Regarding Player Character Death

[[Desolate Divine]]

So today marks a first in GCEA history. It is the first death of an active player character in the series, however due to circumstances and timing, I feel it necessary to make a statement to clarify this.

I am summing this up with two key points.

#1: The death of Truly’s character William has nothing to do with the argument that happened on Discord at roughly 11pm on April 15, AEST.
Due to the timing of this, those who were present on Discord at that point in time may be tempted to see this as GM vindication. That however is not the case. Whilst there was a disagreement between myself and Truly, William’s death is based upon his actions in game, and the character of the assailant. Had it been Amy, Renny, hell, even Sophie, the results would have been the same. This has nothing to do with the arguement or personal opinions.

#2: This wasn’t a decision made lightly.
The reason that GCEA has been so dead today is because I have been conversing with multiple people on whether or not having a player character killed under these circumstances would be okay.

Ultimately, it came down to two things. Firstly, whilst the assailant’s motives weren’t completely specified in previous posts, it was not hidden that he intended to kill the group. It was quite obvious. In addition to this, the assailants power was not hidden from players. It was made very clear just how dangerous and powerful he was. The risk in antagonizing such an antagonist was not hidden and was very clear.

This is not to say that insulting every NPC will result in a player character death. This is where the second thing comes in. The assailants motives are that he has seen worlds in the multiverse fall and countless innocent people die as the result of people not being in the world they were born in, and to prevent more, hunts down people who are outside of their own world and won’t return (whether they want to or not). The original plan was for the assailant to be about to kill William when the Team Galactic squadron who captured Matthias and Renny arrive and demand he hand them over. At that moment the assailant determines the Team Galactic squadron are more of a threat, and deals with them first, whilst the team escape in the firefight.

However, by threatening to unleash a disease which could cripple the ecosystem, William made himself more of a threat by the assailant’s standards, which needed to be dealt with first. For the assailant to not kill William then and there would have been massively out of character and out of line with his ideals and goals. The only way to prevent his death would be to have one of the few beings in GCEA lore who are powerful enough to intervene do that. The problem with that is that most of those beings already have a place in this story, big or small, and to introduce them early would throw a lot of future events off. Additionally it would be very deus ex machina, and would create a sense of plot armour. That player characters will not be killed, and are immune to direct consequences of their actions. This is not the case. Whilst this is the first time this has happened in GCEA, it is not uncommon in other role play games.
In Conclusion…
The decision for William to die in the current circumstances was not an easy one to make, but it was the right one. Put simply, given the circumstances there was no other way that would not have potentially game-breaking consequences. Truly is completely welcome to create another sign up, and all the points from William’s card will be transferred to their new character.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me. I have tomorrow off of work, so will be able to address them relatively soon.