Having fun discovering new reasons why I like this system so much. One of my players, after our kick-off session, came to me and said, “I really hate to ask this, but I have to admit, I wasn’t really enjoying the character I created. Would it be possible for me to create a different character? Hopefully that won’t mess up any of your plans too much?”
I smile and respond “Absolutely, do you have any ideas on how [your current character] might die?” We’re about to jump into a pit with a giant dragon-like creature (well at least the Barbarian did at the end of the session, so maybe the rest will follow… 😀 ), so that’s probably not too hard to arrange. I reassure him that plans are not a problem; I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. “Seriously, it’s okay to talk about these things; we’re playing a game and the system is aware of that. It’s our story and we can choose in what directions we want to push it.” And the best part is, there’s really not much I need to change. Who knows, maybe the consequences of this death (if that’s even what happens) will set the direction for the entire campaign?
One little thing I’m secretly looking forward to, if he dies and succeeds on Last Breath, is to say “Death is willing to give you another chance, but you can choose to die anyway; if you do, why?”
Why would the character have to die? Couldn’t you just begin the next session without that character in the spotlight? Like, suppose the character just had other interests or other business to take care of. Or maybe “demote” the character to a hireling.
We had a player make up a new character, and the old character just disappeared. Given the circumstances of her first adventure, it didn’t require any further information.
If the player wants to continue running the old character until some pre-determined death, go ahead. I just wouldn’t think it was the only option.
I did suggest some other options (including just retconning it, since we’ve only had the first session), but dying seemed like an interesting opportunity for story development, especially since we left off at a cliffhanger right before a likely major fight. There’s no guarantee he’ll die (odd things have a way of happening once we start playing), though I can certainly apply pressure in that direction with GM moves.
Far be it from me to encourage anyone to wimp out on killing the delvers. Sometimes that’s what it means to be a fan.
When the point of death comes, ie 0 hit points, instead of Last Breathe just narrate his removal from the scene: your last sight of character x is the giants carrying him way/struggling to swim as the river sweeps him around the bend and out of sight/teetering on the edge of cliff before he topples backwards into the darkness below …
Then, have him be revealed 10 adventures later a power behind whatever BBEG has appeared, or give him an entire new Front to show there is a new power in the gameworld. The character is either a danger for an existing front, or has a new front for themselves.
Perhaps they think the rest of the party are just tools for forces in the city they came from are have been used to “remove” them and the vengeance is against the city/region and not the characters.
In case anyone is curious, he actually didn’t wind up dying; despite a great deal of danger directed his way, good rolls and clever play on the part of the other players meant that the character survived. He’s now been NPC-ified, with a good motive worked out for why he’ll likely be parting ways soon (probably at the start of the next session.) I’m not sure if this character will show up again, but was interesting to see how it played out.