Death is an element of the vampire myth, and I don't think you can gracefully divorce it and keep the content mature. I enjoyed The Littlest Vampire as a kid, but I've since outgrown it. Should characters die in a vampire LARP? Of course. However, trying to codify when a character should die is difficult.
NPCs are easy, since they are by default supporting cast. The level of game investment in one of the billions of NPCs walking around in a game is minimal. If they live, or if they die, it only makes a difference to the story by the reflections it makes on main characters (this is almost always a PC, but sometimes another NPC). Heck, in a Sabbat setting most NPCs are reduced to being actual decorations.
Stating that all PCs should eventually die in general (or otherwise bow out) is not the same as stating which PCs should die, and at what rate an appropriate amount of death is occuring. Honestly, I'm going to ignore the PCs for their role in the story, what's important isn't the character but the player wearing the mask of the character.
Initial thoughtsCharacter death can be a way to keep a game fresh and interesting, but it can also undermine the narrative by striping out complex relationships. On one extreme you have a game where characters rarely die, and eventually the game get dull because just about every facet of the cast has been explored (sometimes you run out of things to say with a character). On the other extreme, characters do not survive for long, so players are not going to invest much in their character, which makes the characters shallow, which makes the game superficial and uninteresting. Where between, or at, these extremes a game lies depends on the story being explored. Camarilla games can really drive home that rigid vibe by keeping a low body count and allowing an old guard to form, while in a Sabbat game you can drive home the disposability of a random shovelhead by feeding PCs to the meat grinder.
Just as it is important for STs to know what they want from their players, it is important to put those expectations on a giant neon sign and in turn also put what the players can expect in return.
If the ST tells you "This is a social game, don't make a combat monkey", and your intricate wounded dove of a character is then promptly beaten to ash then you are going to be rightfully miffed because your expectations were set contrary to reality. In another scenario, the ST says, "This game is a meat grinder, it's meant to be. I think it would be cool to see how a social character survives in such a hell." then the aforementioned outcome is expected.
On HARDMODE!!!!!!If someone wants to volunteer their character for the chopping block, then more power to them. However, they should not expect the same from others in turn.
Actually, a player sticking their neck out and saying that they're okay with having their character killed is probably the only 100% okay time to kill a character. Just don't be in too much of a rush, you can really eat away at the Humanity of other characters, and the players usually like to have a neat story behind those loss rather then "Dude got bored with his character, again".
On StupidityI have heard many gripes about stupid gamers over the years, and met very few gamers who say, "I had that coming, because I knowingly made a dumb choice". I find that one gamers definition of stupid is another gamers different genre, or game contract. In a game of many players who are not intimately familiar with each other, this is inevitable. However, can be greatly reduced by regular broadcasts of the game expectations, and by taking things out of character. Something this like may work:
- Player, Note Action, "My Nosferatu goes to get a beer with the werewolves."
- ST, early reponse to note, "There is a very good chance that will get your character killed. Are you sure?"
- Player, "The book says Nosferatu are buddy with sewer werewolves, I figured I'd get to know them since that Gangrel last game got cred for knowing werewolves."
- ST, "They but what in the book?!?!"
- ST, "Okay, found it. Yeah, we're just not running with that. Wolves in the sewers always seemed dumb to me. There is probably some Nosferatu Loremaster that you can track down though. Maybe they know stuff."
- Player, "I wanted beerwolves, but okay".
I was totally the player in this anecdote btw. Revised had just come out, so there were growing pains. Yeah, there's totally a part in there about the Nosferatu and the werewolves being on speaking terms though it turns out the werewolves weren't party animals. <rimshot>
On PC DeathDeath is near universally the least interesting outcome of any conflict. Integrating a character into a game takes time, when you rip a character out of a game then all of those threads are also ripped out. As a result, the overall game is less interesting for there being one less PC, and the recovery time is in the order of months.
Put succinctly, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls".
On Story IntegrityIf you do not want to run a story in which PCs regularly die, then do not continuously run plots where the stakes are supposedly life and death. I realize that life and death is an easy way to make a large number of characters interested in the plot, but if you do not want dead PCs then find another angle. Or craft plots that front like they're going to kill people, but under the facade they have other motives/methods (,,,and let the PCs figure that out early).
What's important about the Sabbat plot isn't what people do in their Notes, it's how that changes the few hours a month where the actual LARP runs. It's a LARP, keep the focus on the LARPing. Likewise, hunter plots are hard to run since when hunters show up to Elysium it isn't to socialize.
On the Shared UniverseWaterloo by Night had a cheese-o-meter that incoming characters were required to rank on before being allowed into the game. We didn't want folks making the drive in only to find out they'd be playing an NPC. This was instituted because frequently enough an out of town player would show up, gank a PC or two for sport, and then leave town. I made some good friends because of the SU, but do not hold the SU itself in high esteem.
For the record, Ottawa players were pretty cool. Most of our headaches came out of Toronto due to proximity. Just wanted to share that not everyone had the same experience.
On Inspirational Material for LARPsOkay, so, imagine you pay your money to walk into a theatre to watch an action flick. The main character is gunned down in the first scene because, really, there was a hail of gunfire from trained marksmen. Are you walking out of the theater feeling fulfilled? I'm guessing not.
Main characters are very prone to surviving despite the odds. "Odds" is the wrong term, there isn't even a chance that they die because the story hinges on them. Stories would be pretty lame main characters kept dying in every dangerous situation. However, the audience is lead to believe that there is actual risk via suspension of disbelief. There does not need to be any actual risk to the characters to craft a good story, however the story needs to constantly work to suspend disbelief in the lack of risk.
There is where acting come into play. A character does not need to be in any genuine risk for us to act as though that is the case, and explore how we could behave in such a situation.
Okay, so who is the main character in a LARP? Well, for every player it is probably their own character. Great, so now we need examples of stories with a cast of main characters who frequently interact and are way to into each others business.
Soap operas and woe cycles. Seriously.
I'm not kidding. You can steal story arcs straight out of Passions, that show is a goldmine.
On Winners and LosersThere are totally winners and losers in a LARP. In any game, there are some players who through their characters have more narrative agency then others. This isn't bad, but we unless we acknowledge that one player currently gets to enjoy the long end of the stick then we cannot give credit to the others for role their in exploring that agency. We also deny ourselves the ability to say, "You've had your turn, time to give someone else a chance".
Doug's OpinionMy character is mine, your character is yours, and I do not have the right to use my character to break yours without your permission. You have invested time, money, and thought into your character. You are exploring the world through a different set of eyes, and flexing your creative muscles. Our characters will interact, they will change each other by those interactions, and by doing so we will discover new facets of our creations that we had never considered. I cannot promise that your character will not suffer lose via mind, but it will be loses that you can explore. Your story may have sudden twists, but it will continue until its end.
Edit: in other news, the boys were set to Nightmare mode this morning, and much bad sentencing resulted. I may get to cleaning this up, but more likely I will instead feed my Dark Souls addiction. Damn Fume Knight.
Edit Edit: I got around to it after all! Woot!
