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View Full Version : Roleplaying Switching Characters and Character Death



Draconium
2018-01-07, 06:41 PM
Just a little bit ago, I was browsing YouTube when I stumbled across a certain video, which I shall link below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT9HgcufRQk

For those of you who can't, or don't want to, watch this video, allow me to summarize it.

The narrator talks about his experience playing D&D, and describes the time he wished to stop playing his current character and create a new one. However, when he tried to speak with his group and GM about it, they told him not to do so, as he played the party's healer, and had been around the other characters long enough that simply dropping out of the campaign wouldn't make sense. So, he began to play his character more recklessly, hoping to fall in battle and gain the opportunity to start over. Eventually, he did fall, only for the GM to declare divine intervention and resurrect him against the player's will (albeit, a will that wasn't expressed very clearly, possibly due to the narrator wishing to avoid a confrontation about it). In the end, the narrator chooses to take a lesson from this experience - that he is not alone in playing this game, and that he should not force his own will on the table to the detriment of the other players.

Now, this video got me thinking a lot about the scenario he found himself in, and how he went about it. I am of two minds about it. One the one hand, I agree that switching characters mid-session for no particular in-game reason is not a good habit to develop, and that one should try to play nice with your fellow players. On the other, if the player truly wishes for their character to not come back, I feel that a GM should not force them to return, and I can certainly understand growing bored of an old character and wishing to create a new one in their stead.

I then grew curious as to what the collective hive-mind of the Playground would think of the scenario presented. So, I turn this thread over to you - what is your opinion on this and similar situations? What would you do as a player in this position, or as the GM?

Honest Tiefling
2018-01-07, 06:49 PM
I don't think it's much of a dilemma. Player wasn't having fun. Group did not compromise in such a way to allow everyone to have fun. I get they got attached to Father Healbot, but that's not a reason to completely stop another from enjoying themselves completely. I think the player reacted badly by not respecting the story, but I find it hard to blame them since they were expected to show up and play a character they seemed to have hated.

As a player, I'd give my character over to the DM to do with as they please and not rejoin. As a DM, I'd talk to the player about retiring the character or even running them and letting the player make a non-healbot. If the group doesn't want a DMPC, well, it's time to have a chat about who has to be the healbot then. I didn't watch the video, but I suspect that was related to the issue.

Geddy2112
2018-01-07, 08:22 PM
At the end of the day, it is your character and if you are utterly miserable playing them, switch. The last thing I need is one of my fellow players in a bad attitude for 4 hours a week when I am trying to have fun. Likewise, if a character does not fit the party at all,like an evil psychopath who kills people in the street in front of virtuous heroes, it is your responsibility to either knock that off or bring in a character that works with the group.

That said, you should show some tact in swapping a character out. If they are a heavily vested character in the world, retirement is often better than dying. They can stay behind and guard the town the NPC's saved, manage their keep, or whatever calls them away to do things. Swapping out characters mid session or every couple of sessions is disruptive to the game. It should not be done casually.

As a pc in the scenario in the video, I would not play with a group that forced me to play that character. Double so a GM that forces resurrection on my PC without any say. I am not spending my game session being miserable for other people to enjoy. It is about everyone having fun, sure, but one player should not have to be a martyr for the rest of the group. As a DM, I would allow a character to swap out, and I would prefer to work with how they might leave the party, but they stay in the game, and how their new PC will fit in. Characters flickering in and out at the drop of a hat is not something else I need to be handling while I DM. I do always want to know why a player wants to swap, and if there is something I can do to let them keep playing their character-in the case of they are just not having fun they have to switch, but sometimes there is something in the world or in the party(regardless of if this is true or their perception) and I can easily retcon it so they can continue playing their character. Example- a virtuous character can be given a reason they can work with, and won't have to kill, a PC that is maybe the very thing they stand against.

Darth Ultron
2018-01-07, 09:02 PM
As GM, I don't care what a player does with a character. If they want to stop playing the character or kill the character that is fine with me.

Though if they want to do the ''switch characters and keep everything the same'' I'm not ok with that. The new character won't be part of the recent game history and be best friends with all the other characters. And I don't really go for Clone characters that are the same except for one detail.

And if a player wants to switch characters a lot...they will always be an 'outsider'.

Quertus
2018-01-07, 10:35 PM
Well, I am of many minds in this topic.

First and foremost, I generally need to "take a 20" to build a character that I'll enjoy playing. That is, on average, I really do try out and throw away about 19 characters for every one that I enjoy.

So, for me, the optimal scenario is a whole bunch of one-shots, where I try out different characters. Then, for anything long-term, I bring in an existing character that I know I'll enjoy.

Having played plenty of characters that I didn't enjoy (for various reasons, but especially when I don't enjoy role-playing the character, or have difficulty with the psychological stretch goal I set with the character), I strongly sympathise with those who don't want to play a character that they don't enjoy.

At the same time, I'd hate playing in a game with myself where the GM forced us to create new characters for the campaign. Because I'd hate playing with someone who clearly didn't like their character, and I'd hate playing with someone who kept switching characters, but I'd really hate playing with someone who kept changing characters and clearly didn't like their characters. That would just really not be a fun experience for me. Or them.

Otoh, someone who just "gets bored" of a character probably isn't suited to playing in an extended campaign in the first place.

My favorite aesthetic (what did Angry rename those to, again?) is Exploration. It's hard to experience a new world, and build your knowledge about it, when you keep switching characters.

So, I guess I'd say, let them switch characters if they have to, because you don't want them to be miserable, but try to set things up to minimize the necessity of such actions.

Samzat
2018-01-07, 10:55 PM
I personally prefer to have characters be able to switch out as long as there doesnt end up being too many of them, and there can be a good explanation for where the other character has gone. (Ie. no mid adventure switches, must have a good excuse). Each player having 2 or 3 charscters that they choose between for a given adventure is fine by me, and it also gives a kinda neat old school RPG "select who you want to bring with you for this" feel, as long as there arent so many characters that the GM cant keep track and the players cant create connections between any of them, and it doesnt screw with the narrative.

Anonymouswizard
2018-01-08, 05:59 AM
As a general rule, there should be nothing wrong with retiring to NPC status. I once had a character designed for that, the rest of the group knew it, and unfortunately it happened about two sessions before I had planned because another PC found the Geostationary Deathy Laser Satellite of Doom. The GDLSoD ended up being that character's legacy, and it caused enough trouble with villains trying to hack it that it ended up being destroyed by us in the final session (not with my replacement character, he could barely fly*).

I have two rules when running, I let players retire a character when they're in civilisation, and I don't fudge or fiat to stop characters from dying. I've not had a character die yet, but that's only because the game was Shadowrun and they burnt Edge. If you did something stupid, or Fate wasn't on your character's side, then the character is dead. If you don't want to keep playing your character and you just saved a town/village/planet you can stay to help the locals rebuild or open a shop or whatever, and reappear as an NPC. In both cases you may make a new character, and in the case of the latter you may bring the old character out of retirement after time has passed for a new campaign that starts at the appropriate level or as a replacement if your new character dies.

* He had a pair of helicopter rotors that came out of his head for when it was required, but they were incompatible with the inbuilt siren.

Aneurin
2018-01-08, 07:57 AM
I've had this happen before, and didn't see the slightest issue in the player changing. All I asked was that they wait for an appropriate moment to swap out... which, as it turns out, was when the first PC was hospitalised by a grenade about fifteen minutes later. The new character had to wait a bit longer for an introduction.

So long as it's not messing up the game flow for everyone, there really shouldn't be an issue with a player changing characters to something they're happier with.

Demica Fatali
2018-01-14, 08:27 PM
I don't think it's much of a dilemma. Player wasn't having fun. Group did not compromise in such a way to allow everyone to have fun. I get they got attached to Father Healbot, but that's not a reason to completely stop another from enjoying themselves completely. I think the player reacted badly by not respecting the story, but I find it hard to blame them since they were expected to show up and play a character they seemed to have hated.

As a player, I'd give my character over to the DM to do with as they please and not rejoin. As a DM, I'd talk to the player about retiring the character or even running them and letting the player make a non-healbot. If the group doesn't want a DMPC, well, it's time to have a chat about who has to be the healbot then. I didn't watch the video, but I suspect that was related to the issue.

I agree with you completely! You should never drag a player through a character they don't enjoy - for one thing, they won't even play it that well because they resent it now. The narrator was literally trying to kill himself instead of trying to explore his character or really have fun with it. That isn't a good thing.