I was wondering what do you when a PC dies. I guess most of you provide the player with a new character, but at which level of development as compared to the rest of the party?

Same exp's? or less? much less or just a bit less?

The thing is that I never killed a PC. Since I have been playing 1st and 2nd editions, I never got to the point of killing a PC which had no fate points. But since in the 3rd edition there are no fate points, I guess sooner or later I will find myself dealing a fatal blow to a PC. I am seeking counsel on at which level of experience to introduce the new PC. To me seems natural to introduce it at the same level as the rest of the party, but may be a bit less exp would be also appropriate.

any ideas / counsels?

In general, I'll have them start at highest xp in party -5, but gain double xp until they catch up.
Since I usually have sessions of about 6h, general xp-game is about 1.5xp. So after 3 sessions they're caught up.

starting funds & gear depend on their background story, but at least the starting gear from character-creation.

However, say they were playing a slayer, and actually got a true slayer death, I'm likely to let them start at full xp. Good roleplay deserves its rewards

Since at the moment we play with "every one getting the same xp, even, when not present at a session", should players die, they would get a new character with xp according to the other players. But should a player want to start at 0, I encourage it. And the players starting with a high level char are encouraged to write a backstory for their previous adventures (which they never do...)

But basically I think, It is more fun to have different level chars. At least if the GM manages to give everyone opportunities to shine and mixes fights, social interaction, searching, etc. But the players have to be of a certain kind. Mine atm are kinda the opposite and raely shine in the actual roleplaying-department. So we had to switch to the "all the same level"-area. *sigh*

I just had an idea:

One could let the dead player write a backstory with lots of adventures for the new char and give him/ her xp according to the story written...

socratim said:

Nice one! Work for what you want

My only PC death was very early on and was partly Player "didn't understand rules" (though everyone else at table was looking at him as he declared is action and saying, "you do what"?)

To round out what others are saying:

I allow an absent Player to take XP for missed session by either automatically taking 1 Corruption or rolling a Challenge die and on Chaos Star drawing a random critical wound (otherwise they just waltz in looking fresh while everyone else is beat up).

For replacement characters, we've been talking as group about it and expect to do something like: start at 1/3 the number of XP but gain:

- 3 bonus XP if you are 15+ behind (so 4 total)

- 2 bonus XP if 10+ advances (3 total)

- 1 bonus XP if less than 10 behind. (2 total)

The distance behind is before taking the XP coming.

Example 1, at 10X there is a death. Everyone else goes to 11 and new PC comes in at 1.

Track then is:

11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19

1- 5- 7 - 9 -11-13-15-17-19

Example 2. at 30 XP there is a death. Everyone else goes to 31 and new PC comes in at 10.

Track then is:

31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-43-44-45

10-14-18-21-24-27-29-31-33-35-37-39-41-43-45 - normal progression from here.

House rules in Sig.

I have zero qualms about taking out a PC. I actually do a little feigned happy dance so the players think I take pleasure in it as well (that keeps up the illusion of danger in the game..even though it's pretty hard to die in most of my games

We have a requirement that a player ALWAYS have a back up character in his binder. That is because I don't stop the game b/c a character dies. We keep right on playing. The players are in charge of coming up with a creative way to squeeze the character in.

jh

Our group has had new characters come in at 1/2 the XP of the highest XP total in the group. Oddly enough, only one character from the initial group has survived, so that number keeps going up.

Hi,

When a player gets his character offed, we have a varied buy in kind of system.

The replacement character always starts with as many exp as the lowest existing PC rounded down to the nearest ten. They then get the chance to buy more exp by drawing some of the nastier cards at random: Crit Wound=1xp, Disease=2xp, Perm Insanity=2xp, Corruption=1xp, Mutation=4xp. This allows a player to choose to play a fresh character with little experience or one who's been through a bit and carries the baggage. I have no objection to running games with a reasonable range of experience as I feel the system allows relatively new characters to be more than capable of shining in their relative areas.

Sadly no ones taken the mutation option, yet.

Giving them a bonus for how well they died is really important - classical conditioning for the lab rats. Then starting them a bit behind the others (5-10 advances) and giving them double xp 'till they've caught up. Course, my group being what they are, it's a bit negotiable - a good back story or a table wide feeling of sympathy or unfairness gets extras. Oh and bringing nice dips helps too.

I run a grim n gritty game. The players enable the story to be told by the actions they take. That story sometimes involves death. They then create new characters as needed to continue playing.

I completely ignore when players aren't present. For the purpose of that session, the missing players simple never existed or are referenced in passing only. I welcome player input on story explanation but it isn't required nor is it always possible.

I do grant any player that invests in the campaign financially bonus xp to that and all future characters. This is my way of helping to support the game. For example, picking up Sigmar's Heirs is worth 2 xp. Anyone without either a Player's Guide or Core Set is penalized 5 character creation points.

I must say that my initial response when reading the thread title, "How you deal with the death of one of your PC's?" was "Laugh."

reg said:

In principle I agree ... - However as much as I like seeing people being penalized for dying all the time, I also hate to see people being penalized for good roleplay and sometimes good roleplay just means doing stupid, dangerous things - like standing up for the little man, covering the retreat of your friends or as a player consciously letting your character walk into a trap, since he wouldnt have the meta-knowledge that you do ....

Boehm said:

I would agree that for most groups, dieing and starting a new character is a penalty. That said, we look at it from a different perspective. Each death is a mere piece of the puzzle. New characters are just new pieces and opportunities to roleplay something different. It becomes a game of how long will this character survive, just how maimed and mutated will he get, what type of personality does this character have, what is HIS story. And when one story ends, another begins.

We look at Warhammer in completely different light then we look at other games that we play such as Pathfinder or Rogue Trader.

Pathfinder: This has become a very tactical game for us. Characters tend to be powerful and death isn't really a threat.

Rogue Trader: I've taken more of a middle ground with this game. Some loose tactical elements with death being infrequent and replacement characters getting a boost to help them get up to the rest of the group. I tend to keep this and WFRP as my main sandbox style games and Pathfinder I general just modify adventure paths or society scenarios.

WFRP: Very loose, very grim. They've been having a blast though. It took me a bit to really get them into what I felt the spirit of this game was. Now they are begging me to play again.

My campaign is quite deadly as well, some on their second or third character now. But two survivors as well.

With death, the players start with a new character but get a bonus XP for each rank of their previous character. Nothing more than a nod to their achievements.

It does create a party where some may be far more experienced than others. But it works out, and for the most part the real nasty critters will focus on the hardcore characters and ignore the less experienced. Basically weaker characters can hide a bit in the shadow of their more powerful companions if they wish.

That said, death is an important part of warhammer. When a character dies, I do my best to make it memorable or epic, so at least his death will not be forgotten, and at the same time serve as a grim reminder that Morr could be waiting around any corner.

cd8dman said:

My point was just that dying due to good roleplaying (as opposed to just being stupid) manner should IMO not be penalized by having to start at less xp than the rest of the party - atleast not much less ... unless compensated so you can catch up within a reasonable number of sessions

Yepesnopes said:

We used to make them start from the start again but this way we never really got any characters above rank 3 before they were killled off, most of them never made it into their second career. Now we started the new guys off at the same experience for the lowest levelled PC in the group, in which the PC was introduced with 5 experience points. If the characters were 3rd career we will probably make the new GC start out on their second career. The problem with keeping PCs low level is that you can never progress to take on the big leagues.

In our hose rules, replacement characters start at 0 experience, but they gain a number of bonus exp until they catch up with the other players (3 bonus advancements for every advancement).

Gallows said:

I does - wow seems a bit harsh if someone dies in the high ranks ... I must have missed that in our houserules ... how about saying rank-1 rounded down? or half rank ?