Quote from: Doughdee222;753919Osric Skalmandari, a 6th level AD&D cleric. Killed in White Plume Mountain. The party was beat up too much and we were retreating out to rest and recover when two Efreet suddenly appeared at the exit. We simply didn't have enough left to defeat them, TPK.

Ah, Nix and Nox. Voice of Keraptis: "You're not thinking of leaving with my treasure, are you?" Classic old-school goodness - put a couple Efreet at the dungeon entrance/exit as the party tries to leave. I bet Nix and Nox have been responsible for hundreds of TPKs.

Quote from: dragoner;753933They are legion, they haunt me in my dreams, the armies of the dead.

Same here. When their haunting gets too loud, I just threaten to cut off their rum ration and they quiet down.

Quote from: jeff37923;754125Same here. When their haunting gets too loud, I just threaten to cut off their rum ration and they quiet down.

They are actually quite handy for the NPC file; waste not, want not.

Quote from: dragoner;754129They are actually quite handy for the NPC file; waste not, want not.

Yep.  This has proven to be a big dividend in my fetish for keeping copies of the sheets of PCs in my campaign; I've liberally resorted to them for use as NPCs.

This actually drove the plot of the last few sessions of my main group.  The PCs wanted to toss out the Grand Master of the local mages' guild chapter, the election was coming up, so they decided to cajole a local master wizard to run ... said wizard being a PC from twenty years ago, and whom I'd had around as a NPC the last few years.  As it happens, that wizard's player is one of my current players, and Andrew cheerfully agreed to run Master Bolan the last two sessions in place of his current PC to slog through the election.

Quote from: Ravenswing;754289Yep.  This has proven to be a big dividend in my fetish for keeping copies of the sheets of PCs in my campaign; I've liberally resorted to them for use as NPCs.

This actually drove the plot of the last few sessions of my main group.  The PCs wanted to toss out the Grand Master of the local mages' guild chapter, the election was coming up, so they decided to cajole a local master wizard to run ... said wizard being a PC from twenty years ago, and whom I'd had around as a NPC the last few years.  As it happens, that wizard's player is one of my current players, and Andrew cheerfully agreed to run Master Bolan the last two sessions in place of his current PC to slog through the election.

Funniest thing at the beginning of my last game before this one, during chargen, a player showed me a character and they said they hated them. I said "fine, roll up another" and took that one straight into my NPC file, used him in the game shortly after. It would have only have been more humorous if he had said: "look, I rolled you up an NPC!" Saved me the trouble, and I am not sure if the player ever figured it out.

Quote from: dragoner;754129They are actually quite handy for the NPC file; waste not, want not.

You are right, they are. Unfortunately, I hadn't encountered that idea early on or else I would have a huge file. For now, it is small.

Quote from: jeff37923;754336You are right, they are. Unfortunately, I hadn't encountered that idea early on or else I would have a huge file. For now, it is small.

I must have started early on, because I have a fairly big file, even a loose-leaf binder; some of it comes from me liking chargen as a minigame. I have seen some people agonize over making characters, I usually, just roll 'em up, and play them.

To character death in game? Not  many

I've lost more characters to having to leave a game or a game ending after only a few sessions than to actual character death.

Quote from: dragoner;753933They are legion, they haunt me in my dreams, the armies of the dead.

This right here. I got to where I just started numbering them like a borg...1 of 9, 2 or 9....

Quote from: YourSwordisMine;754437I've lost more characters to having to leave a game or a game ending after only a few sessions than to actual character death.

That prods me to a thought which'd make an interesting spinoff topic: what characters have you gotten to play in a campaign other than the one in which they were generated?

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Quote from: Ravenswing;754572That prods me to a thought which'd make an interesting spinoff topic: what characters have you gotten to play in a campaign other than the one in which they were generated?

Alot when I played 2e. You see Marcie and myself were in the group and we were 22-25 and she had kids I didn't at the time. You following me yet?? I took her characters over all the time. ( I was usually dead because my character had bad stats or I just didn't care)  It taught me how to really play magic users and love them because I had no other choice. Because she was good and if I didn't get serious it was bad news for me in and out of game.

They were my friends and I was only there to round out the group at first. I couldn't have cared less about the game then. It's when I learned the Bard was 2e's version of 3e's Codzilla and Druid. They were practically unfair. Which I wouldn't have known unless I was forcibly drafted like I was.

I played a lot of CoC and Traveller...so lots of death came with the territory. And we later played lots of Stormbringer and Cyberpunk 2020 so lots more dead characters.  

I doubt I ever made it through a CoC campaign with the same character.

As for D&D? Not as many. Certainly lost my share of OD&D PCs at low levels, but nobody in the 3e/4e era that I remember.

As for Champions? Never lost one. In fact, I doubt I've ever lost a character in a superhero game. Came close in Champions from some bad luck Ranged Killing Attacks, but never died to my memory.

But we did play lots of Robot Warriors, the mecha version of HERO and I definitely had several robo-pilots who got splattered with an unlucky cockpit hit.

Quote from: Marleycat;754454This right here. I got to where I just started numbering them like a borg...1 of 9, 2 or 9....

Never got quite that far, but I did name one "John Doe" and he lived! Became quite high level towards the end.

Quote from: dragoner;754587Never got quite that far, but I did name one "John Doe" and he lived! Became quite high level towards the end.

It's probably due to my preferred games (horror) and my disinterested playstyle in Dnd when I started more then anything else. Honestly back then I was just there because my friends begged me I was there for the social aspect really, still am mostly.

I absolutely love games like Whispering Vault, Kult, Neliphim, Unknown Armies, CoC, Warhammer, 40K, Onyx Path stuff.... Dnd is secondary to me but it's what my friends and the majority know. And I just have no time anymore like when I was 20. I mitigate the issue by running the game most times but I won't even attempt that with Dnd because I'm too freeform and White Wolf style for it to work well.

More than I can remember.