I'm sure the veteran players have had this happen to them on more than one occasion so I was just curious what they do to overcome, and forge on.
Scenerio #1:
You're in an established role and you're spinning out plots, and conducting all sorts of beautiful trechery and then your KEY pc dies. Not you - but your goto guy. What do you do? Try to find someone else? Already have backups in place? Has your characters will to live been sucked out of them? All that time and effort building up the relationships brought down with a simple flick of the wrist. What's your move?
I would just like to hear some thoughts from other players about this - like I said I am sure this has happened to a few people on more than one occasion.
- Matt.
Having a good right hand man/woman playing this game is nearly irreplaceable.
It takes such a pressure off you when you can delegate jobs to PC's and know that they will be done correctly. These people are smart, innovative, talented, dependable and trustworthy at every step in the road. And when one goes down for whatever reason, it really really sucks. There's just no other way to put it.
From that point, you have a few choices ahead of you:
1. Find a replacement.
If you're part of any military style organization, then there is a good chance someone else is already in line for that spot. They may not be as good a candidate, but they're better than nothing. Over time, you can develop a good working relationship with these people and it's entirely possible to forge a new right hand with enough time and effort.
2. Do everything yourself.
Confronted with the daunting task of training an entirely new right hand man/woman, you could just decide that it's too much work and you'd rather handle things yourself than wait for someone to come along that meets all of your criteria. This is more common when you are in a position where no "next-in-command" type person is there to fill the slot.
3. Change directions.
If something completely unforseen happened that robbed me of several support players, I might think about what direction my character could go that wouldn't require me to replace or rebuild. Perhaps this is a good time to retire from my current position and take up something else. Perhaps I should get a change of scenery and work on that pet project I always wanted to do. This is a great time to do that.
4. Go out swinging.
Maybe that second in command was the only thing keeping you rooted to the project because of all the hard work THEY had been putting forth. Now that they are gone, you decide you're going to fly by the seat of your pants and take all the risks in the world. There's no stability in this world, so why bother trying to create some and just do everything YOUR way or the HIGHWAY. In the end, the highway always wins.
Best "right hand" man I ever had was Aldane, the sand blasted mul. You never forget the really good ones.
-LoD
Oh man, I feel for you.
Losing your 'wingman' is one of the most horrible setbacks and losses this game has to offer. 'Capable' people, for the job you want done, are easily found. Those who excel at it are not.
Be patient. Put things on pause while you search through the 'canidates'. Find one with potential, and refine them the best you can.
Once, I had an awesome partner in business who died abruptly, and I was absolutely crushed. But I ended up finding a replacement in about 3 real life weeks...and about a month after that, he was doing better than his predecessor.
Sucks when -that- guy dies too.
I've actually developed a system/philosophy for when my right hand gets severed..or the majority of my clan. (We all know the PKers go straight for the younger clan members who can't defend themselves as effectively.)
Typically it's along the line of: When your best lieutenant goes down. Go into fail safe. Perform the minor, necessary functions of your clan to keep it interesting, little plotting and otherwise take it easy. Atleast log in. 90% of any type of leadership role is personal evaluation and you have to sit there and look over every new pc that comes into your group. Once your new lieutenant has been identified, throw everything into overdrive. These days, when I get tied into playing in a clan for a long time..I find you really have to gauge your atmosphere. A large RPI can fluctuate massively as to where the action is and sometimes, if it's not there, you have to chill because the outcomes of your efforts with even a meagre amount of players draws into very predictable outcomes (failures). When it's there, hit it hard. It's the same with clan playerbases.
..Of course, that's more a system for your jaded clan leader. Your more fiery types can rebuild the group and the goings on their own once or twice before taking this approach.
Hot_Dancer
I had a quite long-lived noble who went through ... hmm... somewhere around 8 aides in his lifetime.
So, yeah... my advice is to just pick up and get a new one, if you can.