When a D&D/C&C character dies, is he really gone?

Ogre · Post by **Ogre** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:46 am

Just curious on everyone's opinion on this, say I am running a 2nd level dwarven fighter named Snurgi in my brothers campaign, and he dies via hot burning lava.

Than I get invited to my friends campaign, and I pull out my Snurgi character sheet again.

Does everyone do this, run the same character in different games, despite numerous deaths, or once a character dies do you shelf him for good?

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:50 am

If a character dies and it is not possible to raise, reincarnate, or resurrect... then the sheet gets put through the shredder. I would rather create a new fun than re-live an old one.
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Ogre · Post by **Ogre** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:52 am

Seems a bit extreme, don't even want the chance to look back on your old sheets?

Go0gleplex · Post by **Go0gleplex** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:52 am

Boy...that sort of hinges on how the DM/CK feels about it. This was a bit of an issue when I was running with our 16 person group...and my 10 person group, though less so. We had several of us that rotated around as DM and ran our own campaigns.

In the 16 person group with 4 DMs all running in different worlds, it was left to the DM if he would allow a "dead" character to run in his game. In our 10 person group we only had 2 DMs and both of us opted to disallow this since we were running in the same campaign world...though we would mention such characters demise in "bardic tales" being told in the land...

So, if you are running in the same campaign world, I'd say absolutely no. The character is dead in that world unless brought back somehow. If running in different worlds...well...who says they go straight to the "afterlife" so I'd leave it to CK option.

Hope that helps.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:57 am

Ogre wrote:
Seems a bit extreme, don't even want the chance to look back on your old sheets?

Not really, no. The good stuff I remember and I'd rather not be reminded of the bad. New game = new character for me.

I used to keep them all in a binder but I never opened it and so it just came to a point of being useless. So, I threw it away.
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Ogre · Post by **Ogre** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:57 am

I agree that if it's in the same campaign it's an obvious no, but if it's a different campaign you could always argue the alternate universe snurgi, just give your character a goatee and you are fine.

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:13 am

Perhaps the problem is that, in every campaign we play, we use different sets of rules. In one, we might want to use the Weapon Mastery system and in another we swap that for Spell Mastery and In-Depth Skill Backgrounds... so, a concept for a character is easily transported, but the actual character is not. Even then, though, if I feel I've played the concept out as much as I could, then I'd rather stretch and see if I can come up with something else... maybe keep an element or three, but I like to explore and tinker so I get bored with what I've done already.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:19 am

When they are my players PC's that die I tend to keep them and use them as NPC's in future games with a different group. Other than that dead is dead. I do keep the character sheet just in case it ever fits a good NPC role, but I never play them again.
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:48 am

I never cross game with characters.

When I DM, and a PC dies and is of a level higher than 5th or so, I have their god speak to them in death and tell them of their proposed service in afterlife. If the party wants to raise that character, the character can opt to be risen, or to fulfill service to his god.

Sometimes there is a better deal in being dead.

SirClarence · Post by **SirClarence** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:11 am

Did that only once. It was a character from an ancient campaign that we played back in 1983 or something, and when this new campaign started sometime in the 90s I pulled out that old character sheet and asked the DM whether I could play him once again. It was a half-elven fighter/cleric who never died in the original campaign which ended due to RL issues, and my DM had no problem with it.

I would allow it as a DM if the character wasn't played in any of my campaigns before. In any other cases: No.

Ace of Swords · Post by **Ace of Swords** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:17 am

When a character dies in my game i use a magic marker to boldly write dead on it. The former party member is stripped of goods and after in game burrial or what ever the sheet gos into the "Dead Cart". The dead cart has all the those chars that died in game with me running.

I used to do skull stickers on the GM screen when i played Hackmaster.

I do keep all my old characters alive or dead in a folder.

Everyone once in a while i yank it out for a ride down memory lane.

Deogolf · Post by **Deogolf** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:12 pm

You can keep the sheet, but the PC is dead - unless, he/she can be brought back somehow. Otherwise, roll up a new one! That's half the fun (sometimes!).
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Dagger · Post by **Dagger** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:43 pm

We usually tell them their character doesn't exist anymore and they have to leave. Kind of like this:

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alcyone · Post by **alcyone** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:03 pm

As a DM I haven't let a character from one game die and come back in another, though it's a fantasy world and if it would be fun to do it that way, the door is open. The character belongs to the player as far as I am concerned, and I'll honor their requests to retire it if they want to be sure it doesn't become an NPC or given to a new player.

As a player, I fold my latest copy of my sheet in half and write 'DEAD' on it, and generally hold onto it for no good reason. I think it's been a long standing practice in gaming to keep a portfolio of characters and move them from game to game with the DM's permission, and I think that's kind of cool if you can get away with it, but I wouldn't do it with dead characters.

Besides, why would I want a dead character? It obviously didn't cut it

.
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:04 pm

Haha, Dagger. Jack Chick wins again!

~O
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Sir Osis of Liver · Post by **Sir Osis of Liver** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:52 pm

While I haven't killed any characters in recent memory (I know, I know...SLACKER!), my general inclination is to hold onto the sheet. I have scans of all the character sheets in my group in my campaign manager, so I have a ready pool of ideas for NPCs should anybody keel over. Of course, I'd change names and some mannerisms, but I hang onto stuff like that in case I need an NPC in a pinch.

I'm also not beneath using at least the names of characters from past campaigns to give those characters something of an otherworldly status and to acknowledge great character design and play by the creators. So-and-so's Manual on Acrobatic Combat, might be a book they'd stumble across, where the "So-and-so" was a past character.