@Ghost said in The Great PC Death Dilemma:
What DO you do about games and RP systems where "dinosaur characters" are able to simply continue to amass XP with over-the-top RP and zero fear of death/repercussions
Easy - have a system that doesn't allow for dino characters. FS3 does that. There really isn't that much of a gap between what you can walk out of chargen with and the max.
@Ghost said in The Great PC Death Dilemma:
he PROBLEM was that it was a "consent" game, so unless a character consented to being investigated/hunted/killed for their behavior, the LAW sphere really couldn't DO anything about laws being broken by PCs unless staff intervened.
Also easy - don't try to do PVP in a consent game. That's just destined to end up in cops-and-robbers playground nonsense.
Of course these decisions (max power level / no PVP) have other effects. Some players are motivated by XP. They get bored if they can no longer advance. Some players want PVP. I'm not saying these things are bad or wrong, just that they're not the only option.
@Ghost said in The Great PC Death Dilemma:
I know a lot of my posts come back to "is it an RPG game with writing OR a writing group that uses light RPG elements", but I feel that it applies to this topic.
Exactly. If your goal while MUSHing is to play a game where you're looking for immersion or the suspense of not knowing at any moment what might happen - even if that means your own character's death - hey, more power to you. Again, not saying any of that is bad or wrong.
For me, though? None of that is why I'm here. I want to tell a story with some light RPG tools. I think MUs are closest to ensemble TV series in execution. It's generally pretty lame when one of the ensemble just randomly dies to a henchman, accident, etc. halfway through the season. If you're going to kill off an ensemble character, you want to do it in a way that has meaning--that propels the story forward.
And ultimately, only the players can decide when that's appropriate. Not an arbitrary system.