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Finish Him? When (Or If) Adversaries Should Go for the Kill
26 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Daryl, Nick, & Robert explore when - or if - adversaries should go for the kill against player characters. We discuss balancing tension, fun, and expectations, and how lethal choices shape the story and table trust.
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Intros
00:00:02
Speaker
with the coachman D20 Radio. at Your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How will We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share us stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is How We Roll.
Casual Host Conversations
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to the How We Roll Gaming Podcast, everybody. How are you all doing? Nick, Robert, how are you doing? I'm doing as best he can be. Didn't have the greatest day at work, but I'm very glad it was a Friday, so now I've got the three-day weekend to look forward to.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yes, me too. Three-day weekend. I love a three-day weekend. Don't we all? What are 2026. Brand new year. Brand new nonsense.
00:01:13
Speaker
to it Brand new year. Brand new nightmare. okay is is it my west Is it at least Wes Craven's new nightmare?
00:01:25
Speaker
Uh...
00:01:28
Speaker
Less brick and fourth wall, but still somewhere in that same area. gotcha Gotcha.
Crowdfunding for Toon RPG 2nd Edition
00:01:35
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. I'm kind of excited about one thing, because yesterday, um it wasn't a a Kickstarter specifically, but it was crowdfunding.
00:01:49
Speaker
But the crowdfunding... for the second edition, some 30 years removed from first edition, of Steve Jackson Games' tune finished.
00:02:03
Speaker
And yes, I backed it. yeah We never doubted you. well So for those of you unaware, which might even be one or both of you,
00:02:17
Speaker
So, Toon... I've heard about it, but I've never been like, a you know, more than me. Toon is a role-playing game where you play a cartoon character.
00:02:29
Speaker
And cartoon logic applies, and you have wacky hijinks-filled misadventures. and yeah Be careful, Lauren may be starting to crawl in into into this as of now.
00:02:45
Speaker
Hey, all of us are welcome you once the book actually shows up and and we can actually play it. Cartoon hijinks apply. it's been so It's literally been over 30 years since I've played first edition, so I don't remember all the details, but I remember tremendous fun was had by our gaming group. and you you can You can do campaigns or you can do one-shots.
Nostalgia for Toon RPG
00:03:13
Speaker
You could even do a
00:03:16
Speaker
You could do a hybrid of the two by carrying the same character through one shots as if they are in different cartoon shorts.
00:03:27
Speaker
Well, considering the first edition, i wasn't even born yet. I'll take the for it and it'll be fun to think about. do got to ask, we do, can we be brought through rabbits and things?
00:03:40
Speaker
I mean, I don't see why not. it It was released around the time that Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out in theaters. So it was kind of you know hitting hitting the the popularities of both Who Framed Roger Rabbit and D&D, role-playing games at the time. so Fun fact, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was actually a novel called Who Censored Roger Rabbit.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yes. Right. And the the writer, after the movie came out, the writer wrote a sequel to the novel that was more a sequel to the movie.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah. See also, Crichton, Michael, World, comma The Lost. ah long as long as you don't make the lip you it, Nick.
00:04:34
Speaker
ah Oh, mon amour.
00:04:39
Speaker
Mon amour. You're despicable Robert. really they afl folks play oh that was yeah that That was good. that was good thank you That's one that one character I can do well. I want to say that the couple of times that we played back in the day, i don't remember if we all adapted existing characters are made of new ones but it was at the time that nick i know that this will probably ring bells with you robert probably not because nick and i are more the the media hounds here but the ralph fachy mighty mouse the new adventures was on the air oh
00:05:28
Speaker
I did Mighty Mouse, but it was specifically the Bakshi Mighty Mouse who was, you know, meta-commentary, self-aware kind of stuff.
00:05:40
Speaker
It was basically, for contemporary, he was Deadpool, but not Deadpool. That's what I did. I don't remember what the rest of my friends did. We only played it a couple of times, but I'm looking forward to this showing up.
00:05:54
Speaker
Sounds good. I don't know when it will be, but I'm looking forward to it showing up because it it's a lot of fun. cut Kind of like everyone is John, it's a nice wacky palate cleanser. Everyone is John or Paranoia.
00:06:08
Speaker
or have It's a nice wacky palate cleanser in there. All right. Well, we've done some free shout outs. How about we give a little bit more? Yeah. Yes.
00:06:20
Speaker
Before we dive into our subject, we want to let you know about our other great games on the D20 radio network. Yep. I Should Roll is an actual play podcast set in the Mass Effect universe using a home room system that's a mix of D&D 5th edition, Blades in the Dark, Fate, and other mechanics.
00:06:40
Speaker
We currently have two long-term long-form campaigns running, Riot of the Valkyrie, set in 2184, and Dangerous, set in 2189.
Podcast Promotions and Recommendations
00:06:45
Speaker
and dangerous dangerous that in twenty one eighty nine And you can find more information about the podcast on their site, IShouldRoll.com. And, of course, get the podcast through your preferred podcast platform of choice.
00:07:03
Speaker
Now, are we ready to dive into our subject matter for the episode? Are we able to dive into our graves, Daryl?
00:07:15
Speaker
Finish him! Yes. Yes, we are. Yes. let's talk about murder Let's talk murder. Let's talk about mayhem. Let's talk about the killing blow.
Should Adversaries Kill Player Characters?
00:07:29
Speaker
Let's talk about when or if adversaries should go in for the kill.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yes. Because that is always a pivotal point in any campaign. When it gets to the point where you as a GM have to ask yourself, even the players have to ask, should I kill him?
00:07:47
Speaker
Or should there be some, not really a McGovern, but a a plot that leads them to not dying? Again, we're not talking about players that play characters and their morality of killing and looting. and That's a whole different bag of words.
00:08:04
Speaker
We're talking specifically on the GM side. Yeah, as a GM, when is it yes I want to say appropriate, but that doesn't seem like the right word. When it should be story-wise good to kill a character when does it fit the story yes when does it fit the story and does it undermine the players having fun exactly if it happens because here's the did the main factor is like you want there to be stakes in a story and the easiest way is like where the bad guys are going to
00:08:41
Speaker
trying off you. That's the basics. And I think we we should set set kind of a level here in that we're primarily talking about ongoing campaigns.
00:08:55
Speaker
Exactly. Not one-shots. Those one say it won't say won't matter, but they don't have long-term impacts. Not horror cinematics where you're expected to die, but that's part of the fun.
00:09:11
Speaker
yeah so Yeah, because what with a one-shot, there's no guarantee that the characters characters are coming back, and ah you you don't have to worry as much about what degree, if any, of plot armor you're giving the PCs.
00:09:30
Speaker
And for like a horror story event, it's like, well... It's the same thrill that you get from from watching ah your classic classic film.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know, if if we're running an alien cinematic, I fully expect that at any point my my character is going to die. Exactly. The more vices, the more enjoyable ironic. In fact, the one time Nick ran a cinematic with me and Lawrence and we worked together and didn't die.
00:10:04
Speaker
We all collectively said, Nick, you did it wrong. like Yeah, that went wrong. And along those lines, I mentioned it just a couple of minutes ago, if you're in a game of paranoia and the player characters don't die over and over and over again and respawn with their clones, something is terribly wrong with the sessions.
00:10:32
Speaker
So we're talking about deaths that are characters, player characters have been around with them and do care about them. And in stories, campaigns.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yes. And then we're also not counting some times where just the dice are not in the character's favor. Like i still remember my short term, Star Wars Dark Knights Arise, when you guys are fighting the terror droid.
00:11:02
Speaker
And I rolled the crit on Darryl that was basically said, doesn't matter what your health was, by the end of next round, you're going to die. It's like, well, I can't really. You had a chance if you could beat the thing. It's like there was a chance you could stabilize them, but it just
GM Dilemmas with Character Deaths
00:11:16
Speaker
didn't happen.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah. And and that that was session two, dear listeners.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yes. but Thank you for self-reporting. Yeah, it was my it was my first double kill, but I don't count myself for Nick because I literally told him, no, if I do this again, you're and he's going to hit you again. And you were just like, do it.
00:11:39
Speaker
was like, okay. Because literally I had nothing. I had literally a double kill. Yeah, he's just like, all right. the The kind of thing that we're talking about here is your players are in a fight with the big bad of the session. Not even necessarily the big bad of the campaign if they are separate characters, but they they've reached a combat encounter and they're fighting the bad guy and dice aren't going in their favor or they're going overwhelmingly in the adversary's favor and you have one or more
00:12:20
Speaker
unconscious PCs laying here on the ground. Yes. so Now again, there there's plenty of rules, especially laid out in most of, most systems, saying on how to get the bad guy out of a situation that is not favorable to them.
00:12:38
Speaker
But now the inverse is how should a bad guy react in a situation where it is favorable, but you may feel, or the players players may feel, they don't want their character to die yet, in a sense that it'd feel like it would hurt the story.
00:12:53
Speaker
get that's the more, that's the more complicated and more interesting what we're talking about today. Yeah. Or even yourself as a GM, it's like this player, you know, this character, player's giving you their backstory and you've like, Ooh, I can write this into this, this, and this.
00:13:10
Speaker
But then in one fight, it's like, Oh, if I keep doing this, they're going to die. And then I've lost this entire plot. I've been thinking up. Maybe I, sh I don't want to kill them. Yeah, you you have you have a point in the future in mind for them, and and it's driving... Realistically....underneath the surface, it's driving a lot of your you're ongoing narrative, and if something happens to them, then there's going to be problems, because then you have to figure out if you're going to dump that narrative...
00:13:45
Speaker
or find a way to shift it onto another character, and can it be shifted to another character? But realistically, your villain is characterized as, well, a villain.
00:14:01
Speaker
cold-blooded killer. Yeah, so how do you, story-wise and character-wise, rationalize that they would leave the player alive? And sometimes, one of the easiest ways to do is just be like,
00:14:14
Speaker
They're sadistic. They want them to suffer. Because in one of my examples, in my Ashes of an Empire campaign, there was kind of a big bad.
00:14:24
Speaker
If you know the modules, it was Jocera from the Ghost ghost of Dathomir. And she was attacking a station. The players were trying to leave. i killed the I killed the group pet, so they're pretty angry with me. And then they were getting prepared to leave. Jocera was blocking their way to the shuttle, so they were doing their turns to get to the shuttle.
00:14:43
Speaker
And then another player's character who owns the ship was like, okay, I'm ready to shoot forward and go shoot to light speed. Just like go out and just meet at light speed. I was like, okay. But I didn't let him know. i was like, yeah, you're kind of forgetting another player character's not in the ship. She's stuck under a grate and you've kind of forgotten that.
00:15:04
Speaker
But I didn't tell him that and he did it. i was like, okay. yeah You're missing somebody. and He's like, oh. yeah It was actually a good character moment because his character is known to be self-serving, he's willing to leave people behind, but this was more like an unconscious thing, and now he has to live with that.
00:15:20
Speaker
And so the other player's character is under this bin with the big bat up there with the lightsaber like this, like thinking, should I? And I was like, should I? Should I not? And I said, no.
00:15:33
Speaker
This place is coming down. this care This big bat would be like, you know what? just going to leave you to maybe rot or maybe you'll fly off into space. erman I got better things to do than kill you. And she just walked away.
00:15:47
Speaker
And the more important story beats would be for that character to not have to live with the fact that they were abandoned rather than be obviously destroyed.
00:15:59
Speaker
Exactly. It can be a good character art, a plot point, conflict between characters, who knows? and Now, depending on your adversary, too, your your villain...
00:16:11
Speaker
Another way that you could go to and it's similar to that, but not exactly that is you could Joker it. There have been multiple times in various Batman media that the Joker has had at his mercy. He's had Batman at his mercy.
00:16:31
Speaker
All he has to do is pull a trigger and put a bullet through Batman's head. and he's like, if I do this, where's the fun in that? You're too much fun being around.
00:16:43
Speaker
Exactly. Some of the comics have even delved into the, what if Batman died? And Joker's just like, what do I do now? again you can doesn't work for It doesn't work for every villain.
00:16:55
Speaker
but the a dynamic with the characters That is the ultimate ah trope example of the fact that the only reason the character is a alive is because of plot and conflict.
00:17:10
Speaker
The Joker literally cannot exist without the Batman. Yes. or so They are so intrinsically in terms of the storyline and creation. It's like, yeah, it wouldn't make sense. So therefore, the Joker has to recognize the fact that he cannot kill the Batman. Otherwise, there is no Joker.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, and that works in their setting because it's and they're both nemesis to each other. But how do you reconcile that evil guy with a group of people? But that is how you that is at least a trope that you could then work backwards and say, like, all right, can your antagonist exist without your protagonists, your heroes without the villain?
00:17:57
Speaker
Yes, and in some instances, yes, especially if in the long-term campaign, it's a big, bad, evil guy. He's got schemes upon schemes. it's like At least that that's story-wise, well,
00:18:10
Speaker
If kill them, it's not really going to hurt my schemes. But maybe alternatively, he's like, no, I want them to live because they're actually working towards one of my schemes without them knowing it. I'd be more of a hassle to find new people than keeping them alive. Honestly, the worst case is like, okay, I've tied in the big bad evil guy to everyone's storyline.
00:18:33
Speaker
Well... But now you've created a top-heavy pyramid. It beats him early. no one No one's storylines could potentially be properly resolved.
00:18:44
Speaker
Well, if I understand the principle that you're putting out there right, though, that potentially allows for player character cohesion and the development of their stories independently because...
00:19:01
Speaker
ah follow Follow me here, especially if you build this in early on in your campaign.
Adversaries Embedded in Player Lives
00:19:07
Speaker
Yes. um So let's say Robert, I'm running the game, let's say, and Robert's character meets someone who's a benefi benefactor to them in some way.
00:19:22
Speaker
All right. yep And then Nick's character has this uncle. that that is a friend of his, or that that he's fairly close with, who's supportive of him.
00:19:37
Speaker
And say we've we've got another player over here who they they are friends to, or not friends, but they are friendly to, say, this, what looks to be a homeless person over here that they pass every day. Mm-hmm.
00:19:59
Speaker
And we're we're going to limit to just having three PCs, just so that I'm not describing eight million different scenarios. Okay. so Though the benefactor, the uncle, and the homeless person are all the same person. They're all the big bad who has gotten into the PCs' lives before their scheme gets rolling.
00:20:21
Speaker
Ooh, yes. Okay. Very interesting. And, you know, the the thing is that the PCs, for whatever reason, they are already a unit of some kind.
00:20:35
Speaker
And the adversary knows that once I put my plan into motion, they're going to try to stop me. Because they're the main characters, right? Yeah, of course. and And so that adversary has already...
00:20:53
Speaker
in one way or another, insinuated himself into the lives of the player characters. In very innocuous, hidden ways.
00:21:06
Speaker
So why does he just poison them? Yes, or it could even be an interesting, like, he's the big bad evil, but he may actually genuinely care for the characters for the group.
00:21:17
Speaker
It's not just all for show. yeah that's the cat that's thick that's There's multiple ways you can then flavor the character. like There's more ways to prevent the big bad evil guy from killing the heroes than there are like excuses for why he won't.
00:21:35
Speaker
Or maybe it's that I don't want to kill you. I want you to to admit that I am right. Yeah. that is That's Dr. Doom and Reed Richards right there.
00:21:47
Speaker
Basically, yeah. The idea is like when people say like, oh, that doesn't make sense for plot convenience. Well, guess what? that Spoiler alert, we're writing a story, so there are plot conveniences.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yes. This was a lot of talking about why you may not want to kill a character. There are some signs to where it would be all right to kill a character because I know and the D&D campaign, we're about to run to tomorrow actually, is my character through his own backstory is kind of self-loathing. He doesn't really like himself. He thinks he's a bad person. He's trying to be better. And there was a time when they got the better of him. The group calmed him down. But then he turned to the cleric and said, eventually through your devotion, do you think you'll get like revivify or basically you can resurrect someone who's died? And he's like, maybe, possibly. And my character said, OK, if you do that, and if I happen to die, don't revive me.
00:22:43
Speaker
Basically saying, i don't want to come back if that happens. which in turn it' kind of a green light to Nick to be like, if it happens, it happens. It's okay. And far out of context, but in context to those who are playing in our current campaign, he's done plenty of things that should have, quote unquote, ended his character.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yes, my my character's gimmick is that through bad things in his past, both done to him and done by him, he can't really feel anything. Like, literally, he can't... He can feel emotions and everything, but he he literally, like, physically can't feel anything. He can't feel the wind. He can't feel the water. He doesn't he doesn't know when he's full, when he's thirsty. he has to literally keep a journal to be like, okay, should probably drink now to just keep my body up.
00:23:33
Speaker
Honestly, the amount of times that I've said in terms of like, what should have killed you have not killed you because you literally cannot... comprehend the fact that that would kill you or done things that are like, should kill you, but have done other things.
00:23:52
Speaker
Exactly. And he's kind of the unofficial tank of the group. So he does take some of the most damage depending on the situation. Honestly, that's kind of, kind of the, uh, the game again, fun of that.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yes. But in that case, as a GM, you know, okay, that player is all right with his character dying. if it were to happen, both either for story reasons or just because luck of the dice on my on their end.
00:24:18
Speaker
We are kind of dancing around the topic, and I do see that we are dancing around the topic, but honestly, it's like, we behind the screen for all of us, and just being honest, GMs aren't trying to kill you.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yes, both, because generally GMs, we generally like your characters. like They're a fun bunch. And then also it's our story, but it's also just like, Not really jerk, but it's kind of sometimes just sad being like, well, that character's dead. You got to roll a new one.
00:24:49
Speaker
Again, like I do feel like that there is a stigma behind like the GM screen. It's GM versus players, which is not true. and then it it's That's not how it works. Part of how this topic came up and part of how I suggested it ah to us to cover is I don't even remember which Discord it was. One of the Discords that I'm in, a couple of months ago, the the subject came up of, know, there was a big bad who had knocked out a PC directly. It's not like, you know, you have... The the big bad is commanding their minions and just through chipping away at at hit points...
00:25:40
Speaker
the PC dropped unconscious. No, the the big bad wow himself had knocked had laid out the PC and was standing over them.
00:25:52
Speaker
And the question was, how do I justify the big bad not just driving their sword or whatever through the PC because they're right there?
GM vs. Players: Storytelling Dynamics
00:26:07
Speaker
it is part of the discussion of like... There is a subsection of people that ask, like, well, so I've been asked before so when starting gmn for people. It's like, so we have to beat you?
00:26:25
Speaker
We have to win against you. like it's It's not a win-lose situation, but it does lead into that situation where it's was and was like, yeah, you're in the position of power.
00:26:39
Speaker
as the GM, as the big bad evil guy. Yeah, you have the power as a GM. If you were a bad one to be like Rocksfall, you all die. But no, you're the one who has the power who is creating this story with the players, and you all want to you all want it to go someplace.
00:26:58
Speaker
And then you in the example I was shown in the Discord, it's like, okay, how can I, who has made this villain character, i know how he i know his personality, I know how what his plans are, I know how he acts,
00:27:09
Speaker
How do I use that to justify either killing the character or not killing the character? It's the classic GM get off as a free card and that being they're captured.
00:27:23
Speaker
Totally. And maybe, and that can be a fun subplot. It's either, okay now you're captured. Maybe he's trying to like turn you or peer into your mind or making you a thrall.
00:27:34
Speaker
And now you're that character. as and metro president The rest of the team has to ah stage a breakout, ah a plan, a scheme. Exactly. And those situations are not fun for GMs as well because a little peek behind the GM screen on Nick and I and the last Legacy of the Force session, Daryl. Daryl, when Betsy did her auto fire on one of the kind of like, not big bad, but a pretty good bad And she had the, that character had the ability to reflect the damage back. And when Betsy said that's like 31 damage, Nick and I were just like, oh, okay. You take 31 damage. Are you alive?
00:28:21
Speaker
Luckily she was. I was like, i think oh, thank goodness. Cause we didn't plan for that to happen. and And we even joked like we, Nick and I even joked like, oh, now she remembers that weapon has auto fire. Yeah.
00:28:33
Speaker
On the one person that's not a good idea for. The literal time that it does he needed to not use autofire. and nick and But Nick and I were like, oh no, we we didn't plan for a character die in this. This is just supposed to be an interesting fight, not a kill, not a TPK. We both kind of were okay with her forgetting the autofire ability.
00:28:58
Speaker
Pretty much. she was like Wait, so you remember the autofire? Oh, no. Now you remember it now. I'm glad she didn't auto fire twice then it'd be like, oh you're really dead.
00:29:13
Speaker
she would have been literally turned into mulch. Pretty much. and part of the problem, too, is a force power of the other adversaries that we were dealing with basically caught us in and in an action and response loop.
00:29:32
Speaker
So we couldn't grab Betsy and get out of there because one of us was constantly basically being held in place. Yes. And we just, we got, just got caught in a cause and effect loop.
00:29:43
Speaker
And we were, we fully admit we were expecting one more player that day. He's more damage dealer. would have worked better, but yeah. and And we didn't hold any of that against you.
00:29:55
Speaker
Just, I want to be clear. Thank you. We didn't hold that against you. it It was just one of those, we we we were we were out of options of what to do and just get kept getting caught in the loop.
00:30:09
Speaker
and Yes, but then that's when Nick and I decided kind of another good thing you can do if that's the situation you're going for. It's like, maybe this isn't a place where the PCs die. This is just a place where their PCs fail.
00:30:23
Speaker
They have a failure. Like they have all these, in the past they've had all these successes and they've just hit a failure. And I'm looking forward this failure for your characters is going to affect them going forward with all that happened afterwards.
00:30:37
Speaker
and A story failure is sometimes better than much more imp impactful than like a character failure. is It's not this necessarily a character that fails, so like you could be like, oh, they're going to be dogged on for the rest of the campaign.
00:30:55
Speaker
No, it's part of the story. Yes. Like, pretty much in Episode 5 of Star Wars, they failed. Luke failed. Han failed. Leia failed. Chewie failed.
00:31:08
Speaker
C-3PO's always a failure, so... Luke failed but they were failed several times. Yeah, but they didn't die. They lived to find the future. a it But it's like episode time all those but that made that story so impactful. It's like, okay, we're we're at a dark point. We we hit a a wall.
00:31:33
Speaker
And this could be... there But that's something that you can learn from, grow from. And fags from. Stakes like that too. we We keep circling back to it all the time. It's probably. it Not probably. It's something that you establish. During your session zero.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yes exactly. like Especially in the universe. You got to be honest. like okay Is this a universe where it's much more likely. For your characters to die.
00:32:03
Speaker
la Walking Dead. Alien. Cyberpunk in some sense. is And you gotta to be honest like honestly likely this is a gritty, gritty bad universe where you can die pretty quickly if the odds are against you.
00:32:19
Speaker
i I'm running a alien campaign and I went in and said like death is probable. And none of us have failed.
00:32:29
Speaker
I failed to kill any of you. One has died. No, you've killed one. You've killed one. One. And that is several buds in. yeah so But then like in Walking Dead... But I did preface this.
00:32:44
Speaker
I didn't want people to be like, oh, if you die, just in one to be like to be surprised. It's like, it's meant to be a heavy death system. It just so happens everyone was very lucky.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yes. And kind of going to the goat campaign Walking Dead, there's been a multiple number of character deaths, some by just the circumstances, because it's just zombies, it's very easy to die in that campaign.
00:33:13
Speaker
But then sometimes it's player conflict, and it just fits in the story, especially in the scene where my character, and his own flaws and desires, ended up killing another character who was actually okay with my character killing him, because almost that's what his character wanted.
00:33:34
Speaker
In the same campaign, the dice weren't in my favor. No, that, yeah, that was session zero for you. Yeah. Yeah. But, but going back to yours, it was a mine was a entirely dice based scenario where it's like in a game that is meant to be heavily death based, but your situation that you were describing, Robert, was entirely just a, it was a scene. it Dice were rolled, but they weren' but wasn it wasn't a case of dice being rolled. and
00:34:06
Speaker
But Nick, your second character death in Walking Dead was entirely narrative driven. It was entirely based upon the situation. And i I do give credit to both you and the other player involved for...
00:34:30
Speaker
for playing it out and understanding the stakes and the system that we were in. and the stakes there was ah or was i know what i didn't want that character to die either. That's what one of my favorites I made.
00:34:46
Speaker
but there there was really no other way out given the scenario that the two of you were in For those of you listening, the other PC was a doctor.
00:35:03
Speaker
Nick's character had been imprisoned in the, the Haven that they had found their themselves in, in Las Vegas.
00:35:14
Speaker
They'd found you at this festival. And he's like Oh, they need to take Nick's character back over here to to treat her. Because of an mishap with a horse.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah, there there was a mishap with a horse. And you know this way we can also fake the character's death and get her out of the prison. Now that we know that she was alive and in prison.
00:35:40
Speaker
But the other the doctor character had also made the mistake of promising the mob in town that he was working on not a cure for the zombie virus, but a way to.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah And so had tinkered with some research and his supervisor at the makeshift hospital came in as a Oh, well this looks good. Well, that this prisoner over here is you disposable. Hey, okay. Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
and's like I like, I have no ability to resist this. And can we kind of stop? It's like, okay. And you you were there like, okay, this is the situation.
00:36:32
Speaker
Are you guys all right with this? Yeah, that's another thing too, that in a situation like that, even though we know that character death is a potential outcome in a system that is that prone to it as Walking Dead, I will still often take a moment out and say like, okay, time.
00:36:55
Speaker
Are we good with this? And I was like, Nick being Nick. I was there. i was there. But it in situations like the Discord conversation that that sparked the topic, I try not to, unless it is baked into the story, I try not to put the big bads in a situation where they will be standing over an unconscious player character. Exactly.
00:37:31
Speaker
in a position to deal the death blow unless it's baked in unless you know look we're playing star wars and you guys are up against a high level inquisitor and that inquisitor is standing over you with the lightsaber now some systems if it were in star wars i would I would at least hear an argument for expenditure of a destiny point for something to happen to distract. Or a big dramatic hero moment. A big dramatic hero moment or just something else that attracts the adversary's attention that is more pressing than delivering that death blow right then.
00:38:23
Speaker
Exactly. And that's always something you can introduce. Or if sometimes in fights, if someone is down, but the bad evil guy still has people to fight, that can be a good way to be like, okay, I'm diverting my attention away from your character who's down to where I could easily kill them to deal with now the other threats to make sure I can take them down.
00:38:43
Speaker
And I feel really it's very fun that we are dancing around the topic and it's like, Again, we don't want to kill player characters outright.
00:38:55
Speaker
Exactly. We will, if unfortunately dice do it or it fits in the story and the characters are in pain with it. Those are very specific, very specific situations.
00:39:10
Speaker
Now, on the player end, too, just given everything, if that adversary has... the player character down and is over them in a position to deal the death blow odds are there's gonna be another player character who can take an action before the bad guy can take their action next and at that point the other player or players can then know ride to the rescue they can be the big damn heroes
00:39:44
Speaker
And that that's also a thing that would be in the nature of the DM. Like they could like defer that for like, say that their accent is like they're preparing the coup de grace.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yes. Or, and then say like, okay, that's their accent. Next player to act. And again, To give the chance to the players. I just had just a beautiful dramatic image come to my head when you said they're preparing on their next action.
00:40:20
Speaker
The bad guy picks up the unconscious player character and says to the rest of the player characters, you surrender now or I kill them.
00:40:37
Speaker
Ooh, nice. That is also a way to both defuse and also really evaluate the character's motivations then.
00:40:49
Speaker
Depending on where the state of like the bad guy is, if he's using them as like a shield or he's had a moment of strength but is just wanting to end the conflict.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yes, and then we've talked a lot about maybe how you can tweak it to where you don't. go for the kill. But now let's turn around think, when should you as a GM go for the kill?
00:41:13
Speaker
Obviously. Going back to the main thing that we've sort of hinted about, consent from the player is always important.
Character Sacrifices and Plot Armor
00:41:23
Speaker
Very much so. Always get consent from the players before you get to the point where like, okay, this may be it. Your character may die here.
00:41:32
Speaker
Are you all right with that? To go to an extent to that, I, in a campaign, Star Wars campaign, I went but involving your your son, Daryl.
00:41:43
Speaker
ah I went to, like, your character may die. He did not end up dying. I did. You did. But I did approach them and say, like, we your character might have to do with the sacrifice play.
00:42:01
Speaker
Yes, which is also a good point, maybe. the bag bad evil guy has to go for the kill because it works in the story, but also because player sacrifice. It's like, you go for the kill, and the guy dying is like, I wanted you to do that.
00:42:18
Speaker
is it And it makes an opening in the bad evil guy for the rest of the players. Ironically, it didn't happen to have to happen for that. like that's That's probably going to be an RPG glorious story.
00:42:31
Speaker
Very much. Part of it, too, is So, speaking thinking of when the big bad evil guy would go for the kill, depending on what the system is, that blood being shed may be part of their endgame. Inhightly possible.
00:42:54
Speaker
They might need to take X number of lives of... yeah Not innocent lives, but lives that are coming at you.
00:43:05
Speaker
Heroes, to certain certain warrior types, etc. They've got a quarter date. yeah They might be incentivized.
00:43:16
Speaker
to to go for the kill. Yes. But that would be also part of the part of the soft a confirmation and consent. It's like, okay, your play... the The big bad evil guy needs to kill X amount of paladins.
00:43:35
Speaker
There's a paladin on the team. He's going to be targeted by the big bad evil guy. Just so happens, paladin is also probably the best guy to... Test armor, and got all the stuff.
00:43:48
Speaker
It could be baked into not just the villain's plot, but into a character's backstory. um You have a big bad evil guy who is specifically after one of the members of the party.
00:44:07
Speaker
For like a bloodline, an old ah curse, or like actually needs the blood of them. Yeah, for any but any given reason, they might need to eliminate them to take a position of power.
00:44:24
Speaker
they might or They might need to sacrifice that particular individual because they are part of a particular bloodline. Or they've been marked as...
00:44:37
Speaker
as part of the sacrifice or, or whatever. So, or it could be that maybe that big bad evil guy had a prophecy that they were going to be defeated by said character.
00:44:48
Speaker
so he's trying to get him out early. So like, I am not going to let you stop me. Yeah. They they're trying, they are Skynet trying to kill John Connor. Basically. Or, or he's Lord Shin trying to kill Poe and Kung Fu Panda too. Yeah. He said a warrior black and white would kill him. So he's like, okay, I'll kill all the pandas.
00:45:07
Speaker
Easy peasy. Basically, yeah. The idea basically, you could give the big bad evil guy every reason to like target a specific character.
00:45:18
Speaker
That potentially gives reason to not kill the other player characters if they get in a situation to because of I am not interested in you.
00:45:32
Speaker
You mean nothing to me. Killing you has no benefit to me. Get out of my way. Creates a unique situation where they would put themselves in front of that antagonist and potentially yeah Paris in saving that character because they would recognize the importance of both the big bad evil guy, even if regardless of like the actual connotation or truthfulness of their of their goal.
00:46:04
Speaker
they could commit it the heroic sacrifice. Yes, or a situation in the universe itself brings death very likely, because I know in the leg and Legends of the Five Rings campaign we're playing, it's very big on, of course, it's very heavily influenced by Japan, Samurais, all that stuff.
00:46:25
Speaker
And one of one of the mechanics is you can get into duels, like literally one-on-one duels, your character versus somebody else, And one of those one of the options for a duel is you duel to the death. Like, at the end of that duel, someone is going to die, either your character or that other person.
00:46:43
Speaker
And that's a full-on consent, like, are you willing to put your character in that situation against this person to where if something goes wrong, You are likely to die, or you will die, so because that's how a duel is won. same thing in the Star Wars star wars system, ah for the Guardian Tree, ah you could take the final ability of Fateful Duel.
00:47:04
Speaker
Basically, 1v1. And it is meant to be like the 1v1 final, your classic samurai duel. And I'm not going lie, when when I first started thinking of this topic after I saw the post on Discord, and it'll kind of show looking at the thumbnail on YouTube or on our website, the system that we play that immediately came to my mind about adversaries being more prone to go for the kill <unk> Legend of the Five Rings.
00:47:42
Speaker
It is, yeah. yeah is it it Again, it fits the sort of samurai aesthetic. It very much is the samurai aesthetic. Yeah, and in that universe, death in battle is seen as glorious. So most samurai, even in the character creation, even ask, how do you envision your character dying? Because actually living to old age is actually considered ah waste. Yeah.
00:48:05
Speaker
honor in battle, it's it very buts so it's very fitting of the idea of like in that system, yeah without youve even saying that it was meant to be like a hard like your character may die system, it's like and I kind of accepted, like, okay, this character may not live to the end of the campaign.
00:48:27
Speaker
It felt right for the story that you're that that system tells. Yes. And then In fact, kind of shifting back to why you may not want to kill a player character and how it can fit in the story is like maybe your bad guy is one of those honorable warrior types.
00:48:46
Speaker
Maybe he defeats the player and ah instead of killing, he's like, I want you to remember this. I want you to get stronger. I want you to come back because I want another fight. Or system it just as easily, it could be like the the bad guy is like,
00:49:03
Speaker
your life is now mine. I have defeated you. You are now my thrall, my my servant. You're indebted to me. Maybe your character's a Wookiee. like, your life is now mine as a life debt.
00:49:17
Speaker
Or even even simpler than all of that, if if your' villain, your main adversary, your big bad evil guy, has their own code of honor or adheres to a a wider code of honor.
00:49:34
Speaker
An enemy that's unconscious, it's not honorable. that That's murder. That's not... That's not an honorable death. That's just straight up cold blood and murder. I will not do that.
00:49:45
Speaker
Right. And again, also in a similar sense, that that likely in a similar sense of honor, like you are not killed by your enemy. You are not respected.
00:49:56
Speaker
You did not earn your death, nor do you earn life because you failed. You have to, you're or you're Ronin, you have to become, you have to earn your, re-earn your spot.
00:50:11
Speaker
For that honorable bad maybe one of your player characters is kind of a coward hides behind and it's one of those, you're not worth selling my blade. i won't even selling my blade with your blood.
00:50:23
Speaker
Now, something that occurs to me as we're having the conversation here is it's entirely possible that your campaign can make a tonal shift during the campaign. So you could start out with your typical action adventure campaign, your, your star Wars campaign, yourre your, good yeah know yeah your, your, uh, yeah, good guys, bad guys, explosives, right?
00:50:50
Speaker
You, you might in turn during the course of that introduce a villain who is, the kind who would... I have the hero down, of course I'm going to get them out of my way.
00:51:06
Speaker
And if you're going to be making that kind of tonal shift, yeah, you had your session zero, that was a year or two ago. It's totally fine to do a check-in with your players once you've introduced this new villain.
00:51:21
Speaker
Because the odds are they're not going to get into direct combat with this new high-level bad guy the first time they show up. Yeah, exactly. and you say And then you do a check-in with your group and say, okay, here's the thing.
00:51:37
Speaker
So far, you guys have been the Star Wars crew and you've been dealing with stormtroopers and and whatnot. Or, you know, you are the the crew of the Enterprise.
00:51:51
Speaker
And you've been dealing with villains of the week. And now you're dealing Borg There's a Borg cube. Or you're dealing with Khan. and And so you have a big bad now who, should the opportunity arise, will not hesitate to kill the characters. Are we all good with this? Or do something worse.
00:52:17
Speaker
Yes. Especially with the Khan examples. Like, um... those werem I shall leave you as you left me marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet buried alive alive alive come yes and go back to that a character's death can be a pivot point for the group as well like I'm thinking of as a celebrity example I'm thinking of Critical Role's second campaign the Mighty Nein
00:52:53
Speaker
Where in the beginning, they were just a bunch of misfits, kind of a hard time working together because they came from
Impact of Character Death on Campaigns
00:52:58
Speaker
walk walks of life. They were just united by circumstance. And then believe it's Lucian's death in one of the earlier episodes changed them that they had to go now on a kind of a journey to figure out, okay, how do we work as a group?
00:53:12
Speaker
How do we trust each other? How do we actually become a group rather than just a collective of individuals? For a more pop culture-y, even more pop culture-y, yeah.
00:53:22
Speaker
relevant, uh, example of Phil Coulson in the Marvel's, the Avengers in passing was a major factor, turning the team of misfits into a, into earth mightiest heroes.
00:53:39
Speaker
I would say Coulson was an NPC though but if we No, no, no Coulson's not an NPC Coulson's an NPC Put the respect on the name Hang on Coulson's an NPC in the movies he's a PC in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
00:54:03
Speaker
You're skating on thin ice Or if we use the goat example The Walking Dead My character killing that other character was a pivot point between my character and Betsy's character, who in that campaign is my character's niece.
00:54:20
Speaker
Yeah. Where it was that I've got to stop kind of leaving you the dark thingies for your own protection. I'm now going to be honest with you. I'm going to treat you like I can trust you with this.
00:54:32
Speaker
And going forward, she even repeated back to me, no no more lies. And he's like, no more lies. This is what it is. Honestly, busy place is great. She's really good at Yeah, to our characters are great. too To give another pop culture example, if we look at...
00:54:51
Speaker
the progressing seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each season had its own main villain. And with each successive season, the stakes got higher and higher with each each season's villain.
00:55:11
Speaker
So yeah you have season one, you have the master who is just trying to get out of the mystical prison that he's in, because he's a big, mean vampire. Yeah. And so so he wants to eat the world.
00:55:28
Speaker
Okay. Cartoonish. sees Season two... Season two, because of a curse, Angel, one of the heroes, becomes the villain, and he's wanting to open a portal to a hell dimension and unleash hell on Earth.
00:55:46
Speaker
And... Even one of the other villains, Spike, wants to stop him because, no, I don't want the world destroyed because it's it's got all of these human Happy Meals walking around.
00:56:05
Speaker
if If he destroys the world, what do we do? yeah there's nothing for us. We're going to die. Season three, you have the mayor... who wants to transform into a demon and take over the world.
00:56:19
Speaker
and Oh, that's right. Cool. Glad you got that. Season four, you have the initiative who created basically a a Frankenstein.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yeah. But you know the stakes actually went down a little bit because the real villain of that season was the characters drifting apart and not working together, having graduated high school.
00:56:50
Speaker
and The real villain was the friends we lost along the way. i that i was that that That literally was the theme. the the The entire premise of the show was growing up as hell.
00:57:04
Speaker
it It was a metaphor for growing
Stakes and Villainy in Campaigns
00:57:06
Speaker
up as hell. But you get to season five and you have... an and this I won't go through the last two seasons, even though the last one had super high stakes again.
00:57:15
Speaker
Season five, you had and an elder god in human form who... wants to get back home, but that's going to unleash hell on Earth. She wants to get back to the hell dimension that she ruled, and will tear the Earth apart to do it.
00:57:35
Speaker
One of the characters even... Here's a Buffy. Watch it, it's really good. One of the characters even comments, does anybody remember the mayor? I just want to be a big snake.
00:57:48
Speaker
He does want to be a big snake. but Yeah, it's like... that' because Oh god, that's me! all that was me! You're the mayor.
00:57:59
Speaker
I'm the mayor. But what what I was getting at, and and that was a long way to get to my point, I apologize, is the nature of the villains kept increasing. up to the point where the final season, the main villain was literally the embodiment of the first evil on Earth.
00:58:22
Speaker
As the stakes increased, you have villains that would have been more likely to, had they gotten Buffy on the ground in a position that they could kill her, they would have.
00:58:36
Speaker
Yes, or like in D&D, we've gone from, Just like insects to government officials to fighting some devils to possibly in the future we may have to fight a dragon.
00:58:51
Speaker
But also the apocalypse is coming. And that reminds me of another Buffy line. I suddenly find myself having to learn the plural of apocalypse. Oh, wow. That's going to stick to me.
00:59:03
Speaker
take it Technically it's apocalyptic. Apocalypse. Apocalypse. Apocalypse. It's Greek, so the did that's where you get into the finicky parts.
00:59:16
Speaker
You should know that, Mr. Latin guy. They're kind of cousins, right? No, no, no. Greek we creek came first. If the... I don't want to say bloodthirstiness because it's not the right word, but it's the best one that comes to mind.
00:59:31
Speaker
But If the villains become more willing and able to take advantage of permanently removing one of the player characters from the from the field, it's worth doing a check-in once that villain is introduced to make sure that the players are good with the raising of the stakes.
00:59:54
Speaker
um yeah like yeah it do again it are they Are they good with you removing some of their plot armor? Yes. or This is part of a good way to segue into a potential future. like What if players leave? And some of them would like to well yeah theyre ki i add stakes to the arc and they're not willing, either unable or not willing to continue the campaign, if it fits the the narrative arc, some of them may say, like well, then i'll allow your character to to be ended.
01:00:33
Speaker
Well, and i I kind of did that with the first Star Wars campaign that I ran in the current system. the The player who was playing the ship's pilot, the group's pilot, was like, hey, you know what?
01:00:48
Speaker
I just have too much going on and I don't think I can really commit to playing as much as i thought I would be able to. So I want to bow out and the players had crashed on a planet that was overrun with the zombies from the death troopers. Yeah. Yeah. Those things. You mentioned that. And the last time the players saw her character,
01:01:18
Speaker
She was being pursued and swarmed by a mob of those zombies. They never saw the body so that if she decided to come back, I could do some hand wavium because this is Star Wars.
01:01:36
Speaker
But that does give you like the way out. Yes. So for all intents and purposes, to this day, that character is considered to be dead.
01:01:48
Speaker
Bringing back to the intent of the fact that we don't want the kill characters arbitrarily. What made that moment even better is she hadn't told the rest of the group that she was leaving.
01:02:02
Speaker
Yes, and those are always the fun things for GMs. If you can get the player to tell you in secret, makes it much more impactful if it happens. Yep. what has been sort of a thing is like, we've made excuses for like how you can end the character. was like, maybe because we don't want to, we like the characters. We want to see their stories.
01:02:24
Speaker
We want to see the stories happen. And even in the cases where like the dice are bad, we we make excuses like a classic plot armor excuses.
01:02:35
Speaker
Or the, another form of that player, like, I don't want to play this character anymore. Instead of they having to leave, it could be one of those, I thought of a better character, so I don't want to play this character anymore.
01:02:50
Speaker
I want you to find a way to kill me. Again, again it's more of a case that most character deaths are both something needs to be talked with the player and the GM.
01:03:05
Speaker
And ultimately, the GM doesn't have to, if the GM wants to kill a character, they should approach the player themselves if they feel that that's what the story needs to be.
01:03:16
Speaker
Right. But ultimately, nine times of ten, the GM doesn't want to kill your character. See, in in Walking Dead, now I kind of you know see it as as my mission to keep killing your characters over and over, Nick.
01:03:31
Speaker
Hey, Nick's already, that's Nick's own character in real life when he plays these people. He's like, I am prepared to kill them. I've got like three more in the back wing. That's just me. That's just my luck. My dice, regardless of system, is really fucking bad.
01:03:47
Speaker
Well, yeah, you've you've you've died once, died twice. Now your third character... I died in Cessna zero. Yeah, and now your third character just had their daughter reject her. So now you've been ah in a different headspace.
01:04:03
Speaker
Yeah, emotional damage. Emotional damage. Finish him
01:04:12
Speaker
him. Hey, if you keep you keep dying, we'll keep having fun. Are we in the bullying section? I think we might be. yeah I think we are. think we might be. We might be in the bullying section, but I just, you know, It's become kind of a running gag that your characters in Walking Dead die. In general, my characters die. I have really bad luck when player. Yeah, but Walking Dead, it's much more.
01:04:40
Speaker
Like, how many sentences have we had? Like, seven or eight? Yeah. And you've already lost two characters. But the the thing of it is, too, is that this is kind of off of our topic, but I really do like the way Walking Dead is set up. And I like that our group, all of you have have bought in to the premise because you're familiar with the the property, the media property, that you know that no one is safe and you're cool with no one being safe.
01:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, and it's also Walking Dead is... it's with yeah Especially when we start focusing on someone's character. that that That's when they're going to die. Yeah, and also Walking Dead is just one of those universes where you're not playing a magical space wizard or chromed up mercenary. You're, you're just a person. You're just a human. And the, the way things are going, I can see, you know, before too awful long, Nick's current character and your character, Robert, you know, the, that conflict coming to a head.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah. Because yeah, emotional damage for Nick's character. My character has no idea what they're doing. Especially with that situation because he can only take care of his of Betsy's character who is my niece because he's known her all his life. He knows how they can operate, how they can talk. so like kid The chemistry and it's i didn't steal your kid. Daryl made a bad role.
01:06:18
Speaker
I did not make a bad role. I made an awesome role. He failed. He failed successfully. And then and now my character is like, OK, I actually had now have a girl that I don't know, met her like a few days ago or a few weeks ago, and now I have to be her father.
01:06:36
Speaker
I've never had a real kid before. How do I do this? How do you? How do I parent? You're too early for Jassy...
Character Dynamics in Walking Dead RPG
01:06:48
Speaker
You're too early to ask Jassy BT for this. ah we've already And we've already joked either my character Nick's character are somehow going to get together or they're going to try and kill each other or it's going to be both.
01:07:03
Speaker
Honestly, that's, that again, I do like the, the dynamic is on the edge right now. So we're going to see where that goes in the next episode. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Which I need to put on the calendar.
01:07:15
Speaker
Same with the, same with my five rings. but Now, now we can bully Nick, you know, cause, Nick nick is is in all kinds of trauma because, Nick, what what did you do within the past few days? What what bold decision did you make? Nick binged all 15 hours of the pit at once. Nick went through that emotional wringer all in one sitting.
01:07:42
Speaker
He did a shift in the pit. Yes, he did a shift in the emergency room during a mass casualty event. So, Nick, when you die in Walking Dead, is Nick's character going to be a doctor?
01:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, because you know our our doctor is dead. We've got to have a doctor who's going to be a surgeon this time, and he is jaded.
01:08:06
Speaker
Jaded, jaded, jaded ass. Is f my character going to have to kill yours? am I just going to be known as the killer of the doctor characters? Nick, nick are you are you bringing Noah Wiley in now?
01:08:18
Speaker
bring it Are you bringing Noah Wiley in? And do I have to go super meta? And since it's set in Las Vegas, you have Noah Wiley, but you know modeled after role post-ER, r so I bring in a George Clooney?
01:08:36
Speaker
Wait. If your character is jaded, you can be a mob doctor. you We'll all see. Either way, I'm going to strap... stra strap on the gloves with the snap.
01:08:51
Speaker
Gotta do the snap gloves. But, you know, Nick's current character is alive and well, for now. so for now and For now. Give it time. give it time Give it time. It's only a matter of all it takes is one bad roll. Yes.
01:09:09
Speaker
One bad roll the zombie table. Because the only way my character escaped his role... that's That's for everybody. Yeah, the only reason my character escaped on the zombie role is because Daryl was like, there's not enough zombies for that to be viable. Honestly, you... That was... that I was like, oh, thank you. that Oh, boy. it was like, oh, come on. There's like two of them. Oh...
01:09:37
Speaker
ah But do we have anything, now that we've bullied Nick for a little bit, is there anything else that we want to add before we sign off? Kind of the central theme we've said about whether you should. Communication is key. Always talk with your players.
01:09:53
Speaker
get their yeah Get their consent before you even try this. Before you even be like, well, your character's dead. Roll a new one. And the stress, again, like I've heard plenty of people say, no, the no the the gm doesn't want to kill you.
Good GM Practices: Avoiding Arbitrary Character Deaths
01:10:11
Speaker
A good GM's goal is not to TPK the party. oie like Unless that is the agreed upon point of the campaign. unless shoot yeah Unless you're playing a one shot of faster purple worm, everybody dies. Yeah.
01:10:28
Speaker
Or a horror assassin or anything, but it's like the main factor. If you're in any regular game and the GM's stated purpose is to end your characters, yeah, that's the game. You just leave. Maybe in Walking Dead, probably not in Avatar The Last Airbender.
01:10:46
Speaker
it Oh, that's really hard to do. Exactly. So the GM really has to try in that case. Okay.
Closing Remarks and Credits
01:10:55
Speaker
But on that note, we've reached the point of the show where I say check out our website at howwerollgaming.com. And at that site, you will find information about all of our current campaigns. Well, I need to get it updated. um Podcast archives and links to our merch store and all of our social media.
01:11:19
Speaker
Yes, and you can also directly support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon.com slash howwerollgaming.com. And you'll see our different membership tiers starting at just $2 a month with special recognition on our Discord server and higher tiers giving you on-air credit and discounts on our merch store.
01:11:35
Speaker
Finally, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer, topics you want us to cover, or even submit to your own RPG Gloria story, soon as an email at podcasts at howwerollgaming.com.
01:11:47
Speaker
And in the meantime, you don't kill your... player characters, if it's not in the villain's nature and your players haven't bought in And until next time, when we hope you join us again, as always, i am Daryl.
01:12:04
Speaker
I'm Nick. And I'm Robert. And this is how we roll.
01:12:11
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2026, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.