How about just the routes you need to put most work into? 
I like using achievements for route markers (that’s actually what I majorly use them for in my draft! plus a few obscure happenstances for laughs, like for being insulted with a mathematical formula), but I maaaay have ended up with way too many variations to be able to create enough names to mark them all…
As far as the poll goes, I don’t really have an opinion, so I’m not voting. Sorry!
I think either 15 or 20 is my achievement limit? If I see a too long list, I kind of ignore it to be perfectly honest.
When it comes to fantasy races, I’m done to really play anything. If I’m given a choice, though, I’ll probably just default to human. A lot of fantasy races are basically just “what if human but super hot and also magic” which I’ve got nothing against. As long as the thing I’m playing as has a human enough face and is humanoid, I don’t really care. I don’t exactly like playing as animals, though.
Random and possibly controversial opinion, I actually actively dislike playing as a vampire or werewolf.
But honestly, if the story’s plot/characters are interesting to me, I don’t really care about the gender, race, ethnicity (if applicable), or even sexuality of the MC.
Readers: do you want to see more stories implement character death for the MC when applicable?
0 voters
It’s been a while since this topic has been touched upon (see here), but I wanted to see a more recent swath of opinions on this subject.
Luckily I’ve implemented my save system from the beginning, probably one of the few things I may have done right now that I think.
It was the first thing to come to my mind after thinking on putting dead ends. I thought what I could think off if a game came without one, and I didn’t liked the idea.
Personally, I think in 3D Games we play (like rpg and the like), it’s expected to see death. You buy potions or whatever it’s called in the said game and ‘Game Over’ (That thing is older then meh! Lol)
But in a story, I think the whole death thing only fit certains stories.
I can expect to die facing a big boss, or falling to look where I was walking (Happen all the time) and falling in a trap and KAPUT!
But in a story, where the author think it’s realistic to ‘Die’ just cause…(Expect some games like that Angel heist game which had dice rolls and a complicated system), in a simple story…thinking it will add ‘Stress and realism and Yawn…replayability’ . All you are doing is frustrate peoples and make them drop your game like it was on fire.
What about with a save/Load system?…
It’s the feeling I get…which a save/load doesn’t erase. I mean I died so much in those old ‘Game where you are the hero’ then you learn to use your fingers or note the damn page so you don’t freaking die lol
I’m picky with death in IFs.
I don’t particularly want more stories to include the possibility of the MC dying, but if there is a possibility then I’d like to have a check point system in place. However, I realize that it’s a big burden on an author to implement that sort of thing, so I don’t demand it.
Overall I don’t mind MC death possibility but only if I manage to avoid the deaths lol
Which is why I generally opt for no possibility of MC death (exceptions based on genre and tone of the story obviously). Instead I like the option of failing and having to live with the consequences. Not necessarily the death of another NPC but say a fatal injury or the mistrust of your peers.
In theory, I think MC death is cool and interesting. In practice, if my character dies before the end I pout a lot and stay mad about it for the rest of the day. 
I do think there’s potentially some merit to endings where MC dies as long as they still offers some measure of closure to the story, rather than feeling like the story just abruptly drew to a halt and I don’t get to find out what happens. Though even there I would greatly prefer for there to be some sort of save/checkpoint system in place so I can try again without investing another X hours into the game just for a chance to get to the real ending, especially if I have no idea what I did wrong.
…Actually, I guess that’s a lot of what it comes down to - did I die because I made a mistake that I understand and accept the consequences for, or did I die because I forgot to pick up the teddy bear I didn’t know existed back in chapter 2?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. 
I think it was way easier than to write dialog for me, and I did it when I didn’t have much experience (I mean, less than now).
That’s another way of doing it, but knowing that you can die and it’s all over, shouldn’t that make the choice harder in some way?
You can also combine the two, die with the boss and consequences of the same/another actions.
That’s just evil.
And that sounds to me like bad writing, unless there is a reason for the death maybe.
good question, which reminded me of the last game (Don’t remember if it was hosted or not), but in a 3D game when you lose against an ennemy, you usually think ‘What I did wrong?’’ then proceed to try a new strategy. See a pattern, learn the movements, roll, ducks, parry that kind of things. But in a story, those ‘roll, duck, parry’ are done by ‘invisible’ stats (Unless stated).
And the last game like I said I died, is because I kept picking the same stat over and over (Something related to herbalism and a random ‘Traitor’ does that ring any bell to anyone?)…and here near the end is the scene of ‘Jumping’ or something and BAM! SPLAT! You died…cause…guess what? You didn’t make the crucial JUMP and therefor you went SPLAT!
Are you freaking…beep beep beep beep
Seriously? What was the point of the others stats? I dropped the game right then and there. Screw this…
A check point would’ve been nice but the outcome would’ve been the same since ‘Stats censorship’ of some kind happen there lol
Death doesn’t usually accomplish anything good, as typically is written in COG. At best, they’re a nice Easter egg for players who like tragic endings. Usually I end up frustrated with them because they send me back to beginning to make every single choice again without my consent, all because I made a single wrong choice, often one I wasn’t aware would cause such a thing. Though to be fair, the reason I don’t know it will to lead is often the result of poor defined stats, which is a whole other issue. The other problem with it is that the MC’s death is not usually very fleshed out, which just exacerbates the annoying “gotcha!!! trollled lol” feeling they can sometimes evoke in the player. In my experience it’s typically a line or less, probably something like “the gangsters shoot you, and you bleed out on the streets.” They just…don’t have much purpose, and in actuality just end up annoying the player more often than not. People doing it to be “edgy” or “grim” can just stop, but if you want to write MC death in for the drama, for God’s sake please flesh it out into a scene.
It probably wouldn’t fit completely well in IF that relies solely on story. But if a story does rely on stats and utilises RNG that influence the effectiveness of choices, it can make for some interesting writing I think, coming up with some creative ways the MC could die in certain situations.
It also depends how clear everything is set out, if stats are clear players can make more informed decisions. Maybe the main character could also have a health bar or health points which could lead to eventual death, through multiple bad choices slowly injuring the MC over time as well as having the option for quicker but not instant and undetailed bad choice deaths.
It kind of toes the line between more of a game and a book when more attention has to be paid to stats in order to avoid character death, if its done well it can really be quite immersive, your choices have even more weight because you can cut your story short if you’re careless.
I guess a downside though would be that more choices may need to be added, to save the feeling of railroading some people might get, that the book was “forcing” them to make certain decisions in order to progress.
Hope I haven’t gotten off track there.
imo the way to go is in difficulty settings. Such as, you cant die on the easiest setting, but you can on harder ones. I love the danger that comes with the MC possibly dying, so I am wholeheartedly on the side of letting the MC die. Even if it is abrupt, let me experience the added sense of insecurity! Don’t hold my hand haha
In my opinion, death of the MC actually destroys tension and pacing. Unless it is a tragic ending where perhaps you die in a grand heroic sacrifice or whatever, I would recommend against including too many. If you’re going to add them, be careful, and make sure they make sense for the tone and context of your story.
I actually believe that consequences shouldn’t come through death, because that just causes your audience to load a checkpoint, reversing all the consequences. If you’re going to make a consequence for failing a check or picking poor options, make it something meaningful. Perhaps in a Sci-Fi setting, the MC could lose a leg or arm and have it replaced by a prosthetic. Perhaps the MC loses an eye. Maybe a character that isn’t the MC is killed or otherwise injured.
I find that when I die in many IF books, my immediate reaction is “oh God damn it” followed by repeating the same death 9 times because I don’t know how to get past the section without dying. I actually had this issue with Zombie Exodus, my first ever COG book, as my dumb ass managed to repeatedly miss the very crucial thing on the oil tanker section that would make you survive, and had to look up a walkthrough.
TLDR: Forcing players to reload a checkpoint upon death can kill pacing and add to frustration, so be careful. Instead, maybe you could try having some other permanent consequence, such as a side character dying, the MC being maimed, etc. Though this may depend on the tone and author’s preference, of course.
Edit:
I agree. The possibility of death is almost necessary for certain books. Any kind of war novel where you play as just a soldier, one of many, practically needs the threat of death. Again, it really depends on the tone and genre.
And another major thing depends on how “snappy” the checkpoints are. Odds are, if there is no checkpoint… I’d probably quit, at least for the day. Checkpoints at the start of a chapter can be painful, too, if there are major decisions and long sequences before the actual death. I found Guns of Infinity handled death well, with checkpoints being directly before a battle so you can change your strategy and try again.
I remember that exact section you’re talking about…
And yes, I agree. When I die and get sent back to a check point, it breaks my immersion since I have to speed run through all the choices that I made until I died.
In IFs that have no check points for death mechanics and essentially you’re forced to restart? Eh. 50/50 chance I’ll restart the whole thing or just play something else depending on how slighted I feel about the death.
I’m on the neutral side, as I always have been in a lot of places. If you can make fun deaths, sure, why not?
I’m with everything you’ve said on a conceptual level: the MC dying and forcing a restart can be a colossal waste of time (and if you’ve played through some of the longer titles out there, you know that Choicescript isn’t built for speed running), yet the MC being able to reverse their death by gonig to a prior checkpoint essentially invalidates that part of the story. A much better way to handle it is by only having MC deaths be at the end of the story as a satisfying conclusion, or relying on other means to add dramatic weight.
I’m not opposed to MC death, but I agree that it should be a proper ending, tragic but satisfying. What I don’t want to see is “You died. Try again”.
If it’s going to be there, I want it done like in The Eagle’s Heir, where if you play your cards right you can sacrifice yourself for Alexandre and die in his arms. Then the game goes on to tell you how all the other characters fared in your absence — if you romanced anyone, there’ll be something about how they’re coping with your death. And actually, the characterisation given here for the NPCs has influenced how I think of them in subsequent playthroughs. I have such a soft spot for Julien ever since I learnt that he’ll keep visiting your grave to talk to “you” and read “you” his writing if you die.
I enjoy important character deaths including an MC’s, but I don’t feel a need per se for more IF games to include such things. Whatever fits with the narrative. That said, I don’t like a simple “your character dies, you failed, the end,” especially in the middle of the game, as others have mentioned. I prefer failures and MC deaths that open new doors by closing others and/or that add to characterizations and the bigger picture in some special way. At the very least, I expect whole scenes instead of one sentence “lul, start over” types of sudden buzzkillers. I want to feel like no matter what ending I wind up getting, it was a complete story and was worth the time I spent on it. I don’t want to feel like the author couldn’t be bothered to follow through on paths they created in the first place.
For instance, (avoiding spoilers here so sorry but it’s vague) in Versus: The Elite Trials, you learn from another character you’ve already unwittingly met someone important through a life-altering event. Currently, there is one way alone to find out more about that situation, how you met this person and who they were. And that one way is a failure that leads to your death. It is an eye-opening and satisfying ending that uniquely builds upon several threads from the games and sheds light on separate aspects of your identity.
Readers: when reading a text message in a story, how do you prefer the author differs it from the rest of the narrative? (Example pictured below)
0 voters
