Scenarios in which a PC death is a victory condition for the

[Benjamin.wenham]

Okay.

I'd like to see what you guys think hypothetical.

You have signed up for a horror game, which you have been told ahead of time is being run in the Purist mod of Lovecraftian gaming.

During the game you discover that the best possible outcome of the scenario, is your characters death or incarceration at an asylum. That one of these outcomes is the intended ending of the scenario, and was from the start.

Now would you mind letting me know how you would react if:

A, it was a one shot game.

B, the intended outcome of a scenario run in the background of an ongoing campaign.

[Keeper Jon]

If it's a one-shot game, I love it, and I'm willing to sacrifice my own character as long at it will forward-advance the scenario. I'd hate to have a hollow death in the game.

If it's an on-going campaign I can see where this would be much more touchy. Not to say that I wouldn't sacrifice myself, depending on the scenario situation, but I won't just kill my character off to serve the meta-game. I would need it to be a viable reason for it. You may remember that Adam Scott Glancy has a rule that I have adopted that if a player tries to have his character do something that is so obviously a suicide run, then that investigator must FAIL a Sanity roll in order to do it. With a successful Sanity roll, the character's innate urge for self-survival will prevent him from doing the suicide run.

And I only say this because I still love the challenge that comes with guiding a new investigator into the depths of the Mythos waters. So losing a campaign character isn't a total loss for me.

[Benjamin.wenham]

Very interesting.

I asked the same question on Paizo.com, and the response was very much more ... positive, i guess...

The basic response could be summed up as 'par for the course in Cthulhu.'

Regardless, I think I've made the decision to take the scenario where it naturally wants to go, rather than to try an write it into something else. If it is bleak to the core, no use trying to make it something else

[fox01313]

Agreed with Keeper Jon about how if it's a one-shot, anything goes & as long as the death happens near the end where the player isn't just sitting there forever it could work out. I know a few games that I've run across recently on RPPR where it turns out in a similar way where the game turns out in a bizarre way to the mythos way of winning (with the Haunting link 2) or the other fun way of sending players to their doom happily with Sunset of the King link 1).

With the lethality of the game in general, death is more of a great possibility but as long as you go with the idea mentioned on one of the MUP episodes, where you have players work on 2-3 characters with the group they are part of then at least whatever choice you pick, the player won't feel too hurt when they see their character die. Also you might look at the plots for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel as there's a few moments there in the story (not trying to spoil it) where they put down in stone of how a story involves saving the world by killing a major cast member with the proper story to make it justified to the player & making sense for the character to do it.

Sunset of the King on Role Playing Public Radio where filmmaking goes really wrong for the best reason
http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradi ... -the-king/

starts off a little goofy but haven't heard of one Haunting scenario going the way this turned out
http://community.roleplayingpublicradio ... -haunting/