I really don't have much for this one. In most games I rarely die as I think ahead, try to get everyone to work as a group, try to think ways safely around problems and all that. Then when I do get a character killed its usually not in any spectacular memorable ways.
Honestly I have more memorable 'near death' character scenes than anything else. Like managing to press the switch setting off the explosives I planted earlier to kill the cultists before blacking out from blood loss (the other PCs drug me away and kept me alive). Being held up by the throat by a bad guy after a long fight, unarmed and about to bite it I reach down and hit the switch on my belt buckle firing off the two rounds in the hidden gun there (had it on my character since creation, it took months before I ever used it). No telling how many times Finn ran through almost assured death. Or Joe Genero, a traveler character rolled up just to die, who somehow becomes almost invulnerable whenever the GM rolls to hit him (yes the name is taken from the Joe Genaro comics that used to be in Shadis Magazine).
Deaths are usually, killed by a lucky shot from a guard during a small skirmish, random gunshot from a goon just happens to hit me in the head, etc.
Myself, I kinda love meaningless non-heroic deaths. Guy riding over a hill catches the first bullet right in his melon... valiant Paladin falls down a mineshaft and is eaten by rats... noble Cleric eaten by rampaging fungus... they all bring a smile and a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that PC death should be this BIG MOMENT... full of swelling choir music and tragedy... (noise of cat coughing up a hairball)... no thanks!