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Catsnightmare
QUOTE (Azrael)
Handed the bloke a slice of pizza, fresh glass of coke and said:

"Did you really think it was a good idea to fire an panther assault cannon into an LPG storage faciliity?"

If he honest-to-ghost did that, then why isn't the rest of the team and the surrounding 7+ city blocks all dead.
mintcar
I canīt remember the first time a character died while I was GM. But I do remember that when we where like 10 years old and started playing for real there was tears flowing when stuff like that happened. The first character of mine that died I do remember. I was playing with a class mate that usually played with some older guys. He was being totally unfair. Me and my friends characters where measly tramps with improvised weapons and his older friends were near gods with technological weaponry. It was a swedish game not unlike Gamma World. My character was a mutated gorilla with scales. We got to this underground lab. and we spread out to check it out. Then some robot knocked me out from behind. No fight or anything. And the poor gorilla met a sadistic and humiliating end in some labratory after that. It was harsh times to be sure. When I started to GM myself I was a lot nicer. I think? ohplease.gif
Enigma
If some work went into the character, I'm fine with saving them in various ways - fast EMT response, doctor on the scene, "you pass out and wake up in some sort of ritual magic circle with no clothes on and your testicles painted blue", you know, the usual stuff. Yes they take a hit (cash wise, reputation wise, loss-of-gear wise or something) but at least they're alive.

If they do something stupid, Hand of God exists. This means each character gets a one free pass on a stupid death.

If the character was made using the black sticky bits of their twisted little brains then they're dead and I don't care. The type of characters I'm referring to are, for example (when generating a background):

"Umm, yeah, well I've got Ninjitsu and, yeah, I like knives. Hey, let's all play ninjas, that'll be so COOOOOL. We can be from the same bad-ass school and have tatoos and stuff. Do we really need a stealth skill to play Ninjas?, because I can spend those points so much better on Heavy Weapons and Launch Weapons and other things."

or ...

"so, he's got assault rifles because I just bought CC and he usually carries that MGL-6 thing with like thirty magazines of grenades and so on. And, he always carries four knives, even in the shower and has two backup pistols JUST IN CASE and also silencers and so on. And I managed to get his initiative up to an average roll of 400. And, I've bought a car and it's got forty points of concealed armour but you can't see it because it's concealed and I painted the car black. And, he has pretty much this entire column of gear here, and all of those, and sixty of these things because they're cool, and whatever the coolest sniper rifle is. Oh yeah, character background, umm, he's ex-military and I'll figure out the rest later."

or ...

"yeah, he's from the streets and he like, ruled some gangs and stuff, and then he got approached by the yakuza and worked for them for a bit and he was so damn good they put cyberware in him and then the yakuza clan, like every single one of them, got killed by mysterious ninja assassins from japan so now I'm a runner and can I take four yakuza oyabuns as contacts because I've written it into my background?"

or ...

"where's that random generator thingy from CP2020? OK, I'm a male human causican guy who is (d10 sound) 27, (d10 sound) from a corporate background but am now (d10 sound) hunted by (d10 sound) Arasaka. No, wait, what game are we playing again?"

or my personal favourite ...

"he was in the military in this special ops group, and he was a gunnery sergeant because they're the COOL rank, and then he left the military but the military thinks he's dead and now he's a shadowrunner. What do you mean there needs to be more? Oh, right, you want the battalion name? Umm, the panthers, no wait, the vipers, no wait, the scorpions, no wait, the cougars, no wait, the roughnecks. Where are you going? If you leave before the game starts, does that mean I get karma to spend for next time?"
DarkShade
heh, with my old GM we always meant to buy an old fashioned ink stamp/seal, in huge gothic letters with the words S A D , to stamp it on precisely that kind of backgrounds.. or on the head of the player submitting them.. we never got around to it though nyahnyah.gif


-note: our players werent that bad but sometimes we gm`ed in conventions and the stuff you see there sometimes.. * shiver* ..

DS
Cable
"There are two types of PCs. Those that are dead, and those that will be."
Lindt
Oddly I have only KILLED one PC. And that was scripted. His brother turned up (the brother was a compeating J) basicly had a short conversation with him, and stuffed a Scorp into his back.
I did on one session dole out some 9 Deadly wounds. Blasted shamens healing everyone...but then force 8 treats do tend to do that when it has a totem bonus.
Canid13
My policy on stupid actions from players is simple - Stupidity Kills. Though if the stupid act is funny and not too stupid I usually allow a reasonable chance of survival. However for the most part, my players do that all by themselves usually by coming up with plans which I hadn't thought of and completely bypassing the bad guys :o)

I've come close to killing a player once and one kinda died by it wasn't my fault.

The 'close call' was an extraction from a corp facility. The target was in a subteranean lab so the PC's absail down the lift cables and get out into the foyer by the lab. The team decker is running overwatch and the weapon specialist is guarding the cables to the lab building and the decker (in a building across the street). The decker misses one of the slaves for the cameras and so doesn't warn the team about a guard in med sec armour with a burst firing heavy pistol. Failed surprise tests and two simple actions later, the sam is on the floor and into overflow. The team had gotten the target and were on the way out when this happened, so the cat shaman high tails it up the lift shaft.

Meanwhile the weapon specialist is on his way over to rescue his chummer. He passes the cat shaman, who still keeps high tailing. He drops down the lift shaft like a stone and manages to pull the sammy back up with him. The cat shaman destroys the stealth line just as the two get back then stabilises the sammy just as the last box of overflow gets filled in. I allowed the spell to work - but invoked Hand of God and didn't make the shaman fall down through drain.

The one that wasn't my fault was really odd. Couple of my players couldn't make the session, including the rigger, but I decided to run the courier mission I'd written anyway since I had too for the timeline to work out right. So, the weapon specialist drives the car and a new char (regular player wanting to try something different - implant intolerant drifter with 3 skills, athletics, bike and shotgun, and an aspiration to be a combat biker) rides the bike (included that for the new char).

Anyway, to cut a long story, the team gets attacked so it turns into a running firefight down the interstate. The team is in a van with a LMG on a ring mount - the new PC dwarf weapon specialist is using that, the human weapon specialist is driving and my wolf is shooting out the back. However the biker with no VCR has split off and is tailed by an NPC biker with VCR, so tries to lose the tail in some woods. The NPC makes an impossible perception test (TN 14 or something) and reacquires the PC - at which point the players says "I stop and get off my bike and wait for him to kill me."

I gave the player ample opportunity to survive, even offered to send a pair of spirits to bring the body back for the shaman to heal but the player didn't want too. I only had to put up with sulking for a couple of days on that one.

Still, each one has taught me something - like the combat rules for vehicles are very harsh on non-riggers and that burst firing heavy pistols are tres nasty :o)

To answer the question though, I did feel bad about the biker since it was a no-win situation for the PC. The sammy who couldn't stage a pair of 12S with 7 points of armour I didn't - sometimes the fates just ain't with you.
Jrayjoker
Yeah, the concensus should be, "Stupidity Kills." I tend to give my folks some slack if they are new to the system, or I didn't discuss expectations with the players.

However, when I am dealing with someone who refuses to find cover facing two trolls in milspec armor on higher ground with LMGs and a locked gate at his back, the PC typpically dies. Do I feel bad, maybe....
Canid13
QUOTE (Jrayjoker)
However, when I am dealing with someone who refuses to find cover facing two trolls in milspec armor on higher ground with LMGs and a locked gate at his back, the PC typpically dies. Do I feel bad, maybe....

If you do then you're a better man than I, because in that situation the gloves come off and I try to kill - that's nor stupidity that's suicide by troll :o)
Jrayjoker
Yeah, it turned into that. And I quote,

Him: "I pull out my silenced predator and shoot the one on the left."
Me: "The one with gel rounds because you don't like to kill?"
Him: "Yeah.....oh."
Me: "Say G'night Gracie"
Canid13
ROFLMAO
Traks
Yup, nice stories. My players usually kill themselves. But I do enjoy a little their deaths smile.gif I do not kill players if they haven't done stupid things though.
There are too countless PC's that have seen death to remember all.

One of stupidest PC death's: "I find ghoul and let him bite me. You know, I will be stronger and like, cool"
Me: "You found one. Deeply in sewers"
He: "Cool, I force his teeth into my arm"
Me: "You wake up. It's 9.00 and you think you should go to certain building. Why, you don't remember."
He: "Oh yes, job. I put on a hat and go. Rolls hide, defaulting". And rolls really crappily.
Me: "You come in, and hear people screaming It's a ghoul, kill that monster!"

So he died, because he worked in security firm and people tend to have guns there smile.gif
U_Fester
I couldnt' help but feel like Satan...
TeOdio
I whacked a PC my first time running a game. My buddy took the elven combat mage archtype out of 1st edition. He may have modified it, but all I remember was the fact he had 1 body. Even with the old armor rules (automatic successes), the Ares Predator round I cored him out with was pretty devastating. The rest of the pc's decided to chuck his body out of the high rise office they were in to create a "diversion". I personally feel that Shadowrun should be run with a dystopian flair. The PC's really are the underdogs in the grand scheme of things. They should have their victories, but the threat of death/capture/possession/subversion should always hang over their heads. nuyen.gif
Daishi
I think I asked which back-up character he planned on using next. Everybody here has a character stable, and we tend to play high lethality games. I'm trying to develop a bit more into storylines (not my strong suit, but I'm working on it) and sudden infantry death syndrome seems to derail for the most part, so I'm trying to tone down lethality without reducing the sense of danger. Of course during a recent session the team liked to derail that by assaulting the base from behind. Not too bad an idea on the surface except that the rear of the base is a 300m cliff face. So they're going to climb it. In the rain. With one set of climbing gear for six guys. One man was cliff pizza. The same one who was wounded during the HALO jump into mountain jungle. At night. Through the rain. *sigh*

It was damn cool that most of them survived to pull it off, though.
DocMortand
QUOTE (Daishi)
...sudden infantry death syndrome seems to derail for the most part...

Sudden Infantry Death Syndrome... grinbig.gif niiiice

Of course, I really shouldn't talk - I'm still trying to find a way to give my runners a less lethal atmosphere while still keeping it challenging. Kill count is 2 now...nearly 3...and approximately 1-2 deadly wounds taken per game.

Mrr...
FrostyNSO
I've killed more PC's than I can count.

After the first. A troll gunbunny killed by a little girl's bodyguard. I thought "Hmmm, maybe I should make the opposition a little lighter."

We lost 5 last session. 2 bit it while HALO jumping into the Containment Zone, insisting that they would get enough successes to survive opening their chutes below the minimum safe altitude. The other 3 died when one of the characters (henceforth known as "The Chicago Butcher") cut loose the suppressive fire with a vehicle-mounted .50 cal at a temporary medical clinic (tent-city style).
DocMortand
What year are you playing in? Is Chicago still Bug City in your campaign? I know I started my campaign in mid-'58, so the Containment Zone was no more, altho Chicago was still a semi-wasteland from all the local warlords.

Made me cry, the whole Bug City thing...I was born and grew up in Chicago, and still shake my head that FanPro finally decided to recreate the ancient Chicago Cubs in SOTA64 as an expansion team. Bleh. As if the Cubs would go bankrupt or move with the guy who owns the Chicago Tribune owning them nowadays....

Heh...in my last game, another char came within one initiative pass of dying. He survived barely...and got a payday of 673K nuyen each(massive hijack of Renraku SOTA drone parts and they got away with it!)

Of course, the Renraku Shutdown looms on the horizon, and I have plans *muahah*
FrostyNSO
We don't really set a "year". Most GM's I'm sure would sneer at this, but in our game it is both 2050 and 2065, and at the same time is neither. We started in 2060 and I think it's rolled into 2063 just now. The containment zone is still up (because we said it was), warlords still run the place, and it's pretty well demolished. The Arcology is still shut down, and Ghostwalker hasn't demolished Denver.

Now that I think of it, none of it really matters. We have an experienced group (lowest member pushing 100 karma), but I've been so successful at keeping them busy that they're not really interested in a lot of that stuff. We're 'street-level' in good part, but the PC's have the connections to get bigger if they want. They don't want to though, because they're trying not to draw too much attention to themselves. Unbeknownst to them, they're actually becoming heavy hitters on the streets, and starting to affect more people than they know.
Canid13
In my campaign, none of the Harlequin stuff has happened yet although we know about immortal elves. The CZ still exists (I didn't know it wasn't to be honest), and the Arc is opened now. Ghostwalker is about and the Big D is dead :o(

Kinda mixed up, but it's only 2064.... we've a few more decades to go yet :o)
DocMortand
QUOTE (FrostyNSO)
We don't really set a "year". Most GM's I'm sure would sneer at this, but in our game it is both 2050 and 2065, and at the same time is neither. We started in 2060 and I think it's rolled into 2063 just now. The containment zone is still up (because we said it was), warlords still run the place, and it's pretty well demolished. The Arcology is still shut down, and Ghostwalker hasn't demolished Denver.

Now that I think of it, none of it really matters. We have an experienced group (lowest member pushing 100 karma), but I've been so successful at keeping them busy that they're not really interested in a lot of that stuff. We're 'street-level' in good part, but the PC's have the connections to get bigger if they want. They don't want to though, because they're trying not to draw too much attention to themselves. Unbeknownst to them, they're actually becoming heavy hitters on the streets, and starting to affect more people than they know.

Hey, I wouldn't sneer at you. JUst because there is a canon timeline does not mean you have to stick with it. I know in my campaign, the way things are shaping up I may be forced to deviate from the timeline myself, and if you want to pick and choose what events are happening, that's perfectly fine!

Heh...your campiagn sounds interesting to me actually. *snif* poor chicago...

The reason I'm sticking closer to the timeline is because my group seems to like doing high profile runs...not street-level. So they are getting into the movers and shakers of society (and all the pitfalls therein). Granted, they're not nearly as experienced as your group (40-50 karma or so), so this may be dangerous...
Wounded Ronin
A lot of these campaigns sound really colorful and interesting. Not like mine; sniffle. biggrin.gif
Traks
Well then, be a GM and show them what a good campaign means.
I mean, I can say that everything sucks and be a freakin pessimist or I can work and let things to change, usually for better.
Striker
QUOTE (Enigma)
*snip*

Enigma...let me just tell you, I feel your pain.

Anyway...here's my GMing guidelines:
  • If it's not the player's fault, I usually let them live. Getting them stabilized, having a doctor in the vicinity, hand-of-god if all else fails. I try not to let any PC fall to simple bad luck.
  • If it's due to bad tactics (like underestimating the opposition or blowing your cover on a stealth job) or crazy stunts, I give no freebies but allow hand-of-god.
  • If it's due to blatant and obvious stupidity, like the infamous 'frontal charge without cover while blowing all combat pool on the first attack' maneuver...that character is toast. Hand of god? God doesn't want to touch you, creep. God hates you.
GaiasWrath8
Oh I have to tell my story here.

My first game of Shadowrun was being run by this guy named Ryan, he was a great GM. His best friend was a crazy nut named Nathean.

Nathean killed my first character with in 5 hours of play. Said he did not trust me and I might have been working for some corp. I had no clue how to play yet so it was not much fun.

Next game I came in, within two hours he shot me in the back of the head.

Next game, I came in with a area effect craineal bomb. smile.gif He might have killed me, but I took him and another player out with me. smile.gif

After that he stopped killing me.
Jrayjoker
That guy sounds like a real punk. Or was it fun for you? biggrin.gif
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.
fistandantilus4.0
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
QUOTE (Vaevictis)
If your characters die in the normal progress of the story, that means that they weren't smart enough.

Not true. I had a PC die in a game I was running due to another PC jumping the gun and attacking a group of unknown enemies who had staked out the meeting spot the runners were dropping off the target of an extraction. The "bad guys" already had weapons drawn, with proper vision mods for the low-light conditions, as well as a mage. The situation was not good, especially since the baddies were ready to fight, and outnumbered the PCs.

So a PC whips out his AK,to the surprise of the other players, and initiative is rolled. Mage, with +3d6 Init (spell) goes first, unfortunately, and after a fairly long firefight, a character who would have never acted so impulsively got gunned down.
Her body was then promptly looted by the trigger-happy PC.

The worst thing is, this was a player who has been playing for years, whose character was killed by a one-time player, with a one-shot character. An albino dwarf with ruthenium dermal sheathing and fangs, to be precise.

Idiot teammates can get you killed, too.
Critias
QUOTE (Supercilious)
I laugh, I enjoy killing my PC's more than anything else in the game.

Wow, so you're a bully, huh? That's cool. When you've got the entire world to throw at your hapless players, it's easy to be a tough guy.

Why do people show up to your games, if you like killing them so much, and do it so quickly? Do they just, I dunno, really like character creation or something?
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.gif 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
fistandantilus4.0
QUOTE (Capt. Dave)
The worst thing is, this was a player who has been playing for years, whose character was killed by a one-time player, with a one-shot character. An albino dwarf with ruthenium dermal sheathing and fangs, to be precise.


That's just wrong. If I was runnning that one, I would've had you stabelize automatically. Then give you the fun of tracking down senior' trigger-happy.

2 karma for you
mfb
QUOTE (supercilious)
I laugh, I enjoy killing my PC's more than anything else in the game.

that's, uh, a real accomplishment, there. killing characters in a game where you control all the variables? that's what the kids call skill.
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...
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
QUOTE (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.

I still say you should have gotten perception tests to notice he was alone and not shoot. Did both PCs have reflex triggers?
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.
fistandantilus4.0
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 biggrin.gif )"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 Steel Rat
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.
fistandantilus4.0
QUOTE (Jrayjoker)
That I can see. But he only came close....

They thought he was dead. 2 sniper rounds to the chest!?

Hell, we both thought he was dead, until we remembered body overflow

and there have been a few HOG's, but that was the best illustration of reminding them of their mortality. And believe me, they took it to heart well
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. nyahnyah.gif
Supercilious
QUOTE (Supercilious)
I laugh, I enjoy killing my PC's more than anything else in the game.


QUOTE (Critias)
Wow, so you're a bully, huh? That's cool. When you've got the entire world to throw at your hapless players, it's easy to be a tough guy.

Why do people show up to your games, if you like killing them so much, and do it so quickly? Do they just, I dunno, really like character creation or something?


QUOTE (mfb)
that's, uh, a real accomplishment, there. killing characters in a game where you control all the variables? that's what the kids call skill.


---

I was unclear in how my game is played, we do not play a particularly story heavy game, it is a rotating GM competition. (Which is not to say that we do not appreciate a nice story-driven campaign, it is just not the current style of our game)

Each GM runs one session then switches, the acting one-session GM writes or has written out one "mission." If the players can complete the mission, they win. If the players fail at the mission and die/pull out, the GM wins, our average run consists of a lot of planning to beat the traps that the GM has put into the mission, and a lot of leg work to find out what those traps are. If a mission was 100% unbeatable then yes it would be dumb, but overcoming a fixed challenge is a lot of fun.
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. frown.gif

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.gif
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