A player character in one of my games committed suicide. Her player felt it was what her character would do. To be fair, the game is pretty bleak and the PC in question had taken allot of emotional hits over the last few weeks of game time.

This is the first time this had happened in a game I've gm'ed and I felt concerned. I talked to her privately and asked if she wasn't having a good time or was there some reason she wanted out of the game (which has usually been the case when its happened in others I was involved in). She explained that she was quite happy with the game, even had another PCs in mind but that suicide felt "right" for the PC in question and good end for her story.

Has this ever happened in a game you've run? And if so what was the story IC and OOC?

No but it happened in a game I played in. In fact, I was the player. It was an AD&D game set in the Kievan Rus during the period of Christianization. We sere all village folk. I was playing a blacksmith, and we ended up on a grand quest. My character felt called to become a paladin of the Old Gods - not that my character had any sign from the Gods at all, nor did I from my GM, it was entirely subjective - and ultimately was captured by the Christians. Rather than have them steal his soul for their foreign god, my character committed suicide, calling on the gods to take him as a willing sacrifice.

God, that sounds so lame! It made sense at the time, I swear!

It's crap like that that makes me a horrible, horrible player!

-clash

I wouldn't let it bother you. What it sounds like is you've created a world with enough depth that your players can immerse themselves into their characters and come to realizations like "my character would end her own life."

As a GM, I've had quite few character suicides in my campaigns. Some of them were of the "forlorn hope" variety - "I'll stay and die so the rest of you can escape" - which *feels* different even though it amounts to the same thing. But some were genuine suicides - about 1/3 of the party committed seppuku in my Oriental Adventures campaign, for example.

I know of someone who likes to drive other PCs to suicide. Brags about it, even.

Quote from: Dana;634971I know of someone who likes to drive other PCs to suicide. Brags about it, even.

I think the technical term for that is "dickwad".

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;634973I think the technical term for that is "dickwad".

Make that "malevolent, sociopathic dickwad" and we're in 100% agreement. Just truly enjoys making people miserable and uncomfortable.

I was in a game where one of the players had their character kill themselves because they were infected with a plague and they didn't want to contribute to its spread.  It was a pretty intense moment in game, and one of those moments that's supposed to make RPGs different from other games.

Quote from: Dana;634974Make that "malevolent, sociopathic dickwad" and we're in 100% agreement. Just truly enjoys making people miserable and uncomfortable.

I have no problem with that assessment.

-clash

I had one of my D&D PCs actually kill himself once, waaaay back in the day, when surrounded by dozens of ghouls and no hope of surviving. He did it so he wouldn't become undead.

Another D&D PC had been struck with slow-acting but deadly poison, and the nearest cleric with a neutralize poison spell was several days of travel away. So when a big ol' dragon showed up raining fire on the rest of the party, he, being the fighter, took it on as the others fled and literally went out in a blaze of glory. Less of a suicide and more of a deliberate sacrifice. This was a long-term character in a long-term campaign so it was a pretty awesome moment.

No other episodes that I remember, though.

I had a PC playing 2 characters, and it just worked out that they end up very much at cross purposes, and the one who was somewhat bad (Assassin type) got found out, and it was his other character, the Alchemist/druid that ran into him.
And they fought it out, because it made sense, though we all knew the Druid/alchemist was dead meat.  Still one of the best examples of proper roleplay I have seen.

Oh, and the Assassin was the one who ended up being waxed.   Craziness.

I have had characters die for what was a good reason to the character.

Such as when my character died in a small boat filled with barrels of explosive powder in desperate attempt to sink a warship invading my country.

I have never seen a character commit suicide from depression however.

I was playing a sheriff in a 30 Days of Night CoC adventure and he ate a shotgun when he learned his wife and kids were killed and the town was overrun. It was an awesome moment because all the survivors were gathered in the town hall and looking to my sheriff, the only guy with combat experience, for guidance...but instead, upon being told the news of his family...

That's the only suicide. Lots of heroic PC sacrifices over the years though.

Once playing nWoD mortals, the entire player group committed mass suicide with a bomb on the surface of the moon.

One of the players was convinced he had become a god, and no one tried to stop him arming the bomb.

Quote from: Bill;635133I have had characters die for what was a good reason to the character.

Such as when my character died in a small boat filled with barrels of explosive powder in desperate attempt to sink a warship invading my country.

I have never seen a character commit suicide from depression however.

Yeah, this.

I once had a favorite character of mine deliberately fall for an 'out-of-game revenge trap' because it would have been in his nature to do so.

Follow up on your friend.  Don't be a creep about it, but maybe ask a mutual friend if they think everything is okay.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but when it isn't that shit can be pretty hard to live down.

Quote from: mcbobbo;635161Yeah, this.

I once had a favorite character of mine deliberately fall for an 'out-of-game revenge trap' because it would have been in his nature to do so.

Follow up on your friend.  Don't be a creep about it, but maybe ask a mutual friend if they think everything is okay.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but when it isn't that shit can be pretty hard to live down.

I've had characters become suicidally depressed in game, mainly due to the DM deciding that it would make for a good plot complication to kill off major reasons for the character to live, but not actual suicide because of it. Plenty of heroic sacrifice, though.

I'd honestly want to dig a bit deeper in to what is going on with the Player in Real Life. It may be nothing, but it would be prudent to be sure.