Sorry; it wasn’t really meant to be a rebuttal of your comment per se, and I do agree with what you wrote. I just feel like the “talk about your family” trope is so overdone it’s almost a self-parody at this point.
Or you have someone who refuses to talk about their family because they know the trope, and are scared doing so will get them killed…
First consider what emotion you want your reader to feel when they read of the character dying, and write accordingly.
For instance people rushing to the forum angrily. Is that what you wanted people to feel, because if so good; you have succeeded. If no one complains then perhaps you didn’t achieve your mission, no one cared about this character.
Anyway, it’s one of the unique CoG forum quirks that the meta has written itself into a rather trite formulation of ROs which makes such deaths unconscionable for most. But similarly, since the formula has become so ossified here the opportunity appears to pull an amusing long con.
In my long dead Warhammer rip off I spent a long time mulling over how to write deaths since I had made a decision that all major characters could die in the finale of the story as a result of choices made through the saga, but wrote them as if they were going to live. The whole intention was to make the reader mad as hell at the end and want to replay to get a better result because the choices necessary were spread out over 500k words. The inspiration being Lost Heir 3 which caused me to rage quit a few times and yet I kept going back.
Can I really post here? My post will cause a massive amount of anger from fandoms. So I am not sure if it is okay to me to post
I would add that choicescript is sort of an awkward medium for character deaths.
Theres a sort of implication that major decisions are able to be affected by the player, a lot of players will expect that if a major character dies, that there was also some way to save them by making different choices.
If the death is scripted and will occur regardless of player choice, there will likely be a number of forum/reddit posts asking how or if its possible to save certain characters. There may also be a degree of frustration regarding player choice with players either mistakenly thinking that their failure to save the character is the result of too difficult skill checks.
I will confess that in Study in Steampunk with Finch falling from the airship, I tried to reset that section multiple times before realizing that the event was scripted.
Lotta good points put forward by the other guys. My two cents would be, the character has to have a trait that endears them to the reader or has to have been present throughout the most part of the story.
Firstly, for ex, if the NPC is your pet dog you already feel an emotional connection with them if you simply write an emotional page of your history with that creature, how you’ve both stood against the passage of time and its challenges. Or the character can be thoroughly absent throughout the story, like the mother who left you on the doors of an orphanage at an early age, having been shunned. The MC can then reminiscence through flashbacks as to how life used to be back then, what she went through to keep you both safe and sound. That allows the reader to create an emotional bond and sympathize with the character.
Secondly, you can use a character who has been present since page 2 to page 200 of the story beside the MC, so much so intertwined in the story that by the time their death comes, they seem to be a second character, a taken for granted NPC that is ‘supposed’ to be present with the MC in all instances, their death in that scenario will be so shocking and out of the blue it will feel as if the MC themselves have died. Bonus points if you make them stand out via their personality, their influence in the story, etc. something that leaves a mark on the player base.
It summarises down to emotional attachment and endearment of the readers and how prolonged/wanted/taken for granted, the ROs presence has been throughout the story till now.
To be honest, I feel like the “talks fondly about family during a war” works well even if it’s predictable. Because it’s a reveal of the character’s values and promises. Also helps to flesh out their personality and not make them fodder-like. And then when they inevitably die, it’s sad that they have an unfulfilled promise. It’s also like a ticking time bomb, where you know where they’re going to die, but you aren’t sure when.
Flashbacks with that character after their death can add more impact. Constant reminders of “if this person were here, they would have XYZ”
I’m not sure about similar emotional states, since a character achieving their goal of being alive and dying with an incomplete goal are drastically different. I guess if you mean by similar emotional levels, you can write them achieving their goals alive euphoric equally to how tragic it be to see them die before reaching their goal 