What do you do about custom characters dying?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Lazzamore**

So, something i saw recently upon coming back into this hobby is lots of other people like naming their characters. I come up with fluff for my characters, but then what happens if the character dies? Do you guys just accept that the character is dead and come up with another, say that battle didn't happened next time you want to field that guy, or come up with some creative way he survived?

If it's the latter-most, what kind of stuff have you come up with?

**Desubot**

Generally speaking just because a model dies in game doesn't mean they are actually down and out.

at best they are out of commission and made a "tactical withdraw"

**a fat guy**

Unless it's a campaign where models are gone once they're wiped out, I really don't think you can actually "kill" them off fluffwise.

I mean, you can do whatever you want with your characters, but you don't have to kill them off just because they fell in battle.

You don't do it to special characters, so I don't see why your own creations should be an exception to the rule. They're your own little spark of imagination after all

**Desubot**

Indeed

in some campaigns it can happen on a very unlucky roll like mordhime. but generally they lose a lot of blood and come back in a few games.

**changerofways**

Yup, that's the whole idea behind Feel No Pain. Being removed on the table top just means you're a casualty, not dead. That model is too wounded to fight. But with Feel No Pain, that model is NOT too wounded to fight.

With Ahriman I just say he teleported away or something. And if he ever does really die, he can just come back from the dead and possess someone. Ahriman transcended his actual body long ago, now he's just like warp energy or something. His eyes are the only thing about his body that are constant, according to fluff.

**changemod**

Ahriman turned into a Daemon Prince then got unceremoniously gunned down by my Necron Warriors before he could move from the spot. Does that mean he's dead now?

An exaggeration maybe, but basically it's the same thing. The events of individual games don't really count for a lot most of the time.

Easier for me, mind. Necrons just teleport back to the tomb if they're too heavily damaged to repair on the spot. It's canon that not a lot can permanently stop them barring tracing them back to the source and doing a full purge.

**Peregrine**

I play a tank army, so any characters I have just escape the burning wreck of their vehicle and come back with a new one next game.

**Niiru**

I would take them to the pokemon centre to be revived.

**MarsNZ**

They are grievously wounded but Emperor willing, they will return.

**SYKOJAK**

Like a lot of others have said before, when a model is removed from the table, is does not mean he is dead. He becomes a casualty in regards to the current battle, he can no longer fight.

One could use the casualty table from Mordhiem or even Blood Bowl to represent what happen to the individual model, as an after action result. But basically, unless you are playing a recurring campaign where results from a battle carry over into the next, then it is not important.

If you are going to start keeping results of what happens with the troops from battle to battle, there are plenty of ways to keep a tally of what is happening. I don't have my Mordhiem stuff any more, but I might be convinced in coming up with a Casualty table if someone was interested enough to ask nicely.

**vipoid**

Well, if one of my haemonculi dies, he actually dies. Then he regenerates back to life.

With Imperial Guard... um... clones?

changerofways wrote:
Yup, that's the whole idea behind Feel No Pain. Being removed on the table top just means you're a casualty, not dead. That model is too wounded to fight. But with Feel No Pain, that model is NOT too wounded to fight.

Does this always work though?

I mean, if a character gets pulverised by a Battle Cannon shell then he's going to be more than just wounded.

**Desubot**

vipoid wrote:
Well, if one of my haemonculi dies, he actually dies. Then he regenerates back to life.

With Imperial Guard... um... clones?

changerofways wrote:
Yup, that's the whole idea behind Feel No Pain. Being removed on the table top just means you're a casualty, not dead. That model is too wounded to fight. But with Feel No Pain, that model is NOT too wounded to fight.

Does this always work though?

I mean, if a character gets pulverised by a Battle Cannon shell then he's going to be more than just wounded.

Well most things being T4 wouldn't get FNP against a b cannon

**vipoid**

But that's what I mean - can you still tell yourself that your character was 'only wounded' after being hit by that magnitude of weapon?

**Desubot**

vipoid wrote:
But that's what I mean - can you still tell yourself that your character was 'only wounded' after being hit by that magnitude of weapon?

In the universe of 40k absolutely.

There is tech to just completly regrow arms and parts, there is also advanced cybernetics, nids can just recycle, DE likes getting wounded????, Daemons are weird
if it is a character that really needs to live then they will probably be able to save him.

Though i think i see what ya mean about getting hit with a shell.

i think those situation requires a bit more plot armor. like he got asploded and was flung way out into a barn but didnt die.

**Blacksails**

If you're a particularly good modeller, you can replace certain limbs with cybernetic stuff after some battles.

Soon your IG will be lead by the likes of Sir Hammerlock.

Which is actually kind of cool.

**EVIL INC**

I name my characters what i want and if they fall in battle and if I wish to use them again, I use them again. Itis my model and my character, i can do this if I want, I dont have to justify it with any story, even if they ded to a las cannon to the face, a d weapon or if they tripped and fell and hit their noggin on a rock.

**cvtuttle**

When I run Typhus he never dies - he just teleports back up the the Terminus Est

**anyeri**

Desubot wrote:
vipoid wrote:
But that's what I mean - can you still tell yourself that your character was 'only wounded' after being hit by that magnitude of weapon?

In the universe of 40k absolutely.

There is tech to just completly regrow arms and parts, there is also advanced cybernetics, nids can just recycle, DE likes getting wounded????, Daemons are weird
if it is a character that really needs to live then they will probably be able to save him.

Though i think i see what ya mean about getting hit with a shell.

i think those situation requires a bit more plot armor. like he got asploded and was flung way out into a barn but didnt die.

Or the character simple find a refrigerator where he could hide from the atomic blast... wait, that was a movie

Practically almost all the races have a way to survive a battle (well, at least the characters) for example: A space marine chapter master survive becuase of their advance healing factor and the rescilence of their enhanced body, a Nid, simple, if a swarmlord dies then his memories return to the hive mind and poof, they birth the same swarmlord with a new shining and slimy body, orks well they are orks

according to the fluff a ork can survive a head transplant, then get up again and keep fighthing as if nothig had happen.
Those were some few examples

Automatically Appended Next Post:

EVIL INC wrote:
I name my characters what i want and if they fall in battle and if I wish to use them again, I use them again. Itis my model and my character, i can do this if I want, I dont have to justify it with any story, even if they ded to a las cannon to the face, a d weapon or if they tripped and fell and hit their noggin on a rock.

If you need a good excuse, you can always said that he survive becuase the lascannon just ripped an arm or leg, and becuase of that the character had to leave the fight, but return with a regrow arm/leg or cybernetic part, its add some badassery and gives more background to the character

**Jimsolo**

Yeah, I play DE, and even more than that, primarily Covens. So my guys are just fine with dying, and it doesn't require a great big fluffy song-and-dance to justify why I show up with them again the next week. Hell, some of the came to the battle to die.