Suggestion: Heroic deaths and sedate retirement

[Pen N Popper]

I'd like to suggest that instead of ten tokens, you get ten tokens plus one death.  Upon receiving your tenth token you now know for a fact that your very next death will be your last.

So what, you ask?  What this allows is players to choose the ending for the characters.  Some may choose to retire to a tavern and spin tales.  Others may look for an opportunity to sacrifice their lives for the greater good.  Of course, some will just take it as more time to hunt dire bear and eventually die the lonely death under an unseeing virtual sky.

My issue with the current system is that the chance for heroic endings is based more on chance.  In nearly all cases we are crossing our fingers that we don't get that tenth token and perm.  When we live it's a breathed sigh of relief, and when the roll stinks it's a surprising bit of pain.  A chance to go out on your own terms seems a more fitting end to the story.

What do you think about this idea?  If you knew your next death was guaranteed to be your last, how would you play your favorite PC?  Would you perhaps schedule a CDQ to go out in style?

[osxmallard]

This answer is easy.  Yes.

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

that would be awesome.  And it still works within the system.  Donno how feasible it would be to make work but, I'd go for it.  Would give us all just a lil more control over our PCs true death.  and might even bring some old PCs back into the light

And yeah, if Shiff got his 10th DT, I'd definately want a CDQ for Shiff to go down the way I think he should, doing something Heroicly Stupid

[jan]

that would be awesome.  And it still works within the system.  Donno how feasible it would be to make work but, I'd go for it.  Would give us all just a lil more control over our PCs true death.  and might even bring some old PCs back into the light

And yeah, if Shiff got his 10th DT, I'd definately want a CDQ for Shiff to go down the way I think he should, doing something Heroicly Stupid

Ermmm...isnt EVERYTHING Shiff does " Heroicly Stupid " ?

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

Ermmm...isnt EVERYTHING Shiff does " Heroicly Stupid " ?

SHHH!!!  Yer not supposed to tell anyone!!!

[Pseudonym]

I like the idea .. though the first thought that came to mind is why couldn't you do exactly this after your 9th SS loss under the current system? You can effectively 'perm' a character at any time of your choosing, just don't play them again.

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

Cause it lets the player get some more time, then when 10 hits, they know its over, but get some more control over how...  Im sure some would just say "they're dead now" but others might wanna have more of a choice

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

While this doesn't mesh well with my current understanding of how it works in-game, I personally like the idea. It helps alleviate the constant fear of a totally anti-climactic death, if only a teensey bit. Essentially, now that you know your character's toast, they can retire for good, or you can find something more fitting for them.

Perhaps if it was made so that the characters with ten DTs A) would not perm on death unless they were forced to respawn - making Resurrection and Raise Dead (and thusly, player interaction) much more important to them, B) did not gain any XP through adventuring, but still gained it through quests (in an attempt to lessen the idea of "ooh, lookie, I got another DT to go through," and replace it with "perhaps, if my character, through endless luck and a few heroic miracles, can find a way to have a few Strands reattached...").

Does that make any sense?

The idea, here, would be to promote RP, without lessening the importance of that 10th Strand loss.

[darkstorme]

@ Stephen -

While often, your ideas delight me, this one, I'm afraid, I have to shoot down, for the same reasoning that supports my most recent DT thread post.

Your tenth strand loss is the end.  Allowing for additional strands through achieving epic status would cheapen that final death - it would just move the 9th strand ahead, and make the final strand somewhat more fragile.  PnP's suggestion, as I read it, is a chance for one last hoorah, a chance to go out with a bang (or off into the sunset, as you prefer), rather than some ignominious death.  It's not a final reprieve, a chance for desperate men (and women) to scrabble for another hope of survival.

While I think PnP's idea is a neat one, I'm still not certain I support it simply due to the significant changes to the death system it would entail.  But if it were implemented, I'd hope that once the 10th (or 15th) strand is lost, no further XP could be gathered - that the final death/retirement would be seen as a swan song, a chance to tie things up - not a chance to gain one more level.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Fair enough - though the idea of advancement through quests was as much for the likes of Keel as Rahth.

Cutting off all XP gain, then, with the same stipulations about what sort of death would qualify - a respawned death.

[merlin34baseball]

I love this idea... Tyrian would go into Pranzis fireballing away... knowing that the death was the last. I just don't want her to get her 10th doing something silly like mining opals. But with proper GM interaction she could lay waste to several buildings... (the palace) and give rise to an underground of ruffians in the sewers of PRANZIS... long live Tyrian the martyr of PRANZIS!

[EdTheKet]

Tyrian would go into Pranzis fireballing away... knowing that the death was the last. I just don't want her to get her 10th doing something silly like mining opals. But with proper GM interaction she could lay waste to several buildings... (the palace) and give rise to an underground of ruffians in the sewers of PRANZIS... long live Tyrian the martyr of PRANZIS!

Which is exactly why I don't like the idea, because OOCly the player knows the next death is the last, so they have the character go off and do something they would normally never do.
And then there'd be all of these "heroically stupid" (if I can borrow the term actions which would normally never have happened.

[Pen N Popper]

Actually, I think it's the opposite:  Knowing that the next death is the last, a player might choose to do something heroic that the character would do but that the player has been afraid to do in the past.  Attacking Prantz like that might be entirely IC but the player had no wish to end their PC prematurely by doing such.

I agree in general that the idea is flawed and that players would likely just use the extra time to mule their stuff and make wills.

In reality, those of us that do wish to die heroically can choose to do so at any time.  If I took the 9th token to be my 10th, then I would have the chance to set up the final death on my own terms.  The only benefit of having the system coded in would be that it would become part of the culture of players, instead of the rare oddball.

[asavoca]

Perhaps one could RP the last death in this way:  When the Soul Mother took my last strand, she showed me a premonition of my own final ending, my own death.  The player could then make up the rest of their "road" so to speak.

It would make for interesting development of the character from the point where the last strand is lost forward as the character, recognizing their own mortality, makes plans for death.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Or maybe it's just that with no Strands to hold your soul to the Mortal Coil, when your body goes caput, your soul goes piff.

[Masterjack]

I prefer the current system. You can still do the heroic death or sedate retirement upon reaching your last Soul Strand. Let me expand on that. I had my character Beli at level 18 with only 1 SS left. I played him mostly on quests and less on adventuring. I did that mostly because I did not want him to die gathering mindless CNR. I also did it because if Beli died due to a game problem the GM would be there to confirm it and return a SS. The other reason was so that he would die doing something noble or out with a bang.

 I did all that, made it to level 21 got SMD and 5 more Soul Strands. I now have a character that has done alot in the world. I would even say that I'm proud of what he has done. Now when he gets to his last SS again I will make the decision of either retiring him or going out with a bang by going on quests.

So needless to say it can be done. The choice is yours.