Warzone comes to her before she can get out of the way. She gets shot. Or. Burning house. Or. Rocks fall. There's hundreds of ways that can work.

Make it something that gives the players the inescapable feeling that they could have saved her, for some extra guilt and bad feeling.

Revenge....will be MINE

You sure about that? Circumstances pending, that sounds like it could just be dickery.

Have the BBEG kill her (directly or indirectly) in a way that makes it clear he didn't even think about her life and wouldn't care even if he had.
"Why the hell did you kill [name]?!"
"The name doesn't sound familiar, but if I caused her death it's because she was in the way. You ought to have protected her better if you cared so much."

>>4083639
Who is the BBEG?

set up some seemingly avoidable plot to get the party trapped against insurmountable odds and she has to sacrifice herself to hold them off while they escape.

>>4083653
Sorry, but... hell, where do I even start ? Shot, I can understand: he walks up to her, say something to the party, BOOM HEADSHOT.

But the rest ? They are something they could stop by just spending drama points.

In the middle of a fight, natural disaster. Nobody notices she's gone, until after. Huge crater. BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Just have her get shot in the throat and go into shock. Play up the fact that she doesn't really seem to fully understand what's just happened to her as she gurgles helplessly, unable to breathe through her destroyed windpipe. Make it seem like the PCs might have a chance to help her ("what are you going to do? Quickly, you don't have much time"). Then have her die quietly just as they start rushing around for medical supplies or whatever.

>>4083719
To be honest, I still don't know.

Between campaigns I take two weeks of free time to write the the next one and I just started.

They're a group of NEG Intelligence Agents investigating Chrysalis Corps and a newly risen cult. And the end of the last campaign they learned that the said cult is somewhat connected to the corporation and had a close encounter that they barely survived with the leader. The cult has a doctrine similar to Roman Catholic church with some asian looks (like everything in this game) and it centers around a "living saint" - a powerful psychic who heals people, looks like an angel (white robes, closed eyes, long blond hair) etc. Anyway, they found out that she's a Desolate One of Nyarlathotep and had to run.

Currently they're staying low and are curing their wounds at her home and it will be either some high ranked operative from CC or the cults leader #1 handmaiden.

>>4083737
That's not dramatic. That's just dickery.

Do not make it personal. Make it seem distant, almost unreal. Something like her house getting blown up by a stray missile. Or she gets hit by a bullet meant for someone else without anyone really noticing until it's too late. Generic offscreen death, with the players finding her corpse after the fighting is over. I'm thinking that not seeing her final moments hurts more than any gory details you could cook up.

>>4083837
And yeah, I know that Desolate Ones are servants of Hastur, but for the sake of the campaign I ignored it and allowed other gods to have their own.

>>4083861
Or you could pull a Keymaker from Matrix reloaded.

*SLAMS IRON DOOR, TURNS AROUND WITH BULLETHOLES*

She stood until you were safe. Mull about that.

>>4083861
But that's the whole point. I want he players to get pissed at the enemy, not sad about innocent casualty of war.

>>4083879
I loved that.

In fact, I actually ENJOYED the Matrix trilogy. Is there something wrong with me?

>>4083882
Small modification then. BBEG kills her offscreen while the players are distracted by some other plan of his/hers. Gives the players that "shit, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time" feeling.

How about something like her just accidentally falling down some stairs or something like that?
People should be reminded that anyone can die in a really stupid way at any time.

>>4083882
Making it personal will make the players feel like they're SUPPOSED to be pissed off to the BBEG. It's a lot better if their anger is spontaneous.

Sauce on OPs image

Here's a suggestion: Don't kill her.

It will be completely unexpected!

>>4083639

I need to know more about the BBEG first

In the middle of doing one of the things that makes the party like her, her brains get blown out by a sniper.
Fast, quick, easy. One moment she's standing there, the next she's slumped on the floor with blood sprayed all over the wall.

>>4083639
Why is the BBEG out to kill her? Does he want to do it just to fuck with the PCs?

>>4083910
The only one that my players will be pissed of at will be me for killing her in a generic way off screen.
>>4083915
But they already aren't expecting it - I kept on keeping her alive and making the world seem a little optimistic, with hope shining etc which made them believe they're approaching a trully happy ending - now I want to have the shit hit the fan, Arcologies fall, precious NPC die etc.

Oh man that bitch must have really burned the beef wellingtons to get impaled by Gordon Ramsay

>>4083961
She's in the way. That's it. Also "break the hero" applies.
>>4083932
And what, the BBEG will call them on their cellphones that it was him ?

>>4083961
Nope. She'll be just at a wrong place at a wrong time.

>>4083970
>The only one that my players will be pissed of at will be me for killing her in a generic way off screen.

The death can be both non-personal and non-offscreen at the same time. Use your imagination.

>>4083893
Not particularly. I liked what I saw of the Matrix Reloaded. First one didn't... do too much for me. I felt like something was too streamlined, too focused, too short within the plot of that one.

Some of the philosophy was kinda halfbaked, I believe. Eh.

>>4083990
Sorry, but like I said, I want it personal and on screen.

Make the BBEG her all along.

Extra double rage that way.

Wait, you're telling me that... people die when they're killed?

Short of the BBEG appearing out of nowhere and reaming the NPC with her powers, I don't see how it can be personal enough for you.

>>4083837
Have the living saint give her cancer and blow out her heart. There are plenty of sorcerer reasons for a spell like that.

It's quick, visceral, dramatic. Go a little lower and there's enough room get out some last words before it all ends.

Or have a possessed Seraph rip her in half. I know a SG who would do it that way.

>>4083983
YUH FUCKIN DONKEY

I like the idea of her getting wasted as "collateral damage". Having her be targeted specifically might seem too contrived. If she is a casualty of war, that is a good way to hurt PCs who, otherwise, are often very optimised and twinked out for combat.
Of course, if this was a more traditional Cthulhu game, I would suggest her going mad and comitting suicide, or turning on the PCs, but I am not certain if Cthulhutech features madness as prominently.
If you really want to fuck with them, have her get cancer , or something equally mundane and lethal.

>>4083692
>Make it something that gives the players the inescapable feeling that they could have saved her
This. You basically don't want the players to know you planned her death ahead of time. Make it so that her death seems like an indirect consequence of their actions. This way they will be extremely pissed at themselves and in a predictable "psychology 101" way they'll transfer their frustration onto the BBEG. However, if they suspect you just killed her off in a scripted preplanned event they'll just be pissed at YOU.

Biting the bullet meant for a PC is another nice way to handle it - you can milk it for the drama and you can perpetuate the notion that you didn't plan to kill her off, but it was the only thing you could do to prevent the PC's character from dying. Alas, how noble a GM you are.


Also,
>>4083754
Holy mother of God, dying with blood gushing out of mutilated windpipe. I work in the ER and see all kinds of sick shit and even I would never have thought of this one. Bravo, Anon. Bravo.

>>4084032
It's so... Band of Brothers Esque.

Have them get into some deep shit with BBEG, and make the situation seem like they're FUBAR'd. Just then, have the NPC make a "Big Damn Heroes" entrance, and possibly start whaling on the BBEG. However, the NPC obviously knows she's not going to win, and is just doing this to buy the party some time to get out of there, despite the party's pleas. Just as they start to get out of there, however, she's killed by the BBEG, right in front of their eyes, or perhaps her screams can be heard in the distance as they are running. Bonus if she managed to scratch or cripple the BBEG in someway.

>>4084009
Something like this ?
>>4084029
Please, for the last time, I want them go RAAAAGE YOU BASTARD instead of BAAAAW. I might use that idea some other time, but not in this campaign.

>>4084110
>Please, for the last time, I want them go RAAAAGE YOU BASTARD instead of BAAAAW. I might use that idea some other time, but not in this campaign.

Why can't you have both?

OP.
Please explain her role amongst the party.

>>4084110
So what, you just want some suggestions on guro technique ? Death by tentacle rape, while they are helpless to intervene. Have them all get captured by Mi Go, and make them watch helplessly as her brain is removed and flown off to Yuggoth. Have a small Shoggoth use unbirthing to wear her like a suit and infiltrate their HQ.
Quick bleedouts:Jugular, femoral, carotid.Traumatic brain injuries cause convulsions vomiting and are very disturbing to watch. Hemorhagic fever is a pretty fast shitty and incurable way to die too.

Have her find a message tube or something for the party and have her bring it over to the party when it starts talking, calling out the PCs. It's a recorded message from the BBEG. And it explodes three quarters of the way through, while she's holding it.
It was meant to take out the heroes, and she gets the worst of it.

>>4084135
Mourning and sadness should come after vengeance is served.
>>4084178
If I wanted any of that I would just stay on Gurochan.

If your going to kill off this character do it in a fashon that motivates the PC's.

Here is something I did with a similar motherly type character.

At the start of the next day this character was disappeared. Now the party had recently been highered to track down something that has been attacking the villegers. They end up finding out it is a thrall summoned by a dark wizard. They track this thrall to its layer and when they get there the wozard is gone but they kill the thrall and some other monstrosities the wizard summoned. However when they entered the next room (expecting tressure) they instead find mutelated bodies and one of those bodies belongs to this NPC. The characters were shocked and many of them swore vengence and that was how I gave the party an arch villan with the death of this NPC.

What I think was effective about this was that it killed the NPC in a manner the players were not expecting. They wanted to see this character go down but instead finding this person in strung up and mutelated was a really good shocking death.

>>4084223
>Mourning and sadness should come after vengeance is served.

This is obvious. But nothing you've said so far has explained why it couldn't be just collateral damage.

Sageing for whiny cunt OP who won't take our awesome suggestions.

>>4084178
And if you're REALLY going for sadism, mass third degree burns are a sicker way to do it than both guro and cancer. First of all, burns will disfigure her horribly and are arguably the most painful of all injuries. There you have your horror moment right there, screaming in agony while lumps of charred flesh drop off and icky fluids start exuding through exposed burns.

But here's the real kicker: even if the PCs manage to save her (first aid, get her to a hospital real quick, whatever), this just means they'll get a few weeks before she INEVITABLY dies of complications in worst pains imaginable, disfigured and in pain but completely conscious and aware of what's going on.

You can have more fun: the players might get a chance to euthanize her, or she was a key eyewitness and they need info so they force her awake, or whatever. Then she can die suddenly overnight to get the "isolationism" effect some people suggested.

>>4084009
Maybe not the BBEG but someone affiliated with the BBEG. Spy maybe. Somebody trying to get close to the party to kill/hurt/sabbotage them or maybe just gathering information...

>>4084187
Wow. Harsh.
>>4084146
One time the party went into a danger zone to extract some important info from a fallen arcology. It was classified as a death zone, since for some time it was occupied by Migou attackers that wiped out any approaching rescue party and were replaced with some crazy cultists after leaving. They almost got themselves killed, but were saved by her - a girl in her early twenties that managed to survive the attack and hid away living on scavenged food. No military training etc, just really lucky. Had a trauma about letting her family die and because of the whole shit acted like she was far older. Anyway they took her back with them since she had some of the files in her fathers briefcase - she couldn't open it and yet just couldn't let go of it, and would almost snap when they asked her to give it to them.

Still, after a few month of therapy between adventures she was released. And since they grown a little attached to her (I encouraged them by awarding bonus exp for realistic interaction), they helped her set up a home in one of the calmer districts and stress-less job.

Now even though they're about 5 years older than her, they still visit her, ask her for advice, use her house as a safe store house, place to patch up etc - she's their voice of reason, and looking at their characters, sometimes the only real adult among them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ4bNTU965E&feature=related&fmt=18
Best revenge and best reason for revenge.

>>4084327
Okay maybe when they go to visit one day her house has been robbed and ransacked and she is gone with maybe a kiddnapping note explaining that the party have so much time to do such and such blah blah instructions or she dies in some horrible way.

Have her find out some important info about the BBEG, have her go into hiding. Have players track her down, have assassins track players. Have assassins attack when they meet, kill/trap npc in burning building etc.

She dies and the players lead her murderers to her.

Mind worm and mind control, have her just randomly disappearing and not remembering anything. Then have her just flip out shouting whatever random shit and they have to take her down. During the big bad guy speech makes sure you have him mimic and say the same strange things she did before she went homicidal then end with a "that was really fun to see the looks on your faces".

>>4084327
They visit her house once in a while.
One day, she gets a cup of coffee for each of them from the kitchen or some other task.
Half a minute later, a few people might hear a vehicle stop outside the apartment. By the time anyone goes out to check, the house is blown half to hell. If they try to find her, they find her corpse, mutilated and killed instantly.
If they combat and subdue the assailants, they simply burst out laughing and say that they were the ones who chose to put her in danger by hiding in her house.

>>4084270
>bawwwwwwwwwwww, no-one likes my ideas

>>4084355
fucking awesome.

>>4084390
Huh.

Make the BBEG the assassin and this could lead to some great rage and what-have-we-done-?!. Nice.

Throat-slitting. Easiest shit ever.
>>4083639

>>4084390
Do that OP
Thats awesome
Props to you /tg/

Ben Parker her

party is off on adventure meet soem jerk who stffs them and then th ejerk gets robbed so the parties all hah hah serves you right

get home to find a crime scene

The next time they come around, she smiles at them and lets them in as per usual.

As soon as she goes out of sight, she comes back with a weapon and attempts to gun them down.

If subdued, she laughs in their faces and tells them it's their fault - that the servants of the Mi-Go had stalked them to her house and converted her into a blank. It was all their fault.

She'd keep on trying to kill them for as long as she's alive. Any methods to convince her to stop fail. Her conditioning cannot be reversed. The most benevolent choice would be to kill her, there and then. They would be the ones who would have to blast the brains out of a woman who they befriended.

The rage won't come from who kills her, or the gory details of her death. Simply this:

Make them choose.

The players must know that they could have saved her. Not that they weren't fast enough, strong enough, or smart enough. Not that they weren't in the right place at the right time or any number of other factors that they can reason were beyond their control. They have to know that they could have saved her and decided not to.

>>4083639

Sauce of OP image.

Gransteam saga

game ends were you have to decide witch of your bitches to sacrifice to save the world

Make her death pointless. It shouldn't be because she knows too much, it should simply be because they used her place as their safehouse. If they had used another place, she would have lived. Just have her come back from the store or something, go "Hey guys, gonna make lasagna, you want-" and then bullets start pouring through the front of the building.

Could leave her alive and have her bleed out before they can get help.

make her go slowly insane over the adventure. So that they feel baffled whats happening to her but dont get the clue. Then she should try to talk with one of the characters but he doesnt have the time right now or something else. At the end let her commit suicide. Jumping from tall building one of the heroes try to catch her but fail anyway

>>4084527
gurochan

Okay OP, make this happen:
PCs get followed/spotted/whatever in the district where the NPC lives; this leads to cultists skulking about in that area, watching blahblahblah. So far this is unimportant --the PCs have only been seeing shadows, getting the feeling of being watched, never really catch any of the figures that turn corners and seemingly disappear when pursued. Eventually they catch one --now, this is the important part --and learn about this surveillance. At this point, the PCs should go back to the NPC's residence to "gear up" and take out some arm of the cult so that the surveillance --and therefore danger --in the area is diminished or removed completely. Make sure the NPC sees this and makes a point of telling the PCs "you had better come back from this..." or somesuch cliche drivel. Play these things up, you want this whole situation to feel like a distant rumbling that grows louder and louder and eventually comes to a sudden, violent crescendo. After they are successful and on their way back, it should feel like the removal of an intense burden --the whole area should feel safe and unwatched.

continued...
>>4084652
Now, when the PCs arrive at the NPC's house, have her watching from a window, and rush to the door when she sees them, overjoyed. At this point, you should try very hard to make things seem to move in slow-motion. The PCs suddenly spot a cultist in the bushes or under the stoop or something, wired to the teeth with explosives. Give the players that split second between noticing the danger and when the NPC comes out of the house to try desperately to neutralize the threat and keep her safe, but it's too late. She comes out of the house, and one of the PCs is almost close enough to have a shot --boom. The cultist detonates and she is rent into a bloody mass of mangled person and house, the closer PCs take some damage, but the whole blast isn't enough to harm anyone farther than, say, five yards, and your NPC is almost at the center of it.

There you go OP, just make sure your description of her being blown apart is gory enough to make them feel it, but seemingly spontaneous, so they don't get the idea to shove the sourcebooks down your throat.

You mentioned she was in hiding when they originally found her, right?

You could have as others suggested, her house be attacked since the players keep using it as a safehouse - however, when they arrive they find it shot up, traces of a fight or what not, but she isn't there.

Players could decide to investigate further, or figure she's been kidnapped. However, she hasn't been kidnapped, she's simply crawled her way into some obscure part of her house and hidden there whilst bleeding out - her instinct to go to ground when shit hits the fan leads her to die out of sight, possibly as the players are searching the house.

>>4084564
I see what you did thar

Make the players make a small and seemingly unimportant desicion. Then wait a while so that they forget about it then have it come and bite them in the ass later resulting in the death of the npc.

>>4084390
This. So much this.
>>4084503
Also this. Combine with the above.

Lead up to it, even. Throw it blatantly at them -- some nutjob cultist, in the throes of some sort of mindfuck possession (haven't read Cthulhutech yet so I don't know what sort, you figure it out), sees her with the heroes and screeches: "She's going to die! She's going to die, and YOU'RE going to kill her!" Party quite predictably responds with "Bullshit!" and wastes said cultist while he's in the middle of doing something they assume to be his attempt to make them kill her.

And then, you COMPLETELY DROP IT. Not a word of it. Not even so much as a whisper. Life goes on. Everything's peachy keen for a while, but maybe you let the players have a few more glimpses into this NPC's life, make her more "real" to them, but nothing ominous.

Then, >>4084390 happens. She finds something she shouldn't, and disappears, without explanation. Maybe they even think she was kidnapped, rather than disappearing for her own safety. She's just a regular person, so the PCs ought to be able to track her down. Along the way the PCs are occasionally harassed by Evil Minions, but they beat said minions soundly and continue; once again, nothing ominous, just the standard issue mooks one would expect to encounter while opposing the BBEG in question.

(Continued...)

>>4084726

The PCs finally find her in a seeming safehouse, all the lights out so no one would know she was there, clutching a gun or knife or something like it was the only thing standing between her and unthinkable doom, holding a briefcase full of whatever this dangerous information was. She says they shouldn't have come, that she was trying to protect them, but tearfully thanks them for caring so much, then falls silent. Moonlight through the window illuminates her face, and a thin red trickle escapes the corner of her mouth. Clouds part, light shines off the blade that pierced her torso from behind. Over her shoulder, the BBEG is visible briefly, only long enough to ominously whisper "Thank you for leading me here" or somesuch, and vanish with the briefcase. She collapses to the ground, with only enough time to say a heartfelt goodbye, or give some quiet, startlingly calm (due to shock) inspirational parting message.

She dies. She dies and they all killed her, and you even told them.

Cue MANLY FUCKING TEARS, and then EPIC REVENGE.

Give the players a choice of two missions (or things to take care of or whatever). Whichever one the players go for first turns out to be easier than expected. She takes care of the other mission, and runs into complications. Whatever happens doesn't kill her outright - it starts out small and doesn't stop her from succeeding. It's up to the players to realize that something is wrong, and to find a cure in time. If they don't, she dies of something that went wrong when she was doing their job. If a cure is found, she's still left with a crippling weakness, ripe for the BBEG to exploit.

>>4084730
>>4084726
Fucking perfect... DO IT!

have her disappear, giving the players a reason to go look for her. They find evidence that leads them to the BBEG and when they get there he already killed her and disposed of the body (fed her to his pet that they fight or something).

If only you people put as much time and effort into normal life. Maybe you wouldn't be wasting your time with games.

This is why you never get attached to NPCS. Ever. You treat them like the throw away trash they are and move on.

It is best for both sides this way. You might hurt their pretend non existent NPC feelings, but they don't have to pretend die either. You never have to see them die.

>>4084726
>>4084730
Huh, I can roll with that.

>I want it to be gory and cruel,
>I don't want to [...] make players go "wow, dead npc, didn't see that coming - masking lack of creativity with cheap cruelty ?".

Chose one.

>The only one that my players will be pissed of at will be me for killing her in a generic way off screen.

They're gonna be pissed at you no matter how you kill her. Becaus if they actually like the NPC then its not how she dies that will insight their ire but that she dies.

>>4084783

Yes. Because everyone knows that the modern definition of "mature adult" is synonymous with "death of the creative mind."

You think that this is a bad thing? Honestly? That applying oneself creatively to a leisurely pastime is somehow demeaning or lessens one's value as a member of society?

You are naive my friend. Profoundly naive.

>>4084952
Aw. Now I have to give >>4084783 points for effort.
1/10 for semi-successful troll. Don't spend it all in one place.

>>4084952

you are articulate, but apparently quite easy to troll

>>4084829
Let me tell you something, kid. Pray you never become a PC. Yes, it sounds glamorous. You hear all these fun stories about PCs saving the world. As an NPC all you'll ever do is tool around here as if your life has been preprogrammed, but it is better that way.

The moment you become a PC you become a wanted man. By who?

Everyone, kid. Everyone.

Wanted men have to live their life a certain way. Being wanted, of course, means people will come lookin' for ya. People that aren't necessarily nice. People that don't necessarily care how they find you either. As a wanted man you'll have no friends or family. You only speak when necessary. Casual conversation becomes a thing of the past. It is for their own good.. and your sanity.. that you have as little to do with those still NPCS as possible.

They won't hesitate to use anyone you know.. anyone you've ever known.. or anyone you just said "isn't the weather nice today" to. They'll torture them.. kill them.. just to find you.

Remember, if you ever become a PC, you have no friends anymore. You have no family. That is all in the past. Just hope you aren't a PC for long. Just hope the adventure is a one shot..

>>4084694
Mind sharing that, because I'm not entirely sure what I did thar? o_o

>>4084730
>>4084735
THIS.

DO THIS.

>>4084726
>>4084730

This is good.

>>4084683

This is also an interesting possibility.

bump

Drowning.

>>4083911
Second that. It looks like a visual novel, but all I really want to know is the context of what the hell is going on there.

>>4083911
>>4085691
Anyone know the sauce on OPs image? I'm curious, too.

Could someone archive this?

make the party kill her themselves

maybe she disguises her self as a cultist to escape and the party sees her and decideds to get the drop on an enemy

>>4084829
>>4085064
...wat ?

Do it the way I did.
NPC helper they all grew to adore.
While they were fighting, she runs out to warn them of impending doom.
One of the players blew up the bad guy. Explosion throws everyone.
Including her, Impaling her on ReBar.
They paniced and trying to save her, cast a healing spell before removing the rebar.

Then the grim realization hit them. They tried to pull her off the rebar and heal her, but when they pulled her off, she failed the shock roll and died.

All their fault.
Everyone just got quiet. And then we just sort of waited a month to continue. They set up a beautiful memorial and everything.

Right, thanks.

Now I just need some to re-read it all through, so bump.