TFARCHIVE FORUMS

More of a preparation for what is to come than anything, actually...

But here's a humble request...

Can characters that die STAY dead unless they are Starscream or Optimus Prime? Because, looking back through the RPG, death is but a revolving door. In the old RPG Skywarp alone has been killed and resurrected thrice (by Unicron, by Thunderwing and then by the Matrix) throughout the RPG's run.

So when we do kill off characters -coughSentinelcough- can we make them permanent, so no dead characters can come back unless it is absolutely necessary?

This would make deaths more meaningful and dramatic, really. Deaths would mean nothing if you can just resurrect your characters after two months or so. Of course, players need permission from the mods before killing off characters, that goes without saying.

I can get on board with this. Once a character is dead I don't think there's any reason to bring them back to life.

I can understand where your coming from but I vote against as it feels too exclusive and due to this there will very few deaths, also certain people have to die and come back besides prime and screamer so maybe you need mod permission to bring some one back if Its not the major point of a storyline

Which is the point, isn't it?

Deaths are supposed to be permanent, else there's no point in anyone dying. Might as well as put them in stasis lock or something, or simply in a state of half-deadedness like what I did with Laserbeak in the old RPG. It's supposed to be exclusive.

I mean, what's irritating is like someone like Galvatron or Ginrai gets such a dramatic death, then two months later they reappear.

For one, when I kill off Sentinel and whomever it is in my roster that I feel could die, I want it to be permanent. Which is the whole reason of having a character die in the first place. It's an end of their character development.

And of course you do need mod permission to revive characters. That goes without saying.

So what it comes down to is that you don't want people to touch the characters that you killed off?

I'm not a big fan of it. Though I agree that random ressurections should be banned. I think that if you want to ressurect a dead character, it'll have to come with a big storyline or at least a very well thought out idea before you get permission.

No. Not because I don't want anyone to touch the characters I killed off, because that would be selfish. Although I will admit that it may have influenced me.

I mean, I don't want someone to claim Sentinel Prime after I kill him off and then start the post with 'Sentinel walks out of a CR chamber, smiling happily at the medics who resurrected him with blah and blah.'

It's that in the early days of the old RPG resurrections have often times been handled like an everyday job, and often times seem rather easy. All you need to do is rebuild the body, summon the spark via some cyber-vodoo and voila, dead people come back to life.

It takes the realism out of warfare, know what I mean?

I agree if there is a long storyline to revive, say, a certain character, and well-handled, it would be great.

But say, I kill off one of the Transformers in my roster. Take, say, Warpath. Boom I kill him off dramatically to make a battle dramatic. Three months later I decide that hey, I like Warpath. So I get someone to rebuild him and off he goes walking again into battle. I mean, that's just defeats the point of death, doesn't it?

Because if I'm going to bring Warpath three months later I should've given him a mortal wound, or put him into stasis lock, or do something major to put him in a stasis pod or a CR chamber. Instead of killing him.

What I'm saying is to reserve deaths and resurrections for special occasions, not to lob them around freely to be handed out to characters during any large battle.

Else we won't be role-playing properly.

If, on the other hand, rather than the killer, a new player wants the dead guy, (geez, what a comma-tastic mess) I think there should be ways to allow it. I mean, Transformers has enough mystics and/or scientists that bringing someone back isn't unrealistic, but it still wouldn't be commonplace.

Let's say a new kid wants Blackjack's dead Warpath. First, he should sign up with a couple of other dudes and let the mods know he'd like Warpath. Then, he'd need to play for a bit to show the mods that he'll stick around and that he's capable. Then, he'd need to get some players whose characters want/need Warpath back, and then there'd be a side-story where they wrangle up the people who can bring him back. And then, new Warpath.

An oldie would, of course, just let the mods know and then wrangle up people. Still complicated, but less so.

That way, character deaths stay mostly permanent, but if someone is brought back, there's a fitting build-up towards it. Also, perhaps on high-profile targets (like Zeta) the Decepticons could use a spark extractor to prevent a resurrection? I'm rambling at this point.

I think the biggest stumbling block is how you define 'death' for a Transformer.

If you're a Transformer, getting blown up doesn't mean that you're dead. Getting cut to pieces doesn't mean that you're dead. Getting crushed into a cube and thrown into a garbage disposal doesn't mean that you're dead.

The reason they're not dead is that all of a Transformer's essence is stored in their brain module (or spark chamber or laser core depending on your continuity of choice). If that part of them is intact, then no matter how badly damaged they are the Transformer can still be repaired. It's just a matter of time, resources and someone caring enough to actually do it. But that's not dead. Deactivated or stasis-locked, but not dead. 'Dead' only comes into play when that brain module is destroyed, and once that happens there's no going back.

From where I'm sitting the only good reason for a character to be killed outright rather than just deactivated is if the plot calls for it. Zeta Prime and Sentinel Prime both need to die, both because Megatron wants to kill them and because the Autobots would forget about everything else and concentrate on fixing them rather than appointing a new Prime if they were only deactivated.

Unless it's absolutely necessary for the plot (like Zeta and Sentinel) or an absolutely unavoidable consequence of how the died (say, if they were tossed into the sun or completely vapourized) we should probably treat all our casualties as merely 'deactivated' by default. That way, the handful of real, permanent deaths that we do mete out will have a lot more meaning.

Fully agreed with on Warcry with the above.

Even if it did come to reviving one of the above, it takes mod permission to do so, which means you gotta have a very, very good reason for bringing them back. "They're cool, I want them" just won't cut it anymore, though there really shouldn't be a situation where we have characters full out dead permanently, so the situation isn't likely to come up.

Is right, what War and Aero said.

In the early days of the Marvel comics, Transformers often have been put out of comission because they have to make way for new toys are deactivated in battle and they haven't got the time/resources to repair them. Like, say, Sunstreaker or Trailbreaker or Gears disappearing for twenty issues straight. Although considering the Autobots have the time to build the Aerielbots and stuff, they may be just jerks.

Deactivation is sort of like a coma, or being brain-dead, IMO.

Permanent 'dead dead' should only come in limited amounts, like, say, Sentinel or Zeta. Normal players like me shouldn't be allowed just to randomly kill off say, using my earlier example, Warpath. If I wanted him out of the way in a glorious fight, he could be 'deactivated'. But having 'spark is extinguished', 'life flowed out' et al, only for them to be revived in a couple of months, isn't realistic at all.

Agreeing with the last couple of posts. it seems like we were quibbling over semantics.

Death is death. it will be rare, and will be for a reason. if someone is actually able to be revived, then they weren't dead. they were deactivated by a horrific injury.

don't get hung up on the wording, but the intent of what everyone is saying - which is pretty much the same across the board. we won't kill every character - only ones whose death will have meaning. new players will have plenty of bots to claim. we won't let that kind of thing happen, so chill... lol