Unavoidable NPC deaths - what's your opinion?

You’re writing a story that’s at least partly about the Foreign Legion, and I think author David Weber made an extremely good point about military fiction:

So yes, I’d expect to unavoidably lose some important NPCs.

15 Likes

You could do it via flashbacks. Have the character write to them in the present, with something the first one being something along the lines of “remenber that time we first met” which establishes the RO, and all subsequent letters being about dates you went on together, and moments you shared together. You can even have the player make choices within the flashbacks that will have an effect on the present. It also creates a reason for your characters intense struggle to live, their fighting so hard because they want to make it back to their loved ones back home.

2 Likes

Well regardless how you handle it just remember that death, avoidable or not, needs weight for it to work.

1 Like

Some of the deaths will be too sudden for the NPC to see it coming, just as it’s too sudden for the PC to do anything in the moment, or even not know what happened until afterwards after the chaos has settled down. Some may get a premonition or something before they die, but that’s not going to be a running thing since they expect themselves to sort of not die.

I hope this won’t turn it into a shaggy dog story, but it’s intentional that you can’t save everyone. Some of the options for the doomed will be intentionally morally grey, and requires a price on (usually) your reputation if you choose to save them. Remember, you’re an officer, so you are expected to make decisions based on duty, not sentiment.

That two friends arc, you’ll only know the extent of their relationship if you kept one alive (and whether he tells you of his intention to desert will depend on your rel stat with him). If both die, you’ll never know - they’re brothers in arms to you, close comrades. With the information you have at that point in time, what would you do?

Sorry, not to put your idea down, but handling it this way seems kinda cheesy to me. The resulting narrative that you’re trying to build in the past could also have inconsistent results with the present day situation.

It’s already been established at the beginning that the PC left a loving family and friends (and possibly a romantic interest who they failed to propose to in time but still love) for desperate reasons through a flashback while being made to stand around waiting for hours in the heat. I needed something solid right at the start to show why an upper middle-class young man would run off and enlist, cutting all contacts with his relations because he doesn’t want to be found. I feel that’s enough flashback cheese already.

I kinda want to add new ROs that you meet as an anonymous legionnaire with no past (if you had a romantic interest back home, you can have conflicting feelings about this), and that’s where it kinda trips me up. You won’t spend enough time in any city for a proper romance before you’ll be shuffled around again. And romancing another legionnaire in that kind of close quarters in that era, well, would be very difficult, to say the least. Probably not very sympathetic to today’s standards…

1 Like

I encourage you to kill whoever you want for the story. (Shaggy or otherwise)

4 Likes

But that’s the romance that makes sense within the setting – so I’d suggest that if you include romance at all, that’s the one you include.

2 Likes

I’ll try. The only female character that could possibly be in the fort is the vivandière, and that’s a married character so she’s off-limits. I have some ideas for NPCs, but nothing solid enough yet to determine how I’ll do this. Feels like I’m working the wrong way around for a CYOA by planning a plot first then throwing characters into it…

Awwwww.

Is that “Awwwww” as in disappointment, or “Awwwww” as in “how cute”? :thinking:

Disappointment.

I can’t imagine any lover of fiction trying to seriously argue that grief, loss, and consequence aren’t some of the most powerful tools you have as a storyteller. Of course you should use them whenever needed.

10 Likes

In the form of a lot of grey choices, I hope. There are other scenarios I’m thinking of where you can choose to be selfish to achieve your own happiness, or be noble for others’ well-being. And whatever you do will only be known by you… so, what are you in the dark?

1 Like

Exactly :grin:

Let me just say this: You don’t HAVE to have romance options if you don’t feel they fit into the game nor do they work with the narrative options you have available to you! Also, you could completely leave that until after you have a good portion of writing done if you want to revisit the idea later!

12 Likes

Unavoidable character deaths suck as a reader, but I think sometimes even this sadness adds to the beauty of the story. It stays in your mind for a long time, reminding you of the story. It also shows how good you were at portraying that character; they were loved so much that people came to care about them. I’m still thinking about Mordin from Mass Effect sometimes. And it hits deep, let me tell you.

I planned it for my own WiPs too, but I’m not sure if I can actually pull it off- it’s hard to make it meaningful, but not unnecessary tho in your case that’s probably not the same. More like the opposite. It’s realistic too.
Also, killing off characters as the writer is fun in some way if the player is able to save them somehow.

But what I absolutely hate is when the player is given the option to choose. No, thank you, you can die, but not on my account. That’s the worst thing ever. Won’t mean I wouldn’t play it (see Mass Effect again).

You can do it for extra drama and angst. :upside_down_face:

4 Likes

There are no happy endings in A Kiss from Death. I mean, stories are only “happily ever after” when they stop before the “ever after” part.

Every NPC death is unavoidable because death itself is unavoidable.

13 Likes

I’ve thought a bit more about the befriendable characters’ personalities since then. Two will be open to romance, and two are open to close platonic relations - think brother to brother. Not sure what kind of counter I should use for this yet. It’s not romance, but it’s more intimate than just being friends.

Right now, the plan for NPCs that you can save is:

  1. You can save them without penalty, if your stats are high enough
  2. You can save them without penalty if your stats aren’t high enough, if you have a good relationship with certain NPCs (different NPCs in different scenarios)
  3. You can save them if your stats aren’t high enough, but with a penalty to your reputation (which you can earn in various ways)
  4. Not save them if your stats aren’t high enough, and you don’t want the penalty in reputation

Is this what you mean by option to choose?

There will be several NPCs that are definitely doomed, but if you get your relationship with them high enough, the plan is you’ll unlock something - their backstory, a lesser penalty to morale, etc.

I’m fine with unavoidable deaths as long as it shows you that is it unavoidable and not the result of you just failing check that you could pass and save them.

I don’t want to replay a game with the intention of trying to save the character only to find it they will only die.

Also as long as it isn’t death that could logically have been prevented. For example a fast enough MC would have been able to react in time to prevent the death.

17 Likes

How could I show that? I’m thinking the pass/fail-able skillchecks would always be directly behind choices, would that be sufficient?

1 Like

Nope, I meant between two characters, where you choose which one survives. The things you listed are perfectly fine, but then the “unavoidable” part is kinda left out.

It heavily depends on the context, but to put it simply: “There was no way to save them, no matter how hard you tried. Everything would’ve led to the same outcome”
These sorts of lines should be explanatory enough.

6 Likes