it to their contact there. The problem is they were forced to go by water and the Azzies decided to pull a few strings with spies they had in the CAS. So the CAS navy, with an aircraft carrier they managed to snag from the UCAS, was ordered to take out the group. Naturally, they figured the aircraft carrier would be enough to do the job.

The party, naturally, has a spirit up ahead scouting. Imagine their surprise when it returns and reports an aircraft carrier is on the way. They stop at the first island they come across and are chatting about how to escape. The mage looks over at the docks, sees a rowboat, and gets an idea. He grabs the rowboat, rows out into the middile of the water, and is surprised to see the aircraft carrier comming straight at him. He, being a mage, naturally tries to take out the front of the aircraft carrier with a powerball. Needless to say, the carrier ran over him.

However, his death distracted the crew of the carrier enough for the rest of the group to escape.

[Club]

Summon a high force water spirit and use the movement power. Instant Speedboat.

[Fortune]

[Arethusa]

Well, that story sure left me speechless.

I mean this in the most perjorative manner possible.

[FrostyNSO]

Our group had one of the PC's, a plain ol' human guy with skills (no magic, no cyberware, not even a great social guy), tearing through Seattle on a Blitzen.

With the Star in hot pursuit, the PC who's name was Acteon (He'd say: "Say it fast and it's Action"), shoots up the freeway onramp, narrowly making the corner, and ignoring the construction signs that he was too focused to read.

As the sirens flashed behind him, Acteon's jaw dropped in horror. The freeway was under construction and a large section of bridge was out. Acteon wouldn't let the pigs take him easy. Grinding his teeth, he guns the accellerator and braces himself. If he can get just enough speed...

The bike launces from the pavement, shooting through the air at breaknect speed. But alas, the Blitzen isn't keeping altitude. It becomes quickly appearant that Acteon is about to smash into the concrete just below where he'd need to be to clear the gap. Fearing that somehow, his death would not be memorable, Acteon "Superman"s MX style, and smashes into the unfinished concrete bridge, dying on impact.

Acteon's companions remember the event, sadly relating that it was the coolest thing they ever saw him do...

[Just Pete]

Not SR, but so cool....

First game of Paranoia I ever played, I had a character with all high stats except one -- Dexterity.

In one encounter, we were defending the Mark VII (or somesuch) supertank with our pitiful little blasters. We had laid out a bunch of landmines around our area, which unfortunately activated as soon as the Commie Mutant Traitors showed up on their rocket-powered skateboards. These 'activated' land mines sprouted legs, and walked around trying to find other legs to attach themselves to.

Needless to say. my clutzy troubleshooter shortly ended up with one attached to each leg - totally immobile. Cue the CMT's!!!

One is bearing down on me, so I aim the blaster and fire - and the only thing it does is start emitting a high-pitched whine, which gets louder and louder - it's gonna blow!

So...I do the only thing possible. Screaming "For the glory of the computer!!" I jump at the Commie Mutant Traitor. Big Bang, both dead.

After the rest of the combat is over, my next clone shows up, and gets the story of his previous incarnation's demise. I turned to the guy that had the video camera, and asked if he caught it on film. When I got a negative reply, I pulled out my blaster, and shot him, remarking, "For failure to capture on film a glorious moment for the computer, you are terminated!"

[Foreigner]

Supercilious:

Your story reminded me of a similar encounter that I had about 20 years ago while playing TOP SECRET.

My brother was running a scenario in which my character, an assassin, was trying to stop a KGB agent from making off with a new weapons targeting system (it was just the two of us; he was the "Administrator", TOP SECRET's counterpart to a GM).

The enemy agent, loosely modeled upon the character of "Erich Kriegler", the East German biathelete/KGB agent from the James Bond film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, had run up onto the roof of a high-rise apartment building in West Berlin, and was attempting to make his escape via helicopter.

My character had followed him onto the roof, and got there just after the chopper had lifted off.

As he had no other weapons with anything approaching enough power to down a helicopter, I turned to my brother and informed him that I intended to shoot down the chopper with a crossbow--using a RAMBO-style armor-piercing high-explosive crossbow bolt. :eek:

After an appropriate OOC response ("Are you NUTS?", followed shortly thereafter by "Are you SURE you want to try something like this?" :P ), he allowed me to try it.

My character ran across the rooftop at full speed, then dropped prone while directly beneath the helicopter--he then rolled onto his back, took aim, and fired the crossbow bolt directly into the chopper's engine, after which he rolled out of the way, got up, and ran off to the side, jumping onto a fire escape.

The chopper's engine was badly damaged, and it crashed onto the rooftop, killing both the pilot and copilot. The KGB agent was thrown clear by the force of the explosion, but landed hard on the rooftop, breaking his neck and ending up paralyzed.

My character walked over to him, finished him off (by crushing his trachea with a boot heel, as I recall), and retrieved the suitcase containing the targeting system--IIRC, it was handcuffed to his wrist; to save time, I cut the chain with a bullet from a suppressed pistol. (I suppose that I could have taken the faster route, and simply cut his hand off with a combat knife, but I was in a hurry. ;) )

My character seemed to have peculiar runs of luck when he needed them (particularly with die rolls), but being the Admin's brother might have had something to do with it.... :)

(Of course, my character was FAR from perfect; on his very first mission, he attempted to eliminate a security guard with throwing knives, which could only be used once per turn (5 seconds). The security guard, however, was armed with a .357 Magnum revolver--which was loaded with high-velocity hollowpoint ammunition, and was capable of firing one shot each SECOND. He got off three shots before my character finished him off--one shot missed; the other two broke bones in my character's lower left leg, and ruined the knee joint on that side.)

--Foreigner

[CoalHeart]

But No PC died. You did not follow the conventions of the conversation. You are disqualified from the drawing at the end of the compitition. Please take your parting gift of 1 .45 calibur hollow point round, and this single shot derringer to commit honorable self termination.

[Trax]

You know how in paranoia you never know what the bullets do that you are shooting? I fired my weapons and aparently the bullet was a mini-nuke, wiped out what was left of the team and the objective that we were supposed to protect.

However, I was a Commie anyway so I guess I completed MY objective. I'd go into more detail, but this was a long time ago so I don't remember much of it.

[Foreigner]

CoalHeart:

Point taken. My apologies.

I just thought that you might be interested.

Besides, IIRC, he *DID* say that he should've let my character bleed to death to teach me a lesson. He decided not to only because he didn't want to hear me whine about it.

Actually, the only PC deaths either of us suffered were *HIS* PCs, and they were in another game (an ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS campaign at William & Mary, where he was attending college).

As I wasn't attending W&M, I couldn't play.

I'd tell you more, but I don't think he'd want me to talk about him behind his back, as it were.

And besides, it was nearly 20 years ago (he graduated in 1986), so my memory is a little fuzzy on specifics.

--Foreigner

[CoalHeart]

Foreigner, I forgive you.

[DR.PaiN]

[Foreigner]

CoalHeart:

Thanks. :)

Why am I suddenly reminded of that scene from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK?

Lord Darth Vader has just "Force-strangled" an Imperial officer who was trying to apologize to Vader for his earlier incompetence.

As the guy breathes his last and collapses to the deck, Vader remarks, "Apology ACCEPTED, Captain Needa."

:P

--Foreigner

[Striker]

Well, it's not Shadowrun, and it's not exactly a spectacular death scene...but it was intended as one.

The game was Star Wars. A GURPS conversion, to be specific. That meant high-lethality combat...a lightsaber hit is damn near impossible to survive.

We were playing in the era just before the original trilogy. Our GM had cooked up a crazy plot involving the Ssi-Ruuk, a clandestine imperial research project and ancient sith magics. Basically, the empire had found a way, using technology gained from the lizards, to transfer the souls of force users into droid bodies in a way that left them with their force powers. They were in the process of building an army of what we called 'Sith-bots'...droid dark jedi.

Well, in the course of that campaign, we got ourselves stuck on the pleasant vacation spot known as Dathomir. After some initial run-ins with the wildlife ('HOW big did you say that thing is?' and 'It's eating our ship! It's eating the mother*BLEEP*ing SHIP!' were some of the more memorable quotes), we learned that the imps were harvesting the force-wielding natives for their sith-bot factories.

We couldn't let that continue.

Well, the imps came for the next village, and we took up arms to defend the place while the civilians were evacuated. We fought hard, and we fought well...but we were utterly and completely outgunned, outlightsabered (our one jedi had been an early casualty due to a strafing run from a gunboat) and outgeneralled.

In the end, they airdropped sithbots into the village, and it was every man, woman or alien for themselves.

My character was a Farghul (feline alien) fighter-type. Among other things, he had a phobia of all things force-related (that's a species trait for Farghul). He was also force-sensitive himself, which made for some funny RP, but that's another story entirely.

When the sithbots attacked, he shot one with his blaster. They came at him and cut the weapon apart. He drew his swords (vibroblades). He managed to take one down (a force-wielding enemy with a full-metal body, armed with a lightsaber...), then his swords were gone. He drew his stiletto. He was hit by some kind of tranq dart and dropped to the ground. He shook off the effects and rammed the stiletto through the metal foot of the sith-bot standing over him, nailing the droid to the ground. He staggered to his feet and grabbed a lightsaber from a fallen enemy...and attacked the sithbots again. By that time, he'd taken near-impossible amounts of damage and was only still conscious through sheer willpower. He kept fighting a hopeless fight. For every enemy he managed to take down or shake off, two others arrived.
But the scary thing was...they weren't trying to kill him. They were trying to take him alive. They were going to convert him into one of those horrible machines.
He decided that they wouldn't take him alive. He ran off towards the palisades surrounding the village, grabbing a spear from a dead native along the way. The sith-bots hot on his heels, he threw the spear into the palisade, jumped up on it and catapulted himself over the palisade...and down into the ravine the village overlooked.

A cool death scene, right? Well, there was only one 'problem': He survived. I had fully intended for the character to die in that jump, but the dice had other plans (and the GM made me use my remaining force points :P)...

[CoalHeart]

*puts on a Vader voice*

"Amusing attempt, Striker. Your pitiful attempt failed much like your predecessor."

*force chokeholds*

Bad monkey! Good story, but your character didn't die! He was too cool to die, and too dangerous to leave alive.

I had a similar story like that once. Involving a Thugged out Cyber Adept Troll freaking out on a house ruled version of PCP + Jazz + Kamakazi take out a Lone Star HR Team with his bare hands. Came out of that just shy of a deadly wound. The ensuing 8 point Hunted Flaw and 8 point Enemy flaw got to be a thorn in his side after a while. Good thing he was wearing a mask and gloves, only thing they have is DNA.

[Panzergeist]

One of my rigger characters died a great death. The team had a rush mission to recapture a stolen nerve gas canister from some terrorists and return it to the corp it was stolen from. The terrorists had already gotten the gas onto a train, and were thought to be planning to release it as soon as the train reached it's destination, so we had to board the train while it was moving.

My rigger flies his chopper over the train, matching speeds with it. The heavy weapons guy fires a harpoon into the roof of a boxcar near the rear, and the team slides down the rope. They proceed forward along the top and sides of the train. It's a cargo train, so they can't go inside the cars and walk from car to car like they could in a passenger train. Soon, terrorists pop out of the forward cars, and the team has to proceed under fire. I provide cover fire with my chin-mounted machine gun.

A tunnel is coming up, and the chopper is still stuck to the train by the harpoon cable. The harpoon gun is bolted to the floor inside the chopper, not controlled by the pilot. I shoot the cable with my machine gun, freeing myself. The tunnel is several klicks long, and I don't want to leave my team alone for that long. It's wide enough and high enough for me to fly in without smacking into a train coming the other way, and still be able to cover the sides and top of the train with my gun, albeit at terribly oblique angles. I fly into the tunnel behind the train, very glad that I have a control pool of 12 and a rotorcraft skill of 7. Flying behind the train, I manage to pick off two more terrorists and suppress several with my machine gun, all while flying through this tunnel. Then a train comes the other way, and I have to squeeze into the right half of the tunnel. I successfully do so, and miraculously pick off another terrorist on the top of the train while doing so.

My team is just getting close to the car with the nerve gas in it, but I find the terrorists have taken control of the engine and are speeding up the train in an attempt to get to their target and release the gas a few minutes ahead of schedule right before we can stop them. Just then, the terrs in the engine notice me following the train through the security camera on the back of the rear car. They hit the brakes. I smack into the rear of the train right as the car going the other way passes. My chopper rolls and bounces along the tracks, and finaly comes to a stop lying across both tracks, having somehow only taken deadly damage and left me with only serious damage.

Informing my team that the terrorists have taken over the engine, I pop some painkillers and get out of my seat. I am about to abandon the chopper, knowing that it is only a matter of time before another train comes, when it occurs to me that I have a blimp drone with a sniper rifle and some tiny bombs waiting on the other side of the tunnel. I can use it to damage the engines and slow down the train, and continue to cover my team, but only if my RC deck, hardwired into my chopper, survives. Praying silently, I pull out my tool kit and start removing the RC deck from the control panel. I manage to get it out just as the train is emerging from the tunnel. Scrambling out of the burning helicopter, I see a train coming. I rush to the side of the tunnel, getting clear of the tracks and the path my chopper will take as it is shoved ahead of the train.

The train hits my burning chopper, but I am clear of it's path. Unfortunately, the chopper's fuel tank explodes. I take another serious wound, and lay there for several minutes before I finaly bleed to death. But the mission goes on.

With my RC deck destroyed, the blimp drone obeys it's contingency plan, which tells it to return to base if it loses contact with me. The fastest way back to base is through the train tunnel the drone descends down to just a few meters above the track, where it can see into the tunnel and see the train rushing at it. It tries to go back up out of the train's way, but is too slow. The train smacks into it. The blimp explodes, disabling the lead engine, but not derailing the train or anything. The crippled lead engine can still roll along the tracks, but with one engine disabled, the train goes much slower, giving my team the time it needs to secure the nerve gas.

[RedmondLarry]

Bug City. The male character who chose to hang out with the beautiful woman who was coming on to him instead of returning to the sanctuary at the Wrigley Dome with the rest of the team. She was a Mantis spirit, along with the other beautiful women in their 'club'. After great sex they had him host a male mantis spirit. A week later, when the team returned, they reported he'd died in a Beetle attack. They gave his armor and weapons back to the team.

Bug City. The fox shapeshifter that cut off her fingers to feed some ghouls. The fingers regenerated and the ghouls were amazed. Later they kidnapped her, kept her tied up, and their community ate her arms and legs whenever they regrew. Well, actually, this wasn't a character death, so perhaps it doesn't count.