Although I've had a couple of characters who survived two town massacres, both by happening to be out of town collecting wood at the time, I've only had one character actually killed - and that was so fast that I have no idea what happened or why.
I left my character travelling to a new town. By the time I next logged in, he was dead. The e-mail with the final text just said:
2289-1: <CANTR> efficiently kills you using a compound bow.
2289-1: H_____ (a man in his fourties) says: "on more."
2289-1: H_____ (a man in his fourties) efficiently hurts you using a steel battle axe. You lose 35 percent strength. You skillfully saved 14 percent using your tortoiseshell shield.
2289-1: <CANTR> says: "A couple more like that and he's dead. "
2289-1: <CANTR> says: "As didI. *Grins*"
2289-1: <CANTR> says:"Excellent shot"
2289-1: <CANTR> says: "G_____ hurt him pretty bad by himself. "
2289-1: <CANTR> skillfully hurts you using a crossbow. You lose 34 percent strength. You skillfully saved 21 percent using your tortoiseshell shield.
2289-1: <CANTR> says: "Look he's an awkward fighter everybody attack now while we still can. "
2289-1: <CANTR> says:"Everyone attack!!!"
2289-1: G_____ A____ (a man in his thirties) says: "Wake up and hit the motherfucker"
2289-1: G_____ A____ (a man in his thirties) awkwardly hurts you using a steel sabre. You lose 22 percent strength. Your shield was ineffective against the blow.
2289-1: You see a man in his fifties talking to a man in his fourties.
2289-1: G_____ A____ (a man in his thirties) says: "Whats crackin' fellas?"
2289-1: <CANTR> attacks you using a crossbow and misses. You are unharmed.
2289-1: H_____ (a man in his fourties) says: "sir?"
2289-1: You see a man in his fifties talking to G_____ A____ (a man in his thirties).
2289-1: You see a man in his fifties talking to a man in his fifties.
2289-0: You arrived at somewhere.
I mean, really, I don't mind him getting killed ... (well, ok, I do a bit for the same reasons as MikeH mentions, but he wasn't a favourite character anyway) ... but there was no explanation for it, no RP around it, barely more than a few people shouting "Kill him!" and then death.
I, as the player, would at least like to know _why_ he was being killed. You'd think those doing the killing would at least give a bit of information around it, but alas.
As for the named characters, he'd met them in other towns where they'd acted pretty normally, and certainly hadn't annoyed any of them or got into arguments or given them any motive that I can figure out. He was more a sort of "littlest hobo" sort of character, travelling around helping people who were nice. So I really can't believe there was any motive for killing my character in particular, which just means he was murdered randomly with no attempt at RP for me to understand why.
And that's really rather disappointing.
psymann
)
Well, never mind. I suppose it was just meant to be