You never know in advance who lives and who dies

[SekoETC]

It's sort of funny to run into characters that one of your earlier characters used to be close to, and it makes you think, if they had stayed together, would the other person still be alive today? Is the fact that you broke up and they settled in another town the thing that saved them? This has happened more than once. Often the most colorful characters die with a big flash, while a lot of mundane, subtle characters are the ones who end up reaching the age of very old. If Cantr was a horse race, the brightest stars would never come first - at least not after you bet money on them, and would probably break a leg.

Sometimes I've felt like some of my characters were the only ones keeping their lovers alive or stuck in a place they didn't like, so you'd think that me killing off a character would release them into dying as well or moving elsewhere. Yet usually the other person just keeps on ticking, in the same town. I'd sort of feel flattered if someone couldn't live without one of my characters, yet that hardly ever seems to happen. In the past my characters generally died alone after all their loved ones had died first. But last year I killed off six characters and this year another six even though the year isn't even over yet. In the past I would have 1 to 3 die per year. In 2012 I didn't have a single death. I used to tell a certain player repeatedly that she was going through characters like socks, yet now I'm guilty of the same thing. My connection to my current bunch is very superficial and if someone popped up and murdered any one of them, I'd probably get over it fairly soon.