6.8 Sacrifice

PCs don’t die when they are defeated. In fact, there is nothing the GM can do to kill off the PCs. They are never going to die because of an unlucky roll, a bad tactical decision, or the failure to figure out the trap that the GM put in place. Accidental character death like that goes both against the spirit of spontaneous fun and against the types of stories that you’re creating with this game. Protagonists in stories don’t just die midway through the story, unless there’s meaning to their death.

It’s up to the PC players to decide when their characters’ deaths would be meaningful. At any time during a conflict, a player can declare that her character sacrifices herself. The PC automatically achieves a specific goal, without the need for a roll, and either dies right away or soon after the end of the conflict (you can give them a character scene or two of being lethally wounded and uttering their last words).

The goal that the PC achieves can be something that was already established, it can be something the player now negotiates with the GM, or it can be the defeat of one or all of the PCs’ enemies.

A player can choose the sacrifice option even if her character already has been defeated in the conflict.

Death is not the only option here; depending on your story and setting, it can be anything that takes the character out of play. If the GM agrees, it can even be something that only temporarily takes the character out, so that the player has to play a different character for a while before the old one can come back, whether she is saved, is resurrected, wakes up from her coma, or whatnot. Then you can decide which one of your PCs to play from that point on.

For example, if your character story seed was that your PC is being chased by demons who want to take her soul, and you can barter with them to take your PC and leave the other PCs alone, that works as a sacrifice. Whether or not the other PCs (and your new character) can then save the sacrificed PC from the demons’ home world opens up a whole new saga in your story.

I strongly suggest that, whenever you have a player permanently leaving the group, you give her a chance during her last session to make a really meaningful sacrifice.