Has this ever happened in one of your games; where a single player had to do something that really fucked him up, or that was extremely distateful, for the sake of the whole group?
How did that work out?

I find that this sort of thing can work out ok, if the whole thing is kind of humourous. Otherwise, the guy "taking it" had damn well either better be the omega of the group or better be getting something really good in exchange. Also, this is not to me the kind of thing that the GM should set up specifically for one player; though he can set up a scenario of this sort, where the players themselves have to figure out which of them is going to "take it"...

RPGPundit

D20 modern game set on a train run like a dungeon (killing a bunch of mooks running from the back of the train to the front).

I was a tough hero, IIRC, with a focus in melee and a chainsaw. I was wading through, taking the brunt of the damage while everybody else was being all cautious. No biggie... it was what I built my character for. One of the characters even crawled along the roof of the train, raiding luggage, away from all the action. Things weren't going well for me... I had apparently neglected to buy gas, so I had to siphon it from my vehicle (I had a motorcycle on the train... in retrospect it's odd that the GM assumed there was gas in the bike and not in the chainsaw... but the game wasn't so logical to start with)... it triggered a fort save, I failed, puked. We crawled through like that for a while, me bleeding hp, etc. The guy on the roof found some ridiculous macguffin machine that wanted to attach itself to him by way of razor sharp needles, but the character wasn't too keen on the idea... the GM was baffled by why someone wouldn't want to have a strange machine grafted into his flesh, and was too pleased with his idea to not use it, so it skittered off. We get to the front car and there's the big bad, now a badass cyborg. He thrashes the party for a few rounds and they see their guns having little to no effect on him, so one of the players did a trademark "smart" thing to do by laying down explosives on the car while the party ran away. The big bad was pursuing them and leaving the area with the explosives, I was nearly dead and had no gas in my getaway bike... I did the only thing I could think of. I grappled him so he couldn't escape the blast/trainwreck while the party got away.

That night was such a pain in the ass. But I won, I think... it's kind of hard to tell.

Mouse Guard... Party lost disposition BIGTIME. end result was 1 dispo left when they defeated the bad guys. Choice was all left for dead, or 1 dead and others unharmed. Steve ponied up...  then bitched and moaned for several weeks about it.

If in-game things are affecting a player badly, they shouldn't happen.
If you mean 'a character', it's the player's choice.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;307593If in-game things are affecting a player badly, they shouldn't happen.
If you mean 'a character', it's the player's choice.

If a player can't handle losing a character, he/she/it should not play any game with a combat system.

It was an ironic comment. Read this statement of Pundit's again: 'Has this ever happened in one of your games; where a single player had to do something that really fucked him up, or that was extremely distateful, for the sake of the whole group?'

It's obvious he meant 'Player character'. However, I decided to sarcas a little and pretend to take it seriously.

If you're refering to the second comment; what I meant was, it's the player's choice if the character jumps on a grenade. If he does, though, he's obviously dead. *Rolls eyes*

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;307598It was an ironic comment. Read this statement of Pundit's again: 'Has this ever happened in one of your games; where a single player had to do something that really fucked him up, or that was extremely distateful, for the sake of the whole group?'

It's obvious he meant 'Player character'. However, I decided to sarcas a little and pretend to take it seriously.

If you're refering to the second comment; what I meant was, it's the player's choice if the character jumps on a grenade. If he does, though, he's obviously dead. *Rolls eyes*

You really shouldn't look up irony and/or sarcasm in the same dictionary as Alanis Morissette.

I'm fine with having my character sacrifice themselves for the sake of the party and/or the overall campaign goal - you know, if there's a point to the capture or death. As a player, I've always thought it'd be cool, but usually either the GM pussies out and fudges things, or the other players say "leave no man behind!"

Like in one campaign we were supposed to get the MacGuffin and take it back to the base, we'd got it, but were being overrun by the enemy, I said, "I'll hold them off! Take it back home and save our people!" but they wouldn't leave me behind. So we drove off together and the GM railroaded us into injury and capture.

What could have been a glorious, memorable and final moment turned into The Lame. I was pissed off.

killing a character is easy for a player unless you are playing a really harsh system where players can't make up new PCs and join in again.
I ran a WoD game where 2 Pcs were Holy Knights and 2 were Camerilla Vamps. They were trying to uncover a Sabat plot. they made a contact int eh the Louisana Bayou. A Sabat Vamp woudl would tell them what they needed to knwo but there was a price. One of the knights had to willingly be embraced. Eventualy they agreed.
The knight who previously had Faith powers and stuff and was od medium level became a rookie camerilla vamp and in character had to turn his face against God.
Overal much more henious than giveing them an alternate cool PC to play :-)

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;307602What could have been a glorious, memorable and final moment turned into The Lame. I was pissed off.

Did you explicitly state that you liked the idea of your character's sacrifice for the party ? Did the GM actually want to get the group captured for the sake of his plot ? I'm not saying this kind of meta-game discussion should happen all the time but in this case it seems appropriate.

Yes, I've had it happen, several times.  In my experience these situations are some of the best role-playing and interaction I've ever seen.  You are truly making an important tension filled choice, that also draws in everyone else.

One of the more recent and memorable was a character playing a thief/sneak type character.  They decided to cover the retreat of the rest of the party that was making a hasty retreat through a massive portal.  The portal was rather large (requiring 4 of the stronger party members to close).  The dilemma was if they waited to close the door they might not get it closed in time before the monster (here a giant snake –Temple Guardian of Set-) got there and basically preventing them from closing it.  Did I mention there was also a plethora of weaker (from the PC perspective) closing in and a stone golem?  

The player in question called ahead to close the portal.  I asked the typical "Are you sure" explaining that I'd require a roll for the PC to dive through the door just before it closes.  Even then the PCs on the other side would need to make a roll to get the lock down (good chance but still) before the 2 ton snake hit it.  I made the player aware that it was likely certain death (which of course they had already figured out by deciding to run).

The player decided to go for it and even decide to chuck his sword through the opening (another roll) to increase the chance of diving through the door.  Luckily the player made it through.

One interesting thing is this player always played their PC as the kind of thief that would try to pocket gems when other players were not looking.  Self interested, but when the chips are down he's got your back.  Very cool.

Good Lord, yes.

A few of my players are into ROLEplaying hardcore.  Great stuff, but on the ocasion that it would make more sense 'in character' to screw themselves, they do.  As Xanther says, these are great 'in story' moments, very intense gaming.  I don't have to bribe them with goodies for their next character, etc, they take risks if it makes sesne 'in character'.

(note-from the kick out a player thread-the same players who are the intense role-players are the ones who offed the PC who couldn't play in character)

One favorite was when one of these players was actually playing 2 characters, a killer for hire and a scholar/druid.  The Killer actually was caught by some of the other PCs, and his scholar/druid caught up to the killer in a bar.

They fought to the death, both of them his characters, as it was the only thing that made sense, in character.  He thought the killer was going to win, but the Scholar/Druid won.  And he still wins the setting roleplay award for this, decades later.

I've also had two incidents where a PC 'holds the door' while the rest of the group escapes, that ended in PC death (and a few times they actually ascaped as well...).   For a while, it was a running joke that if you created a PC with a sense of honor, you'd end up taking one for rest of the (not-so honorable) team.

I did this all-the-time when I was playing Deadlands and not running...my character, Marshall Kidd, was the guy that stood in the open and stared down the dozen rampaging outlaws while my crackshot buddy Tinhorn got into a well-covered position to pick them off.

This ultimately culminated in Marshall Kidd - who always wound up with way fewer Fate Chips than the rest, thanks to things like the above - tackling a Shaman through a portal he was trying to open to the Deadlands to spare the rest of them whatever horrors were about to come through.

The guy running the game kept promising something good would come of all of it - character wise, but *I* never saw it.

I did have fun, though.

As usual I have no idea about the Pundit's "omega of the group" nonsense but I will say this, players in my group have at times individually taken one for the team. Sometimes it's because of their relationship to a particular character(s). Often it's because what the group is up against calls for sacrifice. As a GM I never plan these moments. It's always spontaneous and truth be told I have been surprised at the lengths certain characters will go to see that their comrades remain safe while they suffer a fate worse than death. At no time has the player in question expected some sort of reward although I suspect the post game discussions on how cool the moment was, was reward enough.

Regards,
David R

This was originally posted in this thread here.

System: 3e GURPS
Setting: DM's home brew fantasy

Character:
My character was from a group of humans known as the Palamrians.  Think American Indian plains horse culture.  His name was Fierce Fox, and his faithful companion and friend was Freewind, a Palamarian pony.

The Set Up:
A colossal worm-like demon with a hundred arms was running loose, and nothing could stop it.  It had an uber regeneration or damage resistance, I'm not sure, but it was nigh impossible to kill this demon.  We devised and set a trap for the demon.  The Emperor ordered every cannon in the kingdom brought to this special valley.  There was a stream running through it with a mill.  We buried, and then filled the mill with gunpowder.  The heights ringing this valley were filled with cannons commandeered for this event.  All the cannon had been pre-sighted to fire on the mill in the center of the valley.

The Glitch:
This demon was uber fast, and someone had to lure it the trap at the mill.  It was obviously a suicide mission.  The only one who had a possible chance at being successful bait was Fierce Fox and Freewind, due to his riding skill and the sturdy breed of the Palamrian pony.  Fierce Fox voluteered for the mission.

The Death:
The appointed time comes, and the trap is set.  The demon takes the bait and Fierce Fox and Freewind take flight.  I forget the exact number of Ride rolls that were required, but the gist of it was that Fierce Fox and Freewind were only 1 or two hexes out of the demon's reach, and could be hit on low or bad Ride rolls.  Both Fierce Fox and Freewind were actually hit by the demon once, which severely wounded them both.  However, they perservered, most a incredible series of rolls, and sprung the trap.  Once they entered the mill in the center of the valley, the cannons let fly raining death.  The thunderous explosion was heard for miles, and rocked the valley.  It was successful, the demon was killed along with Fierce Fox and Freewind.

Aftermath:
Fiercefox and Freewind are recognized as national heroes, and given appropriate statues, songs, etc.  The event is forever sealed in the lore of the campaign world as The Day of Ten Thousand Cannons.