Since I tend to view Play-By-Post RPGs as writing exercises, I was wondering: Is it considered acceptable to encourage players- not specific players, of course- to kill their characters off? Or could it be?

The main reason I ask is because I've found that if characters don't die, they fade out from underuse- they become nonentities that are deleted without finishing their stories or character arcs, as the players leave or as they create new characters that interest them more. What I'm considering is putting it right there in the top of the character rules:

1. Characters die. All of them do. We encourage players to seek out an appropriate death for their character well before it is supposed to happen, and set plots in motion that can allow that death to be as meaningful as it needs to be.

For reference, this would be a gothic-horror board with loads of combat and very creepy locations and NPCs.

Basically, can character death become an integral part of the board? Or is it always going to be a bit akward?

Because of your board setting I think it would be perfectly acceptable, considering it has "loads of combat." However, I don't know if I would put something like that in the rules. Certainly you can encourage it, but you don't want to make members feel like they're obligated to kill their characters off. Best to present the idea and leave it up to the discretion of each member.

Perhaps I should clarify- the question is, do you think that constant character death can become an integral part of the board structure and plotline, or is the general RPer consensus too far against such things?

Actually, 'obligation' is a good word for what I'm talking about. Players would be obligated to finish their characters' stories, and that tends to require death, or, possibly, travel. But death is far more dramatic, let's face it.

I think it would be a cool idea for a forum such as yours, but it is an idea that should be presented to each member before they join the forum. Some people hate the idea of killing off their character simply because they grow attached, or have had this character for years. Though character death is certainly an interesting twist, it could also be a huge turn off for people.

I think it also might depend on how many characters you allow each person to have. If they can have bunches, then they probably won't be so attached, or would be willing to create a character knowing that they were going to kill them off in the end without shedding too many tears.

For what you described about your board, I think it would be appropriate. Just let them know that their characters might die. You don't have make killing their characters necessary. Just let people know what they might be getting into. For example:

1. Killing off a character is a possibility. You do not have to ask an admin for permission if you want to kill off your own character.

Or something of that variety. Hope that helps.

Moving this topic to Managing Your RPG- the Support Center is for technical questions, such as a problem with coding.

I would say let them kill their characters off if they want to. However, you should have a strict rule that says that they are not allowed to bring them back after death. Also add that players should think really hard before they kill their characters off. I've seen members that had killed off their characters. Then, they got bummed out and begged the staff to allow them to return.

One of the problems I had with staff on one of the XIN boards "XIN 2" is that they allowed a member to revive his character. He killed off his character in a car bomb. His character's body exploded into different pieces. There was a thread where people were picking up his body parts. In a sick and humorous twist, his body parts were turned into stat items. XIN 2 is a stats board. His character was pretty much dead. Behold, he gets all bummed out and begs the staff to let him bring his character back. The staff does.

Personally, I have no problems with the member. But on a professional level, he shouldn't have been allowed to bring his character back to life. Because there have been plenty of people that killed their characters off. Since the staff on XIN 2 allowed it, then they would have to let all the other members do it. That wouldn't be good. At the same time, the staff on XIN 2 is notorious for playing favorites. They might make an exception for a few members and would say "no" to the rest. Mainly because those few members are buddies with the staff members.

I would say once their characters are dead, they stay dead.

As I said when we talked about this earlier, I like the idea of encouraging character death. I think it would do a lot for the horror atmosphere of the board, something which a lot of horror boards don't really seem to capture. There's rarely a sense that PCs will Actually die.

As far as people's favourite characters go, I think encouraging the option of having a series of short lived characters in addition to a long-running character would work. I know I often get ideas about new characters and muse forces me to make them, and having the option of cutting the number of characters down in a meaningful way pointed out to me would have been really helpful in the past.

We run a horror-ish board in which violence is very much a part of day to day life. Because of this, we instituted what we call a Real system. If people let theirchars be Real (they're asked in the app, and there's an informational thread they can read before they decide) it means, and they know it means, that their chars can get anything from a papercut to decapitated, based on a rolling system (there's a website we use that makes it really easy). It states in the rules for this system that they cannot take it back, and that if death's rolled they have to go with it, no whining because they knew what they were getting into.

The only incentive we have for making a char Real is that if they want their char to have a power position (pack leader, stuff like that), they have to be real because the way our society is set up, those positions are fought for, to the death. We also state that they don't have to do it. By making it a player's choice, it eliminates the awkward, at least for us.

I'm pretty proud to say that almost every character on our board is Real and the system works well. Not just for deaths but to add real consequences to character action. Now if a character jumps headlong into a fight, they can get hurt and will have to deal with that. Using it, we've had one character death thus far - we've been easing up to that point - and many many many hurt from a wee bit to near death, and I just love it. It adds a nice level of realism to story lines and winds up giving so many people plot.

Death adds realism, but you really should use it if it's nessacry for the plot or you've lost muse for that charrie. Or sometimes people just want to kill your character so you have to ask, do i want this guy dead? It's a little strange to say but i think you can have a small bond with your character because some people make characters that relate to them selves or are just really fun to roleplay with. It's funny, one of my friends had a girl she played in a high school rpg and she lost muse for her but she wouldn't put her away and stop roleplaying her. So she ended up putting museless posts with her untill i was like, you just need to stop. I'm gald to say she did but she always laughs and reminds me of it.

In horror setting with lots of violence, I think the presence of character death can really add something special to a game. In that kind of setting, death is really kind of omnipresent...and although some of us might really, really want all of our characters to be invincible and everlasting...that's not really how things go. Especially not in dark, violence-filled worlds.

Although, I kind of got the impression that you meant you don't want characters on your board to just fade into obscurity, Novelist. And I agree...better to have that story line end entirely (through moving or death) than have some one just lose interest in that character, move on, and leave other people hanging.

Personally, I am very interested in horror RP. I am creating my own forum for a roleplay. But, the thing is, I know most of the characters will probably die. Including a few of my own, when I make them. The reason that they will probably die is because, quite honestly, this is one of those things where only two or three people should survive after it happens.

And I make this very clear in the guidelines - not the rules, but guidelines - because I know people become attached to characters and I want them to be aware of what they are getting into if they sign up.

Well, I don't believe in putting it in neon lights and saying, "KILL OF YOUR CHARACTERS!" I also don't agree with putting it at the top of your rules? Why? I don't think you should make it so obvious that you have interest in people killing off their characters. I would put it in there, yes, but not at the top.

See, I would rather have killing a character off an option. Your rule makes it sound like you want people to kill their characters off. If someone told me that my character has to die, rather than giving me the choice if I want to play to my heart's content with him or not, I would be outta there in a second flat. That just wouldn't sound fair to me.

If I were you, I would: let members know that because it is a horror forum, characters can be killed off. If someone does want to kill off their character, Admins ask that they think it through. Killing a character off is not required.

If you kill off all the characters, what characters will you have left? OH! None.
I would be really mad if someone told me to kill my character, and then go make another one. Just no, sorry.

But you see, the magic of an RPG forum is that you can always make another one. This gives you a prescribed chance to play some completely different character. It also avoids the all-too-common event that the characters just kinda... I dunno what happened, it just kind of faded out, I'm not interested anymore...

I view forums as a writing exercise. Too many characters have had nice openings and good middle sections. And more good middle sections. And more... and more... And they don't end. The characters don't reach a climax, they don't get to the end of their stories. They just keep going and going until they run out of gas. What I'm trying to do is plant a tree in the way. Have a nice finishing point for characters. Tragic. Comic. Dramatic. Whatever. But it has to happen. The characters' stories have to end.

I agree completely, but a character's story doesn't always have to end with death. I have a character who I transferred from a school RPG to my site, After Graduation (which, as the title may imply, is about what happens after graduation). She just got married, has started teaching, and will start having children...and I will probably send her back to Ireland when I'm done with her and stop playing her. She doesn't have to die; it's alright for her to have a happy little life with her husband and children in a big house outside Dublin.

Your setting is obviously a little more horror/apocalyptic than AG's, so death is a more likely end, certainly.

My advice would be simply to jot it down in the guidelines/site information that stories must end and that death is the preferred ending. Obligating people to kill their characters may turn a lot of people off.