Common Character Catastrophies

[deathkamon]

I just want to take a look on how people usually die in the harsh world of Zalanthas. As we all know, Zalanthas is a cruel and harsh place, and in Zalanthas, pretty much everything can be deadly towards you. The poll is just for others to see how the usual Zalanthan dies in Arm and how the average noob can take note of how to avoid such tragic events. Also, this poll is made for fun just so people could get a chuckle out of it.

[Is Friday]

As a professional tryhard and character suicider (151 characters and counting), I voted for the NPC option. Gotta have dat death by random aggressive thing.

[MeTekillot]

I've been killed by more players than I have my own stupidity or aggro NPCs.

[Riev]

Definitely not players as much as NPCs. MOST of the time, I know OOCly the death is coming, but occasionally you just don't know that dark area ahead is <redacted> and you're about to get <redacted> in your face.

[James de Monet]

Yeah, it's not usually the things I'm hunting that kill me.  It's what was hunting what I'm hunting before I put my boot in it.

That next link up the food chain is a doozy.

[Gimfalisette]

My characters mostly die in storage.

I think I've played around 22ish PCs. 6 died, 4 of those to other players due to plot, 2 to critters.

4 PKs:
-- Lover
-- Jealous girlfriend of lover
-- Boss
-- Templar

[MeTekillot]

Peeps who've PKd me:

-- Misinformed Templar (x2)
-- Informed Templar (x2)
-- RUDE Templar
-- sap
-- Buff dudes sparring with mercy off

[Harmless]

City elf --after about 3 hours playtime,first PC ever
city elf assassin --after about 3 hours, was starting shit eastside with one of my first rinthers
(homer simpson: We played dungeons and dragons for three hours, and then I got slain by an elf.."
..mul
gith, raptors, kryl
buncha arrows

[James de Monet]

Peeps who've PKd me:

-- Templar (x5)

I'm gonna do you a solid.

The Internet Guide to Not Dying to Templars

And Volume 2

[MeTekillot]

I begged and bribed and cried during three of those templar deaths. Sometimes a dude just wants to use his branched skills mang

[RogueGunslinger]

Hmmm. I've been PK'd a number of interesting ways from authorities.

-Bug pitt(Awesome echo's down there)
-Beheading
-Arena x2 (Pickpockets kept getting caught)
-Torture scene(I told them everything I knew, wasn't enough.)

I have to agree, there are some things that you just can't bribe your way out of.

My most common character deaths are no doubt to NPC's who I was unable to flee from(stamina), purposefully seek out to die to(suicide), or just fucking surprised me with lucky hits and reel lock(great majority of my first pc's)

[Barsook]

I been killed mostly by NPCs in the sands and falling down something too.

And this too:

My most common character deaths are no doubt to NPC's who I was unable to flee from(stamina), purposefully seek out to die to(suicide), or just fucking surprised me with lucky hits and reel lock(great majority of my first pc's)

[Patuk]

Uhh..

Stupidity - 1
Environment - 2
NPC - 5
PK - 7
Storage - 2
Wrath of Natious - 1
Suicide - 2
Crimcode accident - 1

Of the PK's, only one was a templar, with another being my employer.

Naturally, three were due to women not worth dying over.

[Lizzie]

Mine are almost always murdered or assassinated. I've been templar'ed I think 5 times - 3 by the same templar.  Out of 27 characters, I think only 4 of them died during hunting incidents. Maybe 5. I store quite a bit too. But mostly assassination.

[Bushranger]

Since everyone seems to be posting them these are from the last time I requested my account notes. They do not include any of my characters from either my first account or from before accounts where implemented.

• Hostile NPC 51
• Stored 7
• Hostile Player 6
• Unknown (Or find out IC) 6
• Poison 3
• Blood Loss 2
• Dehydration 1
• Death Trap 1

A couple of highlights:
◦Fel (Bushranger) entered into a room and died of the death flag. My very first character recorded on the account (2002) This is what I imagine when reading this death message!


◦Karayan (Bushranger) has died from loss of blood, come have a look. Gee, thanks Immortals! p.s. Best death message ever!

Also 2 of my characters were 'killed by a ring-tailed jozhal, amen.' Both were rangers. This should go in the shame thread!

[valeria]

In order of favorite to least favorite:

sorculated - 1
dragging broken body through caverns until killed by NPC - 1
poison - 1
spice - 1
NPC - 7
storage - 13

Apparently I just don't die to players.

[James de Monet]

I have to agree, there are some things that you just can't bribe your way out of.

I don't disagree. I just think if MTK has been PK'd 7 times, 5 of which were Templars, he's probably doing it wrong (or he plays a lot of undesirables. I've don't know if I've ever had to bribe and plead my way out of something I was rather than something I did. I imagine its a lot harder).

[Barsook]

Apparently I just don't die to players.

Same, I was only PKed once.

[Marauder Moe]

Mostly storage.  But looking at actual deaths in no particular order...

Gith
Raptors
Poison
Random PK
Sparring-related accident
Several units of the Tuluki army


I guess that counts as a mix.

[lostinspace]

1 Poisoning self and vomiting to death.
1 Executed by boss for breaking his rules.
1 Kryl spray to the face.
and a scrab an hour in, but that hardly counts. I don't consider it a character until I've got a day in at least.

[manonfire]

In no particular order:

PKs - maybe 4 or 5
Shitmugging - 2
Mobs - 3
Nyr, via Vash - 1. This PC was such a hilarious fuckup that his boss had him murdered. I even got a little bloodstain added to a certain argosy to commemorate his greatness.
Storage - 40+

[whitt]

Why isn't stat-gloating or branch-rejoicing listed as an option in the poll?

[LauraMars]

Or desc changing.

[Armaddict]

Crimcode: 12
NPC:29
PC: 27
Immortal Fury:2
Cool Imm run reactions (not plots):2
stored: 4
Deathroom! 1

As of my last account note request, that's how the numbers go, roughly, for what I died to.  I did the favor of removing the many gladiator deaths.

[yousuff]

First post may as well be here.
1 black beetle near Red Storm
1 Pk
1 mantis (Damn, I killed loads of those pricks. There's so many though ;-;)
1 NPC
1 Bloodburn.
About 5 storages.
Only 12 characters played, over the course of almost a year now

[Culinary Critic]

Assassinated/PK - 4
Lost in the sand/dehydrated - 1
Wildlife - 11
Suicide - 1
Stored - 2

[flurry]

I first read the title of this thread as Common Character Catchphrases. (Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Amos?)

I think about half my character deaths were to NPCs, and the rest to PCs. As for "plot based reasons," that's not always easy to tell.

[QuillDipper]

Of my three that have died...

1 - Vicious animals
1 - Fall damage
1 - Storage

[Fathi]

Accidentally turned to red paste by clanmember: 1
Plot related PK: 1
Critter: 3
Ate something bad: 1
Weird crash-related bug death I probably could have filed a rez for but didn't: 1
Gladiator: 1
Falling off shit: 1

Storage: 12

Died while linkdead so who knows what the hell: 3

Moral of the story: don't go linkdead in the desert. Think one of those 'critter' deaths was linkdead too but can't tell from my last account notes.

[Is Friday]

As a professional tryhard and character suicider (151 characters and counting), I voted for the NPC option. Gotta have dat death by random aggressive thing.

Okay, I counted them up. This is rough, since I might have messed it up a bit.

2   Dehydration
9   Unknown (no given reason in account)
54 NPC (gith, erdlu, mek, stilt lizard, kylori, jakhal, falcon, snake, magick thing, yompar, tembo, beetle, vestric, carru, elf, anakore, raptor, spider, gith, HG, halfling, scrab, gizhat, water elementalist, gortok, mantis, snake, mul, kryl, ox, hawk, human, bahamet, soldier. In no particular order. Some NPCs more than once, different breed, etc.)
18 PC
43 Stored
8   Environment (poison, fall, death flag)
5   Blood loss
1   Immortal Fury (thanks Rath!)
1   Alive

[Case]

1x PK'd (saw it comin' as a player, rolled with it IC - Elves don't betray tribe right?)
1x Rinthi NPC (wat)
1x Raptorrrrr (which I think I suicided to, lol wtf first PC, h/elf with -amazing- stats. IIRC, EG, VG, EG, AI)
1x Spiderrrrr (lag wassup)
1x Sparring accident (geez thanks Jihaen)
1x Clean Insides (Agent, that wasn't wine)
5x Stored ( Some I regret )

[bcw81]

1x Twitchy, slack jawed man (Bane of my existence)
2x Soldiers mang
6x Critters
8x Stored
1x Allanaki Templar rending my poor pregnant girl on the cuddler because I was a newb. Awesome death.
5x PK
1x Sparring Accident with clubs
1x Stored because I overstepped my bounds. (:c Sad to see him go, but it was probably for the better, I was doing stupid stuff in my early days.)
1x Gladiator
1x Awesome staff run plot!

[Gimfalisette]

This thread is making me feel less bad about all my storages.

ETA: A lot of my storages actually have been due to taking another role. So. Not so terrible.

[Cale_Knight]

I've only played a handful of characters total.

Out of those, maybe six of them last for more than a couple days played.

Out of those, five were stored and one died ignominiously somewhere south of Tuluk.

I did once lose an incredibly awesome character to the twitchy, slackjawed asshole, though. That was frustrating, because I think he had a ton of potential.

[manipura]

Alright, I'll play this game too.  It must be said though, in my earlier Arm days there was so much newb.  So much.  
And I was stubborn and did a lot of "Oh, I don't know what went wrong with -that- character, but I sure don't need any help.  I'm -suuuure- I can figure this game out myself it was just something wrong with that character, I'll make a new one and something will suddenly click and then I won't suck so much" type thinking.  
The result of this is a whole bunch of unmemorable characters that bumbled about haphazardly before something clicked and I managed to keep one alive longer than oh, a day.  
Of course, most of these bumbling characters died unmemorable deaths too, thank goodness for account notes to remind me.  

NPC people: 7 (Mostly templars/soldiers.  A walk in an alley in Storm that didn't work out.  Umm...one was the white robe in the water temple...really?)
NPC critters: 19 (halfling, sewage horror, few gith here and there, scorpion, raptor, scrab, cilops, some sort of forest gurth (I think?), kylori, couple different gortoks, kryl, dujats and carru)
No death listed: 5
Loss of blood: 4 (One of these I remember for sure was at the hands of the a certain Mr. Twitchy NPC.  Man that guy can mess you up good...)
Dehydration: 1
Falling: 1 (Wait, it wasn't the fall, the fall was just fine.  Was the real sudden stop at the end that didn't work out for me.)
PK: 1

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Huh.  I should do this. I have no idea.

[Cutthroat]

2x Tarantulas.
1x Murdered in the Gaj.
1x Killed by a silt-horror (also, the only character to die during an event on the History page).
1x Magic accident.
1x Sparring accident.
2x Stored.
2x Died in the Arena (they were special characters for the Arena).
21 completely forgettable deaths.
1x Alive.

[TheWanderer]

1 x Half-Giant Guard NPC STOMP
1 x Beetle chucking me off its back so I can get eaten by another beetle
2 x Storage
1 x Nosave combat off in my ten paces duel
1 x Falling down a pit and meeting da starving (at least, I pretend he was starving) elf npc in dat pit
1 x Falling off a roof.

[James de Monet]

1x Killed by a silt-horror (also, the only character to die during an event on the History page).

Haha, that was you?  

If there was a book about that RPT, your death would have happened at the beginning of the chapter titled, Shit Gets Real.

[Fujikoma]

1x put on bone helmet found in the rinth (first PC)
1x curse of the desc change app (second PC, that second bahamet came out of NOWHERE)
1x Arena death (Hey, breed, put on this robe and go dance for the crowd! 3rd PC)
1x huge black beetle on the way to Storm (4th PC)
1x tarantula I -couldn't- bribe for some reason (worked so well with the scrab and the previous tarantula. 5th PC)
1x killed by new boss (Bleh. 6th PC)
1x curious raptor who found my strange skin interesting (I was fine until I woke up! Damn auto-wake-up from a fall!)
1x freaking gith trench (they should move the trench closer to the Fist )
1x immortal fury (Oh wow, WTF?!)
1x killed by new boss again (Bleh)
1x intentional suicide by other player.

[CodeMaster]

1x intentional suicide by other player.

Your Byn sergeant walk off the shield wall or what?

[Saellyn]

1x intentional suicide by other player.

Your Byn sergeant walk off the shield wall or what?

Is THAT what every intentional suicide is?

[Cutthroat]

1x Killed by a silt-horror (also, the only character to die during an event on the History page).

Haha, that was you? 

If there was a book about that RPT, your death would have happened at the beginning of the chapter titled, Shit Gets Real.

It was a true redshirt moment for me.

[The Crimson King]

Over a hundred characters from an old account I cant include, but this is somewhat accurate for the current.

26 deadly creatures (tarantulas, halflings, beetles, gith mostly)
25 city people (random npcs and soldiers)
6 negative HP
5 entered a room and died from the death flag
2 PC
1 Terradin, yuck
1 Fall to the death

[RogueGunslinger]

1x intentional suicide by other player.

Your Byn sergeant walk off the shield wall or what?

Is THAT what every intentional suicide is?

Hard to imagine more that could get someone else killed as well. You'd think if they're going to do that they'd go off alone, not lure a Mekillot back to their buddies as well... Unless they wanted an audience for their suicide.

[Fujikoma]

1x intentional suicide by other player.

Your Byn sergeant walk off the shield wall or what?

Is THAT what every intentional suicide is?

Hard to imagine more that could get someone else killed as well. You'd think if they're going to do that they'd go off alone, not lure a Mekillot back to their buddies as well... Unless they wanted an audience for their suicide.

Ahaha! I was intentionally being vague because I didn't want to give away to the player who performed the act who I was playing, but no, I wasn't killed by another PC committing suicide. Still, the attempts at untangling the meaning were quite amusing so I was further discouraged from providing an explanation.

[nauta]

Hmm, of the ones that lasted more than a a couple RL days:

2x Mount (one undomesticated; the other domesticated)
4x PK (while sexxing, nosex: Arm of the Dragon, nosex: but I totally should have; absolutely nosex: Arena)

So, I think I'm doing fantastic.  Why do you hate me, mounts and players?

[Bogre]

Stored: 1
Imm killed on request: 1
Rinth NPCs: 6
Wilderness NPCs: 12
PK'd: 7
Self kills through magick: 2
Cleaning fluid: 1

Fell asleep after school/work, dehydrated: 5

Never been templared.

[Gimfalisette]

Fell asleep after school/work, dehydrated: 5

lol

<3

[Armaddict]

Honestly, I think most of the PK deaths in this game come from people who try to ride hard out of the gates towards a powerful character.  Not literally out of the gates, like leaving the city, but right out of character creation, they start trying to assert power.  People don't take kindly to that, and anyone who's more patient than those people will usually win.

[Barsook]

Honestly, I think most of the PK deaths in this game come from people who try to ride hard out of the gates towards a powerful character.  Not literally out of the gates, like leaving the city, but right out of character creation, they start trying to assert power.  People don't take kindly to that, and anyone who's more patient than those people will usually win.

I think that's true, it happened to me.

[RogueGunslinger]

You can pretty much guaranteed outlive your enemies simply by surviving a couple IC years. Doesn't mean you're having fun doing it, but its tried and tested.

I like having those characters around who try to assert themselves as more than they are though, because it means you get to put someone in their place.

Few things are as satisfying as putting someone in their place.

[solera]

Beasties: Mostly
Self poisoned: 1
Annoying another PC: 2
Annoying an Arena full of PC : 1
Store in between PC: 1

[Bushranger]

You can pretty much guaranteed outlive your enemies simply by surviving a couple IC years. Doesn't mean you're having fun doing it, but its tried and tested.

I like having those characters around who try to assert themselves as more than they are though, because it means you get to put someone in their place.

Few things are as satisfying as putting someone in their place.

"If you wait by Meleth's Circle long enough the bodies of your enemies will be piled nearby." -- RogueGunslinger

Prophetic quote and makes me think that one beggar must have millions of enemies. What a bastard!

[icewindsong]

1x put on bone helmet found in the rinth (first PC)

putting on a helmet killed you?  was it some kind of helmet-shaped creature, or a cursed item?  sounds weird in a seemingly realistic game.  Contact-poison on it?  It was long enough ago you can talk about it right?


And..  there's instant death rooms here?  Eww.. I ran into one of those on another Mud.  If you stepped into the street you were immediately run over by a runaway wagon rampaging down the street.  Which couldn't be seen from the boardwalk.  And was always there. 

[Bushranger]

There are very few death rooms on Armageddon Mud. Those that exist make logical sense to be death rooms and usually have fairly obvious warnings when you approach them. Think drowning, smothering, pits filled with spikes and the like. There are no random wagons trundling along killing everyone who walks a certain section of the street here.

[charas]

21 (dead) characters total

NPC/Environment: 12 (jozhal'ed? What?)

Players: 6 (assholes)

Stored: 2 (one character was in a clan while I went on a hiatus, the other had reached its glass ceiling)

Poison: 1 (indirectly also a PK) (poison is a woman's weapon)

Average lifespan: ~10 days/character

[RogueGunslinger]

1x put on bone helmet found in the rinth (first PC)

putting on a helmet killed you?  was it some kind of helmet-shaped creature, or a cursed item?  sounds weird in a seemingly realistic game.  Contact-poison on it?  It was long enough ago you can talk about it right?

The helmet was too expensive, and he got mugged for it from the locals.

[Fujikoma]

1x put on bone helmet found in the rinth (first PC)

putting on a helmet killed you?  was it some kind of helmet-shaped creature, or a cursed item?  sounds weird in a seemingly realistic game.  Contact-poison on it?  It was long enough ago you can talk about it right?

The helmet was too expensive, and he got mugged for it from the locals.

By mugging, he means, "mercilessly kanked with a dagger until he stopped breathing". In my defense, I did run, but i didn't understand that it was the helmet causing it.

[RogueGunslinger]

Actually, adding scripts to those NPC's to indicate why they're so bloodthirsty probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Because it's not readily apparent to someone who's spending their first time in the 'rinth.

The twitchy, slack-jawed man eyes your gear with a greedy look.

Or something.

[MeTekillot]

The twitchy, slack-jawed man eyes your stun points with a greedy look.

[Fujikoma]

The twitchy, slack-jawed man eyes your junk with a greedy look.

[Taven]

What		How many		Comments
In-the-city NPCs		2		Never try to "spar" by attacking NPCs in the Byn compound. Also, be careful which NPC you try to rob.
Ferocious animal NPCs		2		Like Jozhal, for example. One of these was a tarantula, but I cross-listed that under templar PCs.
Non-animal NPCs		3		Gith, black mantis wearing Kuraci cloak, an unmentionable. You know, the usual. One of these is cross-listed under templar PCs.
Death flag		2		I can only presume both of these were the silt sea, as I was unconscious for one. One of these is cross-listed under death-by-PC.
Terradin		1		Don't drink random waterskins
Immortal Fury		1		I highly recommend this
Death-by-PC		3		One of these was gladiator-by-gladiator, one was an assassination by a best friend, and one was via a magick NPC which I credited to the PC gicker (which is also cross-listed under templars, due to circumstances).
Death-by-PC-Templar		6		One Faithful Lady, two southern templars for direct kills. The others are indirect, but were a result of Templars ordering something or influencing the event strongly.

That's about a 27% rate of deaths attributed to templars. Most of the time they aren't even trying to kill me, they just have orders that are Extremely Unwise To Follow.

[solera]

The terradin one stinks. I mean, was that an IC motive?

[CodeMaster]

The terradin one stinks. I mean, was that an IC motive?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q3z4IP_nNU

[Eyeball]

My characters rarely die for some reason. Those that have (in reverse chronological order covering ten years):

1. Cavern plunge while following a Byn Sergeant.

2. Concussed human Whiran in a fit of rage after passing out from the Way, cracking his head, and waking to find his pack with his precious tools had been stolen. Accused a Kadian guard of taking them and attacked.

3. AoD soldier dogpiled in Allanak vs. Tuluk vs. Volcano

4. Old, decrepit Drovian jumped by a PC above some mushroom caves, got one spell off to no avail, fled, fell.

5. Idiot AoD half-giant (Vivaduan in denial) wandered out of Allanak and decided he was too tall to drown in the silt.

6. Byn Runner (secret Drovian) while following Lt. Raul in a city-wide battle against attacking fire elementals. I think half the Byn was wiped out by that one fire spell.

7. Dwarven Byn Sergeant to a Red Fang arrow while escorting a Salarri (who died in the same way).

8. AoD soldier (best stats I ever had) to a mob of spiders, after being led (with two other soldiers) straight into a tarantula nest by a templar.

9. Invisible Half-elven Whiran shot out of the sky by a Red Fang arrow.

10. Albino Drovian woman to a blinded, berserk elf in Undertuluk while trying to gather strength for a rampage against a southern templar who had executed her business partner. The elf landed the killing blow after she turned ethereal.

Plus a bunch stored. My memory starts getting hazy before that.

[Tuannon]

I think I finally hit 10 roles in.. 14 or 15 years played..

[RogueGunslinger]

The terradin one stinks. I mean, was that an IC motive?

Drop a tainted waterskin. Hide. Wait for victim to drink and die. Profit from corpse.

[senseofeven]

Well, my many previous PCs aren't very notable. Some were suicides, some were death by fall. But I remember one being from a certain northern Templar Q. Death by NPC, environment. And of course stored some.

[Ender]

1.  Scrab'd
2.  Immortal Fury - Defending Allanaki held Luir's from those heretical Tulukis
3.  NPC'd - Shanked in the 'rinth
4.  PC'd   - Shanked by my own crew in the 'rinth
5.  Sweet sweet Immortal Fury that's probably still too IC sensitive to describe even though it was over ten years ago.
6.  Stored
7.  Carru'd right after they added that new "feature" to them
8.  Silt sea'd
9.  Wezer'd
10.  PC'd - Botched raiding attempt.
11.  PC'd - Stabbed a bunch in an alleyway
13.  Stored
14.  PC'd - Stabbed a bunch in a cave
15.  Beetle'd
16.  Stored
17.  Stored
18.  Beetle'd
19.  Tarantula'd
20.  The sweetest of Immortal Fury - Don't even ask.

[Saellyn]

I got set on fire once. That was fun.

[racurtne]

NPC: 1 (Staff animated, judging by the way it was written on my account notes.)
PK: 3
Silt Sea in a storm: 1
Storage: 1 (actually have 3 stored I think, but I never really played the other 2, so I don't like to count them. They were PCs I apped before taking a break, came back to, and then had no desire to play.)


7 total characters played in close to 4 years of actual play time. I'm at 50% PK deaths and never realized it. I've also not once died to an NPC that wasn't animated.

[Taven]

The terradin one stinks. I mean, was that an IC motive?

Well, I got the waterskin from a dead corpse in the rinth. In retrospect, this should have seemed suspicious, but I had no waterskin on me, and was thirsty. Pro-tip: Do not drink a dead person's waterskin because you are thirsty. Nothing good will come of this.

In my defense, I was still a n00b at the time.

8. AoD soldier (best stats I ever had) to a mob of spiders, after being led (with two other soldiers) straight into a tarantula nest by a templar.

Ahh, good ol' AoD. That's how it's done. I refer to these sorts of things as "death-by-templar", myself.

7 total characters played in close to 4 years of actual play time. I'm at 50% PK deaths and never realized it. I've also not once died to an NPC that wasn't animated.

That's pretty amazing.

[BleakOne]

Died once to a back-alley (not the rinth, just an alley) knifing by another PC. A cool death, and my first PC.

Once to deciding I could make it from Red Storm to 'Nak without a guide, during a bad storm, as a pickpocket. Silt'd.

AFKing killed me once, but it was unfortunately totally unavoidable. Some things are more important than Arm, or so I once thought. 

My favourite death was entirely in the game's theme. Saved a man's life, and he turned around and murdered me the moment I dropped my guard less than a day later IC. Surprised me and I didn't like it at the time. In retrospect, it was Murder, Corruption and Betrayal all at once.

One death to an NPC I knew could take me out easily, and I still stayed to fight. Totally my own stupid fault.

Stored once. No regrets, even though I really enjoyed the character for most of their life.