Suicide

So tg how would you feel if one of the PC commited suicide in between sessions?

Just a session before the end of campaign.

How would you feel? As DM as fellow players? Would you allow him to play the final session as another character?

I'd tell them that it's a damned rude thing to spring on a GM and ask them to just play out the last session with that character and have them kill themselves after.

I'd be more concerned as to the reasons behind the suicide, as those are either a sign of something seriously wrong with the way the campaign is going, or the player themselves.

The only time I've ever had a character commit suicide was when the DM did something so outrageously stupid and edgy without a clear hook that my character simply couldn't deal with it. For example, raping and mindbreaking a character's wife and slaughtering his children.

PS, "revenge" is a shitty thing to live for and an even shittier motivation to adventure.

I would feel fucking awesome. I mean that would mean I'm an awesome storyteller if one of the players would decide that his character seen so much shit that he rather bites the bullet.

Then again, maybe because i'm GMing Delta Green.

You're using "player character" and "player" interchangeably in a dangerously misleading way, OP

But, if you mean a character in game, committing suicide ingame, and then the player opting to roll up a new one for just the last session, that would be a dick move. And you would be a shitty gm to allow it. And you're a shitty gm if the game environment makes that appeal to the player as an option in the first place.

Did he drop any good loot?

I have actually done this. I wanted to retire the character by having them run away, then reroll. Evil party that the character didn't click with. DM ruled that Vaulderie meant I could never run away from the pack so I an heroed and quit the campaign.

Depends entirely upon the reasons and circumstances, but almost certainly a shitty thing to do

I'm a player actually.

I started a character with a a goal that can't be realized in universe (resurrecting his wife) and last session I discovered she can't be ressurrected.

So i think my character has no longer a goal...

>So i think my character has no longer a goal...
So every person without a life-defining goal is likely to commit suicide?
Dude.

I get that your character would be distraught, but devotion to you party, their goal, and loyalty to your comrades should be alone enough to press on.
Now, if you want to go full on suicidal in attacking the BBEG in the final session or valiantly sacrifice yourself for the team in the final conflict, I can get behind that.

Also, if the GM just negated your whole story arc right before the last session, he is either a dick or has something up his sleeve.

Having your guy kill himself off screen because he, or you, is devastated by the loss of his goal, is a pretty lame, bitch-ass move.

Talk to your GM, voice your concern, but don't threaten suicide because it's lame and dumb.
And don't actually do it because the Internet will call you a stupid faggot for doing it, rightfully so.

MyThat Guy did that in game once after we heckled him. He didn't do it immeadiately though.
It took it slowly, he's the only one that actually RP's though he sucks at it. Even though he was trying it was still hilarious when I had to DM through an in-game suicide.

I kicked him out of the campaign because 'muh 'mersion permadeath

I had one faggot of a That Guy pull this on me in a light-hearted Gundam Build Fighters-esque campaign. His character was so focused on duelling and beating the empty-headed ace that he suffered terminal butthurt when it turned out a fire support mech couldn't stand up to one designed especially for issuing rocket-propelled cavalry charges to the face.

At least that was his excuse. Thankfully he fucked off to some other city shortly after so I never have to worry he'll darken my table again.

This is close to what happened with one of my Mage characters.

>At then end of an irl 8 year campaign
>Figure out BBEG is my character from the future
>Finally managed to corner him by cutting off potential timelines
>Got him trapped with me in one eventuality
>He's got a gun to another PCs head
>My options are either shoot my friend now or have evil me shoot him in the future - but whoever shoots him will gain a massive powerup
>Evil Me throws me my gun, wants me to do it. It'll just mean he'll have had more power for longer.
>Take a third option
>Machine gun Fellatio

Campaign ended there. It was our last session because a player was leaving, but the outcome really rocked us all.

>So i think my character has no longer a goal...
So he's just going to give up and kill himself?

You should follow suit. You're obviously too weak-willed to find a purpose in life.

I, too, have seen Looper.

Fun tidbit - campaign ended a few years before looper came out. Character was actually inspired by Timecop.

A friend of mine committed suicide. The campaign ended.

I tried to kill myself once.

Fuck it, I know this post is going to get ridiculed on here but you know what? I haven't actually talked about this with anyone I know, and I spend a stupid amount of time with you assholes so I'm posting it here. Hell, who knows - you might get inspiration for a character.

It happened a few years ago. The details don't matter - I was in a shit place, crap happened and I tried to hang myself. Ended up using old frayed rope, shit snapped, ended up in hospital.

The real hassle was the noise afterwards, everyone being all 'you can always talk to me, don't do it, you mean so much to us', like I had wanted to die.

I didn't want to die, I just didn't care if I did. I wanted to know what happens after.

All my life I've suffered from panic attacks brought on by the question of 'what happens to me after I die'. Just...the not knowing. It just freaks me out and I've never really been able to shake it.

So when shit got bad and things were terrible, I decided to find out.

That's it.

Didn't have a chance to talk about this with anyone else, so I hope someone here might find it useful.

everyone's afraid of the not knowing. the only thing that can keep your mind off it is finding something that makes you feel like your life has meaning.

Nothing happens between sessions without the DMs express permission.

Well he wanted to rez his wife. He clearly had issues dealing with loss and grief and it's understandable if the PC couldn't cope with the harsh truth. That said, it would have great potential for a character arc depending on what led up to the revelation. Could be inspiring or tragic and either would bve good with the right build up, though it sounds like the game wasn't terribly focused on him in the first place.

...

Thanks guys. You have coninced me of not suicidng my PC.

never would have thought Veeky Forums would be ble to do it.

>Would you allow him to play the final session as another character?
probably not

If someone thinks its narratively appropriate for their character to off themselves right before the end of a campaign that's fine, but having to finagle extra shit to accommodate them, likely at the expense of the other players is unacceptable.

Shit, user, that's rough. Hope you're in a better place now. But thanks for the information. I've actually read fairly often that people who attempt suicide don't really want to die, they just don't know what else to to (without going into the obvious "cry for help" thing).

Death by hanging is one of the few violent things that make me cringe. Like any other western, I'm fairly desensitized to pictures of violence because they're everywhere in fiction so meh. But when I was a kid, my neighbour's son tried to hang himself. Twice. It was a really small rural neighbourhood so both time his mother came crying to my firefighter father for help. They were too late the second time.
So as my father went there helping, I sat home wondering what what happening and how that guy must have felt (mentally and hu, physically). I kept imagining it and it cristallized in my brain.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.

I trust my players not to make that sort of decision lightly - if it was right at the end of the campaign I'd point out that their new character wouldn't get much development. That's an OOC reason but OOC reasoning is relevant to making a campaign work.

They gave me ample time to figure things out by doing it between sessions, and the suicide does become more relevant if there's a session after the character checks out. Consider Duala (?) in new BSG, at one point mid last season she's just been through too much shit and the shit will never end, so she tidies her locker and blows her brains out, and the other characters have to live with it.

>better place now
I doubt they have stable connection up there.

Not THAT place.

Off the top of my head I can count three cases (two of them being my characters) of our games including a PC suicide. All of them in the final session.

>1
I GM'd a Kult campaign. In the finale one of the PCs (a 60 y.o. drug addict hippy) talks to an Awakened Human who encourages him to slit his own throat. He does and gets a shot of being reborn with his memories (more or less) intact.

>2
My Son of Ether stabbed himself with a ritual dagger to save the universe. He died but got better a few days earlier. Yes, earlier.

>3
In Fading Suns I called an artillery strike at myself. While in the middle of the BBEG's command centre. After the war ended and the dust settled I got a neat, marble statue for my troubles.

Sorry for your loss

Ehhh I think there are more alternatives.I don't know but it's too risky to try and find out and I will probably lose the things I have now. I think there are plenty ''distractions'' to thinking about death and what potentially comes after. I don't get why you need meaning, I never did. Why do some people need meaning in their lives? I just try to live an enjoyable life and do the things I like.

Legit happened to me too. We kept playing about a dozen more sessions until we got bored of the campaign. We kept bringing him up the rest of the campaign and had his character NPC'd.

>you can always talk to me, don't do it, you mean so much to us
Jesus, I would hate that.

> I wanted to know what happens after.
There's nothing to know user, all that is and will ever be is only because you are alive.
Like I get the curiosity, of course I do I think everyone probably knows that. But in all accordance with the universe as we understand it today, death is just nothingness, like before you were born, so you'll never know, you'll never find out what it's like because it's nothing. There will never be a moment where you'll be like "huh so I guess this is what death is like" because you'll be gone
Anyway I hope you're feeling better user, don't try to kill yourself again, there's no point in bringing about the eternity of nothing even sooner than it is already coming.

Imagine if you couldn't enjoy things, at least not to any satisfying degree. Everything feels hollow, without direction or purpose. Seeking meaning for guidance begins looking pretty appealing

If nothing is inevitable and all consuming, what difference does it make when it comes about? Everything of your life and self will be erased from your perspective, because you technically won't have one and it'll be like you never did.

Well if that's the case, I guess I understand the reason.

>having family

Yes, you should because it fits the story.

That only applies if the character actually experienced growth or felt actually connected to the party.

If they were just 'that guys who help me in what I want' and he never actually socialized with them, it's dumb to expect that this would stop something someone from giving up.

If a character is obsessed upon something and goes an entire campaign wanting it, then it's denied at the last moment then it's completely expected he gives up. It's in fact realistic and good storytelling.

Muh 'I have a duty' crap only applies if they character feels he has a duty. Or if he developed a sense of duty. If he didn't then it's stupid to pull this out of air because 'it's better for the table'.

it doesn't really make a difference, nothing does in the end. But you are alive and conscious now, you weren't before you were born and you won't be after your dead. So what we have is a unique point in time where the universe deviated from its overwhelming indifference and unconscious state and converged to make you a conscious being, really you wanna stretch it out for as long as you can until you return to your natural state of unbeing, like you're going to not be for eternity anyway regardless of what you do so you might as well make the conscious experience last as long as you can (and have as much fun with it as you can)

In the end, it depends if your character actually grew into having other duties during the campaign.

If however he didn't, and your DM went and removed his only objective, then frankly this is completely the fault of your DM of not seeing this coming. You are, in fact, needed to commit suicide or give up, because keep going because OCC reasons is against good storytelling.

ITT: Blame the stupid DM who didn't take your purpose after the final session. Then you could commit suicide and end the game on a tragic but poetic note.

What value is any of that if you will return to nothingness? You can't reflect fondly on it, it won't contribute to any growth, it won't leave any mark on time and space and effectively never happened. The overwhelming nothing will retcon your existence so you in a sense don't even really exist now. The universe is just having a brief psychotic episode.

There's no reason to seek out death, but there isn't really reason to live either.

Sounds like bog standard depression to be honest, user. I'm not here to second guess you but for future times I suggest doing what I did; make up your mind, when you are able, that you'll look for help before you kill yourself.

I've had to do it twice now and yeah, It bought me some bad times but also some good times.

ObOnTopic: In an early Kult convention scenario at one point the player characters have to kill themselves to actually do what they have to do. The designers sort of assumed everyone would but players being players I had one contrarian. The other three had to haunt the shit out of him before he finally (IIRC) went "WELL FUCK YOU!" and swerved into a bridge fundament at 150.

Shit was hilarious.

Why does it matter if you don't get anything afterwards or it affects anything. I enjoy the things now and it doesn't need it to have an effect on the universe.

Lol who cares about that? you are alive now, "value" like being alive isn't good enough on it's own, like you need to reflect on in later for it to be of any meaning.
> it won't leave any mark on time and space and effectively never happened
It's happening right fucking now, enjoy every nanosecond of it right up until you're dead, when you can't anymore. You don't need to make a mark on fucking space and time, just be happy you got to be alive in the first place.
>The overwhelming nothing will retcon your existence so you in a sense don't even really exist now
The past is behind us and the future doesn't exist, all that exists is the now and you are alive in this moment, so try to enjoy it regardless of the overwhelming meaninglessness of it all.
It's basically all we can do.

Because living is the pursuit of future gratification, which ultimately doesn't exist

>because living is the pursuit of future gratification
living is so much more than that

>The real hassle was the noise afterwards, everyone being all 'you can always talk to me, don't do it, you mean so much to us'
Yeah, I get you user.
This was a huge pain in the ass for me too. There ended up being literally nothing anyone could have said that they hadn't heard on some movie or whatever, and it was almost unbearably dull how predictable the aftermath of the entire thing was for me.

this begs a difficult question.
Now that time passed and you can analyse the event with a cold mind which action of people around you were actually helpful? What would you have liked them do?

the thing about plots and goals like these is that if you dont have DnD setting where teh rulebook gives you ressurection spells (at whatever cost) you have to talk with the GM because he could have told you from the startthat it would never work, and with that knowledge in mind you can decide to still play it for the story or play something else.

At this point though I would not have given up, there is a way. Thats called Hope.