How do you want your character's career to end?

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Baron
I have been thinking about this social thought exploration for several days now, ever since I saw a facebook post about someone thinking they would be okay with their character dying in a particular way. It struck me as odd at first, but then it occurred to me that I do not want my character to die. In fact, I have invested significantly in my character, financially and (more importantly) emotionally, such that I am not certain what I would do if my main (Alavatar) died before I was ready. Then I realized I do not know what would make me ready to lose my character.

With my secondary character I was actively trying to get him permanently killed. I didn't have the same attachment to him that I have to Alavatar, and I purposefully chose to play this secondary character as a bit of thrill seeker, so I expected him to permanently die sometime (it was sooner than I thought, but it was not disappointing).
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My question is two-fold:

1. What needs to occur for you to be okay for your primary character to become unplayable? Is there a story you want your character to tell? A story you want the character to participate in? A character bucket-list to achieve? etc.

2. How do you want your primary character to die? In glorious battle? Of old age after telling the young whipper-snappers what adventuring was like back in your day? In sacrifice to some greater ideal? etc.
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I'll go first:

1. I would be okay with Alavatar no longer being available to play if any of the following happens:
* His power exceeds what should be on this plane of existence (i.e. becomes a Shadow Mage that exists on two planes at once, ascends to be a powerful extra-planar creature, etc.) (this is where my personal megalomania desires get satisfied)
* A romance gets fostered IG that would cause him to retire the adventuring life and pursue a quiet scholarly life of study and teaching while raising a family.
* He dies defending his passion, Celestial Magic (i.e. if there was something that threatened to destroy Celestial Magic, getting destroyed in it's defense would be acceptable, especially if his destruction ensured the survival of Celestial Magic)

2. To be honest, immortality through ascension, dying of old age with family, or defending/strengthening Celestial Magic are, to me, the best options of "killing off" my favorite character.
 
So, I may rustle a few jimmies with this.

While it's the goal of plot to provide great and heroic stories, I feel we shouldn't shy away from the end goals of characters not being met because they die. I look at all the great RP that came out of the permanent deaths in the PNW this past year and think to myself how sad it would have been if they didn't happen. Yes, they were tragic, and yes the people involved did not achieve their character goals, but those things being cut short are exactly what makes for a great story.

What I interpret you really talking about is, when and how do you feel your character should retire? All three of those are retirement plans that you should contact your plot team about when ready to retire your character (there are many reasons one might want to retire a character before they die). They're a narrative driven end to a particular character and laudable ones at that. Looking at that, I want my character to reach dual school 4 column 40 formal. He wants to eventually be able to write formal magic scrolls. The day he can do that is the day I retire him and he goes home, as his reason for adventuring is over. He can go live a happy life in his Vale having solved the riddle of where Formal Scrolls come from. :)
 
I'm really odd in my roleplaying style in that I expect a significant chance for any PC to permanently die at any event/game. It adds realism to my role playing to know that any adventure could be my last. I've had practice with this mindset because I started my LARP career in a game that did not have a resurrection system. Death count = Life spell or instant perm. I held the record for most PC deaths (13 PCs in three years of play) in that particular LARP.

Specifically to answer the questions of this thread, for my PC Cho Ko Nu, almost all the adventurers he started with five years ago have either permed or retired (or the player moved away), and almost all of them had long-term goals that were not achieved or died in pursuit of them. I don't have any specific end-goal for Cho Ko Nu by intention of his personality as a foolish, impulsive, in-the-moment gambler. In fact, I don't think he's capable of long-term planning at all.

This often leads to poor decision making, such as advocating temporary use of necromancy and running off with bandits. Additionally, a favorite battle tactic of his that has been used on numerous infamous occasions is to pretend to join the bad guys in an attempt to win their trust before betraying them with a surprise attack. He has been turned into an undead and enslaved quite a few times this way. In that respect, it would be fitting for Cho to finally die as a result of one of these poor decisions, or when the other adventurers get sick of his crap and just take him out themselves. Either would make sense and I'd be totally ok with it.
 
I don't necessarily think that having ideal goals or character death/retirement ideas is setting yourself up for disappointment, so long as you keep in mind that you may never achieve them.

To answer the questions posed,

When will I be "done" with Roann?: When he dies or completes his goals. In the interest of maintaining some mystery I won't elaborate on his goals, but they are somewhat mercurial and not likely to be accomplished as they are largely antagonistic, at least in their current state. In short I don't expect he'll accomplish his goals at current as they would ruin the game for everyone else and I don't really want that OOG.
I would be equally satisfied with him dying as the enemy, being thwarted by other players in his attempt to realize his goals.
Being found out preemptively in a nefarious attempt at one of his goals and fighting to the death would be excellent as well so long as plot allowed me some vile death-monologue before final death.
I would also be satisfied with Roann if somehow, some way he was converted or altered into a benevolent creature, absorbed into a greater power, or employed as something above PC power level and left as an NPC to return some day to wreak havoc.
Basically anything that would end this chapter of his career or end his life as he knows it would be perfect and I'm not more inclined towards success or failure, just closure in general.
I would love to get to the point where plot has to say: "Wow, okay... You've done really well playing this character, but we need to make him an NPC, you're welcome to run him for us when we need him." or to the point where the other players have to say "How did it get this far? We need to do something about this now." so we can all sit around the smoke pit and talk about that time I played a really intriguing jerkwad and contributed to player-driven plot. I would be equally happy to see him turned somehow and die a noble hero serving a higher purpose while combatting the rumours of all the horrifying things he did in his life and having his valor forever questioned.

Ultimately I'm satisfied playing a developed and deep character, and whatever end that reaches is a satisfactory end to me so long as there is a story involved.
 
In spite of his opposition to titles, military structure, and all that sort of nonsense, Briar is a soldier at heart. As long as he goes down fighting I'll be happy with him perming. I'd love to have him go down finishing off the Corrupt or defending his people or something like that, but there's no specific list of things I need to get done.
 
Oh man.

Zeth has finally reached a point where, in my opinion, he can't afford to die right now. He's involved in stuff at a level he wasn't before, and now has a pretty large family.

How would I want Zeth to go...I'm not sure I can answer that, because at this moment, I don't want him to. I suppose once he's completed more accomplishments, and feels satisfied he has done his part for the Earth and for Order....maybe I could see a way I'd want him to go out. Until then, the name of the game is live to tomorrow!
 
I would definitely say that I dont expect Karzel to die at any given time. I know it is possible but its never an expectation. He has been saved from the verge of resurrection a number of times.

That being said, I would want him to die saving his family (extended included) or saving an innocent NPC. Karzel is not a hero. So for him to die heroically will be the 'Ah ha!' moment for him where he realizes he has been working towards being a hero the whole time.
 
Executed for treason after stealing something that makes even the person or Kingdom I stole it from pin a "that was awesome" medal on my chest before starting the oblit.
 
Draven said:
Oh man.How would I want Zeth to go...I'm not sure I can answer that, because at this moment, I don't want him to. I suppose once he's completed more accomplishments, and feels satisfied he has done his part for the Earth and for Order....maybe I could see a way I'd want him to go out. Until then, the name of the game is live to tomorrow!
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I didn't want Cael to die either, buddy! Sometimes the Winterless Vale calls...

With Durnic, I have numerous personal goals I wish to accomplish before I could consider him "ready" to die.
 
Angrag, I hope to retire and turn into an NPC for Plot's use.

Otho is going to explode.
 
With any luck, we'll turn V into a greater undead per an urban legend about her tribe in its race packet and turn her in to plot for NPC use.

Abbath is just going to swing that stupid cudgel until her arms fall off and she exsanguinates from, you know, her arms falling off and bleeding everywhere.
 
I would like Shelk to die protecting Oakpalm and innocents, as Cael would do. Then she can join the Winterless Vale as well. Or, you know, going batshit crazy after being tipped too far off the "can't deal with grief" edge.

I have no idea what would make her unplayable because that already happened and she's still playable. Maybe Alcandar going full dark-side and dragging her down with him.
 
For Ashok, I will retire him when I feel that he is ready to return to be a productive member of his society. I didn't start him with a planned story arc, but as I've played him, I have come to see his story as a bildungsroman. So if he is to die, I would prefer that he die in a way that is consistent with the lessons he's learned since entering play. If he were to perm differently than that, it would be unfortunate, but that's the game we play. I would hope that it would generate some good RP for others, and I think that any way it ends his story has been awesome.
 
This is sort of a tough one for Amory since I didn't really expect her to live past her first couple games... and here I am still playing her going on roughly two years now...

I still expect she'll die doing something stupid, since she's kinda good at that. Either somewhere she isn't supposed to be, or for someone she probably shouldn't trust. If I had my druthers, she'd go back home to tell her tribe of her travels and the world outside their forest. Barring that, falling to protect her new Family or one of her Sisters {even if it's from themselves ~.^ } would give her an ending I'd be pretty happy with.
 
beboped said:
For Ashok, I will retire him when I feel that he is ready to return to be a productive member of his society. I didn't start him with a planned story arc, but as I've played him, I have come to see his story as a bildungsroman. So if he is to die, I would prefer that he die in a way that is consistent with the lessons he's learned since entering play. If he were to perm differently than that, it would be unfortunate, but that's the game we play. I would hope that it would generate some good RP for others, and I think that any way it ends his story has been awesome.
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Probably with excessive amounts of necromancy, that jerk.
 
How I would want my character's story to end...

I would want to finally realize my character's ultimate goal of turning himself into a Greater Ancient Lich. He would then want to kill all of his friends and transform them into Greater Undead so their friendship can last forever. Then together, with their ever-growing hive of defeated foes, they'd conquer the Ancient Guardians and raze the Kingdoms of Fortannis to the ground, killing everyone else and creating them as Undead to be their willing slaves, purging all unworthy of their greatness. Their kingdom shall last forever and ever, as the Overmind decrees.
 
There are a few steps to ultimate magical competence. Dragon Mage, Shadow Mage, Arch Mage, transcending into complete mastery of all forms of magic. Earth magic, celestial magic, ritual magic, dragon magic, blood magic, right on up to Time magic.
 
I feel like Tvard is going to die in the dumbest way possible, and will be quickly forgotten. It's just kind of his MO.

Jorma will die screaming profanity at Somebody You Shouldn't Yell At.
 
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