Killing And Why It Kills Roleplay

[Mephistophelian 977]

Killing and why it Kills Roleplay

 

You've all had those experiences where you have been in amazing (or not so amazing) RP, and wish that your character could remember it because it would make for such juicy tavern conversation, or maybe because it would give you something other to do than trundle over to an inn and sit down for hours, looking for something interesting to do. Except, there is one problem...your character died, and with the death came the removal of memories and thus the removal of RP, in a certain extent. That's right, all the time you spent RPing that juicy part of your character's life is now wasted, since you couldn't get even an ounce out of what happened.

 

So what do you do?

 

As the Potential Killer

 

As the one who is about to kill somebody (in RP! I do not suggest you kill anyone IRL), you should first consider the following:

• Is this person alone, with no one 'on their side' to witness the killing and therefor aid them in RPing it out?
• Does killing this person have little to no long-term reason, such as summoning a blood magic ritual or assassinating?
• Will the person have wasted a large amount of RP just to have it removed entirely from their character's story, because they were killed?

If you answered 'Yes' to any of these, perhaps you should consider NOT killing them! It is bound to give far more RP if you do not kill your victim than if you do. If you would like an example, here it is;

 

Killing the Victim: The Evil Clown [The killer] drags Rosetta [The victim] into the cave, laughing madly as he does so. The scrape of his knife against the stone sends eerie echoes through the chamber, and Rosetta screams into her muffle.

[!] An hour of RP later, involving torture for information, and lots of screaming from Rosetta.

"I-I...I GIVE IN! STOP" Rosetta screams, and the Clown stops, knife blade buried in in her leg. "Yeeessss?" He chortles, inches from her face. "The traitors you-you look....for" She gasps "Are...Bob and Carter Fakenaem!". With those names, the Clown reaches over and....slits her throat. With a few gurgles and insect-like shakes of death, Rosetta dies. She is later revived by the monks, with no traumatic memory or knowledge that she had just given away the names of two important men. This will not haunt her, ever.

 

--=[ OR ]=--

 

Not Killing the Victim: The Evil Clown [The killer] drags Rosetta [The victim] into the cave, laughing madly as he does so. The scrape of his knife against the stone sends eerie echoes through the chamber, and Rosetta screams into her muffle.

[!] An hour of RP later, involving torture for information, and lots of screaming from Rosetta.

"I-I...I GIVE IN! STOP" Rosetta screams, and the Clown stops, knife blade buried in in her leg. "Yeeessss?" He chortles, inches from her face. "The traitors you-you look....for" She gasps "Are...Bob and Carter Fakenaem!" With the delivery of the names, the Clown cackles and binds her arms. He drags her all the way out of the cave into the stinging daylight, and leaves her in the weakly tied ropes. She would be missing an ear, half a foot and a few teeth, as well as having a body riddled with bruises and cuts...but she is alive. With cauterized wounds that will likely never heal fully, and the horrid guilt of giving away the names of these important men, Rosetta crawls back to civilisation.

 

It is obvious to me which is better, and I should hope it is as obvious to you. Rosetta living shall create far more RP than her dying, and will build up on her character's story. Perhaps she had been a nice, sweet girl beforehand, but is now depressed and snarky, as well as cruel to animals? This is /character development gold/, people!

 

Of course, there might be situations where killing is alright, such as during a fight or if it makes 100% sense IC. Try to leave survivors, if you kill in an RP fight, so that the tale may be told, and RP may be made.

 

As the Victim who might be killed

 

Simply copy this and edit it as instructed:

 

/tell [MC name of villain] www.tinyurl.com/NoKilly

 

And try persuad them to see the light.

 

 

That's all, folks! Have a good one!

:D
 

[The Marked 25]

+1

[Rael 935]

Killing is not what makes good or bad antagonism, but the structure, depth and overall strength of the antagonistic plot. People who cannot handle their characters being killed have a thing or two to learn about RP beyond this guide.

[GodEmperorFlam 3447]

Killing is not what makes good or bad antagonism, but the structure, depth and overall strength of the antagonistic plot. People who cannot handle their characters being killed have a thing or two to learn about RP beyond this guide.

 

Server rules are that you forget all the roleplay leading up to your character's death (inb4 30 min, which isn't the case, that's for returning to your location after a battle !_! If you think that than have another glance at the rules).

 

Say you have amazing roleplay with a villain, regardless of what it is. Could be an ET villain, some person who hates elves, whatever. But then he/she kills your character. The scructure, depth, and overall strength of the antag's plot suddenly doesn't matter. Why? Because the villain has just robbed the victim of that character development.

 

I will agree, at times it makes sense for murder to happen, but a majority of the time, it serves no purpose aside from wiping a person's memory.

[Mephistophelian 977]

Killing is not what makes good or bad antagonism, but the structure, depth and overall strength of the antagonistic plot. People who cannot handle their characters being killed have a thing or two to learn about RP beyond this guide.

And when there is no one to RP anything that occurred of your Atagonistic RP? Of course killing happens, and will always happen, when an antagonist is involved, but is it really worth RPing your antagonistic character killing their victim if that is the only victim present? The RP you gave is no doubt good, but it does not affect future RP at all. As we all know, a good antagonist is not one that people know of only briefly in the RP that they are killed, and never hear about again. A good antagonist is one that is spoken about by witnesses, survivors and is made infamous. A good antagonist is one that creates more RP in the long run, is it not? I see where you are getting at, and that killing shouldn't mean too much, and I agree, however what I have tried to state is that not killing nearly always provides more RP than sentencing someone's character to the cloud temple, having forgotten everything that happened.

[Bearspearson 2]

You have my Plus!

 

But sadly this happens in only a perfect world. There are so many RPers on the server that don't want to lose at all. They want to be the winners of the fight. Probably because of the whole "Good always wins evil!" thing. That's my guess any ways. But otherwise, great guide and I'll keep this in mind when telling other people. Because who wants to be the one that gets killed. We are all here to have fun after all.

[Mephistophelian 977]

You have my Plus!

 

But sadly this happens in only a perfect world. There are so many RPers on the server that don't want to lose at all. They want to be the winners of the fight. Probably because of the whole "Good always wins evil!" thing. That's my guess any ways. But otherwise, great guide and I'll keep this in mind when telling other people. Because who wants to be the one that gets killed. We are all here to have fun after all.

 

Yes, you raise a valid point. Of course, this guide should help with the 'no one loses' part because most people associate losing with dying. I have found that my victims have always been so much happier when I do not kill them than when I do. To them, they have no lost and they are able to retain the RP event, and to me, I build infamy. In fact, one of the first victims of my villain 'Hanz' (Now called Haskal) was left to escape and she went off and wrote a newspaper article about it in RP. Bonus! :D

 

+1

 

Cheers! :)

[leave me alone 995]

+1

[zaezae 1098]

Not killing victims is always, always a plus. It is generally, always always funner. If simply because RP doesn't end. 

 

There isn't enough "beating them to a pulp" on LOTC. 

 

Though, killing a victim isn't bad. Should just say that. However, people should consider the polite 'epic final words' rather than mechanically killing them for the RP kill. At least revive /before/ doing the final rp/mech. blow.

 

But yeah +1

[ozeveo 87]

There was once a time where I wouldn't have agreed at all with what you're saying, but I think the whole 'avoid killing in RP when possible' idea has grown on me. Not killing and not disrupting roleplay with pervasive 'monks' who maintain everybody's immortality provides for excellent character development, however on the same token if more consideration is to be put into killing I think that death should be taken a lot more seriously. In cases where a character's death has long-term consequences, such as sacrifices and assassinations (much like what was mentioned in the original post) I think a permanent death should always be considered as a very realistic option.

[xDK 1205]

I usually let my victims live, only so they can run out and spread the words of how terrifying an experience they've had. Not only does killing them, limit the victims RP, but it also limits the antagonists RP. Torture RP is some of the most fun RP, but killing people destroys the purpose of the torture, since they can't live on their lives, fearing you.

[Mephistophelian 977]

Good to see others RPing this before this guide was put up. There is hope, still!

[Bearspearson 2]

Good to see others RPing this before this guide was put up. There is hope, still!

 

There is always hope my friend. Where there are good people, there is hope. I am sounding so cheesy.

 

Good job at writing that guide! Keep up the good work!

[Mephistophelian 977]

 Thanks

[Cjmate 1270]

In general, if you are going to kill someone it should be to accomplish a goal or further roleplay. My suggestion is to avoid killing if there are alternatives. Take them prisoner, torture them, beat them silly, etc. Killing...they're coming back anyway? What's the point. Unless you are going to do some serious, high-quality assassination roleplay or sacrifice someone to the demon-god Cthulu, killing doesn't really solve or further anything.

 

In short, if the victim is likely just to respawn and forget it happened, don't do it. Do something else.