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View Full Version : Killing PC's



oxinabox
2011-11-16, 09:10 AM
So last week I willed my first PC. (At least the first I can remember)
This is after GMing around 17 campaigns, and uncountable one shots, over the last 4-5 years.

Actually thats a lie, a few months ago I haePCself scarificeina wushu oneshot.
(via their own"This will make the story more epic" - Wushu really is about group story telling)

So the PC started with a Drawback - "Deathseeker" (also called "Dishonoured") which ment he was cast out from his family, and the only way he could even begin to cleans the dishour from his name was to find glorious death in battle.
THe PC's had gone to the City of the Lost
(http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/City_of_the_Lost), but instead of finding it full of peope (The Lost), it was full of goblins, trying to be people.
They were taken to the Dark Lord Diagotsu (http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Daigotsu). Who was of course another goblin.
He (and everyone around him) maintained the cherrade thatevery thing was normal and they were all humans and this was the spider clan.
Now this PC also had a disadantage "Can't Lie" which make him make a will save everytime someone lied infront of him (Else he had to point it out).
[He had alot of drawbacks - for some reason instead of getting cool class features, his class gavehim a bunch of "Free" disadvantages]]

This lead "Diagotsu" (Or DiaGoblinstu in this case), to challange him to a duel (or maybe it happened the other way - in anycase once the PC started failing will saves a Duel was the only logical conclusion)
Diagoblintsu was actually a demon immitatinga goblin immittating Diagotsu.
His starts were roughly the same as Diagotsu's at -3 (with a couple of tweeks)
It was going to be a tough fight 5 times in 7 DiaGoblintsu would have wonl, and this was on of those times.

The PC got the Glorious Death he was 'destined' to have - he Died fighting the most powerful (and evil) man in the world
- at least the arguement could be made that he did: Since the duel was over wherether DiaGoblintsu was really diagostu, and diagoblinstu won. (THerefore Diagoblintsu proved him self correct by Right of Duel).

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Any way Killing a PC hurts me as a GM.
Seeing the craft that goes into fleshing out a character,
and then having to smash it to pieces because the Very definition of the character ment that there were things that would quieckly send him down a path towards death/ (and that was part of the character's charm).
Generally I manage to pull my blows - ideally leaving the on the brink of death.

Now most of my regular 2 groups thati GM for can'tmake there games - so I'm doing oneshot for members of both ofthem as well as some outsiders (who i've play with /run game fr before).
The Player who's PC i killed before, is playing a kind of party leader (toally new and unrelated character and setting).
He was told to assember a Crack Team and go deal with X.
OOC I said he can put restrictions on what the others could play - within reason.
He decided he wanted to bring along a whole party of Deathseekers (bar himself). Which was actually a brilliant idea giving what he knew about X.

Any tips for how I'm going to deal with a party of suicidal PC's?
I don't want to kill them off to early in the night,
but i have to give them glorious deaths...



I should mention this is all about L5R