PC Death, so this is what it feels like.

At the last meeting of the gaming group I play in something happened that I didn’t plan on, Devlin my PC, the duskblade everyone at the table had come to count on for the big hits when they were needed (have to love that channel ability) was killed.

I was given fair warning by the GM, in fact he even suggested that I might want to back off and if it had been another character I may have but Devlin saw combat as the ultimate test of his abilities and would not back down. Standing there with just a handful of hit points left knowing that the next hit would most likely kill him, he hung in there and was rewarded with a glorious, in combat and in character death.

Sitting at the table I was filled with mixed feelings. One part of me was clinical and was already at work on the next character I would bring to the table, after all “it’s just 32 points to a new character,” but another part of me was a bit saddened by the character death.

We all know this is a game but until that moment I didn’t realize the investment we make as players in the experience everyone at the table has. When you sit behind the GM screen you know what you’re responsible for and yes you feel a bit of pain when your favorite villain is defeated and possibly killed but you’re expecting that. As a player you’re not expecting to have your PC die, you’re thinking about the next battle, what you’re going to do with all that treasure, what the next level in abilities will bring – not what your next character will be.

So what did I take away from this? A sense that I need as a GM to respect my players’ characters a bit more. Am I going to change how I run things? No, but when a PC death happens I’ll find a way to mark the occasion and not just let it become another evening in “Scot’s campaign of PC death.”

May your dice roll well.