The BlackRose Manor

Borrowing from my profile a bit....

"...I believe the key to any good story starts with cooperation, collaboration, and communication. If you (speaking generally) want your character to look good, then you have to make the other characters in play look good..."

Lets pause there a moment. 'If you want your character to look good, then you have to make the other characters look good." What does that mean? It's real simple, if you want your character to be awesome, then you have to make sure those you play with look just as awesome. This doesn't require long flowery posts, or exotic fonts, it's just keeping up communication with your fellow players. Making sure you're both on the same page about what's taking place and meeting each other half-way in regards to what you each one from the scene.

Does this always work out? Unfortunately not.

Here's an example:
Player A: "I put in a lot of time developing this character, not ready for them to die."

Player B: "Well my character doesn't show mercy, if he makes one exception where will it stop?"

Player A: "Well it was a pretty long fight, maybe my guy earned some grudging respect?"

Player B: "I don't think that would be true to who my character is, I'm sorry."

Stop!

In any difficult scene there has to be cooperation between the players, you both have to be willing to bend. There are hundreds of ways to resolve the above scenario, but Player B didn't want to compromise his character's status. That makes sure his character looks good, but Player A is left in the creek without a paddle. How many alternatives could you have offered? Player B has his character break the beaten character's legs and makes the fallen warrior a servant? Player A has his character plead for mercy and the victor realizes he could use another skilled fighter over a body to dispose of? These are just two, ther eare dozens!

All players involved have to be willing to bend and compromise to make sure everyone gets what they want. Cooperate with your fellow players, collaborate on what you all want out of a scene, and communcate to find the best resolution.