There’s controversy in the TTRPG world about character death. Some don’t like it. Some say it’s part of the game. Some say, and this is the part I disagree with, that without character death, a game has no real stakes. So let’s talk about some of my characters, and how they won and lost important things that were not their own lives
Heathcliff
Heathcliff was a level 5 Halfling Ranger who charged lance-first into battle atop a mastiff. In the climactic showdown with an undead Sorcerer in flooded catacombs, he was paralyzed and executed. (Don’t worry, the dog was OK.) The rest of the party sold his gear to pay for his resurrection. A level 5 character is a super-hero compared to commoners with no class levels. Like, Daredevil or the Punisher, not Green Lantern, but still a super-hero. I figured that he would excel as a town guard or a hunter even without his magical gear. Death was a major setback, yes, but he could wait a while, save up some cash for new gear, and go adventuring again later. It’s like when one’s first career doesn’t work out, and one has to move back to one’s parents for a while.
Cklypherrderrime
Cklypherrderrime (call him Cklyph) was a Gnome (later Suli) Wizard who started off as cheerful, mischievous, and curious. The party had no Cleric, so they often had to return to the capital city to remove harmful effects like blindness, negative levels, or death. Since Cklyph had not picked a god to follow, he would visit a different temple each time, and listen to the priests explain the virtues and benefits of following their god.
The campaign was long, and the party was always behind, always chasing another death cult, never able figure out the grand scheme that united all these villains. No one could help them, because they were superheroes. Yet after the party defeated each scheme, they had to sit and wait for something else to catch fire. No research or prevention was effective.
Cklyph lost his Good alignment in the pursuit of power to keep his party alive, because they were all that he cared about. The rest of the world was either hostile or useless. He used to eschew necromancy, and declared Cloudkill a spell for terrorists, but by the end, everything was on the table. After defeating a powerful dragon, he raised it as a skeletal servant. “I’m going to make this guy die for us twice.”
I mentioned that Cklyph was a Gnome and a Suli. Cklyph did die once, but he had prepared. A younger, more fun-loving Cklyph had prepared a kit in case of his death and given it to the healer. It contained material components for a Reincarnation spell, instructions to for contacting a Druid to cast the spell, and cash to pay the Druid. So when Cklyph was finally struck down, he returned to life in a new Suli body, not the Gnome body he was used before. That was a cool experience, and Cklyph did experience a bit of wonder getting used to the new, stronger, taller body.
The Bard’s friend from her hometown was turned to stone and shattered, and Cklyph did not help pay for the resurrection because he considered it a waste of resources. The Bard, a much better person, bore the whole cost herself. This same hometown had an election and an organized crime family was close to winning. Cklyph didn’t care. The town kept getting attacked by giants and serial killers and whatnot. Poor or unfair administration seemed unimportant. He did offer to make a copy of the Bard so she could both be mayor and continue adventuring. The party almost missed a plot hook because Cklyph couldn’t be bothered to leave his magical wizard fortress and check in on this town of weak, useless people.
So at the end of a year and half of constant fighting, Cklyph was callous, power-hungry, and paranoid. The campaign fell apart, so Cklyph never got closure, but his options seemed to be death, or isolation in his own personal dimension.
Wally
Wally was a knight in shining armor. He loved his city, even though he knew it was corrupt. He saw the good in it and was dedicated to making it a better place. He and the party decided that they were going to clean up the town non-lethally. During a riot he found some ruffians threatening to beat someone. Wally stepped up, drew his warhammer, then dropped it and beat the ruffians down by slapping them with his armored hand. The healer dragged them to the curb, healed them a bit, then scolded them about being productive members of society. Criminals and low-lifes tried to kill the party and they would beat them down, stabilize them, and drag them in to the police. Once a fight got really out of hand and the building caught fire, so Wally ran back and forth, dragging his unconscious enemies out of danger on his tower shield.
But then the archer critted a demi-human and killed it instantly. Wally was distraught! He stopped in the middle of the dungeon to yell at his own party! He should not have blamed the archer, since crits are random, but he did. One party member argued that demi-humans weren’t really people, so it was OK to kill them. (Wally was OK with killing animals but not people.) Another revealed that he didn’t mind killing at all. Wally almost left the party right then, but was convinced to do one last mission. Someone was going to be executed for assassinating the king, and the party was there to make sure there was no funny business. Before the main event, the police brought out and executed the criminals that the party had captured. Even those closest to Wally didn’t share his commitment to improving the town non-lethally, and the good he thought he had done was destroyed right in front of him.
Sure enough, someone disrupted the main execution. As the rest of the party leapt into action, Wally turned and left. We walked out of the palace and out of the city without stopping or saying good bye. He’s out there looking for a place he can fit in, where he can do the right thing and make things better, a place that probably doesn’t exist.
Conclusion
In my games, for my characters, death has not been the only true failure, the one thing that could actually stop them from accomplishing their goals. Yes, an unrecoverable death means the end of that character, but there are often ways to recover from death. I think of the time we TPKed after skipping straight to the boss fight and think, “A perfect storm of nonsense. What a great story.” I think of the barbarian who almost died rather than ask for help and think, “That would have been a good way to go.” I think of Cklyph slowly sliding into the cruelty that he was supposedly fighting, or the utter failure of Wally’s idealism and I still get emotional.