Your money or your life?

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

The player might consider the life of their character more important if character death had greater meaning. In older editions of the game, death often meant starting a new level 1 character if the party couldn't afford a raise dead and even raise dead wasn't guaranteed to work.

3rd Edition really changed this paradigm with common XP advancement for all classes and the challenge system. It became a social taboo at the gaming table to have characters at different levels. Try asking a player to roll up a level 1 character to group with level 7 characters.

The next time your players callously allow their characters to be slaughtered, ask them to roll up level 1 characters. I'm betting the next time such a situation occurs, the characters will gladly drop their magic swords.

 

[DandD]

The next time your players callously allow their characters to be slaughtered, ask them to roll up level 1 characters. I'm betting the next time such a situation occurs, the characters will gladly drop their magic swords.

Or stop plying D&D with him.

 

[Dragonblade]

The player might consider the life of their character more important if character death had greater meaning. In older editions of the game, death often meant starting a new level 1 character if the party couldn't afford a raise dead and even raise dead wasn't guaranteed to work.

3rd Edition really changed this paradigm with common XP advancement for all classes and the challenge system. It became a social taboo at the gaming table to have characters at different levels. Try asking a player to roll up a level 1 character to group with level 7 characters.

The next time your players callously allow their characters to be slaughtered, ask them to roll up level 1 characters. I'm betting the next time such a situation occurs, the characters will gladly drop their magic swords.

More likely, the players will just drop the game. Everytime I have seen a DM take this sort of heavy handed approach the players just walk. I wouldn't play in a campaign if PC death meant I started over at level 1.

 

[ExploderWizard]

More likely, the players will just drop the game. Everytime I have seen a DM take this sort of heavy handed approach the players just walk. I wouldn't play in a campaign if PC death meant I started over at level 1.

Depending on the player, I would rather see someone walk than keep treating anything bad that happens to thier character as an opportunity to put another quarter in the slot. Heroes have thier ups and downs. If a player can't accept the occasional setback then they are just proving that thier character wasn't much of a hero anyway. Heroes grit thier teeth and ride out the tough spots. In literature and action movies the heroes have times where the bad guy has the upper hand. Do they give up and just die like crybabies? Not usually unless they are in a place where a sacrifice will do some good.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

More likely, the players will just drop the game. Everytime I have seen a DM take this sort of heavy handed approach the players just walk. I wouldn't play in a campaign if PC death meant I started over at level 1.

If you knew before you started that this was the rule would you play? For example, DM wants to run a by the numbers 1st AD&D game where death, if you couldn't get a raise dead, meant you re-rolled at level 1. You would just stand up and walk out?

I guess this style of game play is just old fashioned.

 

[Akaiku]

Does "True rez required" mean removed from the game in your world? Can they NOT get true rezzed?

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Does "True rez required" mean removed from the game in your world? Can they NOT get true rezzed?

True Ressurection has a 25,000gp material component.

Ken

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

If you knew before you started that this was the rule would you play? For example, DM wants to run a by the numbers 1st AD&D game where death, if you couldn't get a raise dead, meant you re-rolled at level 1. You would just stand up and walk out?

I guess this style of game play is just old fashioned.

I have been playing D&D since 1977; and even in the 70s the whole 'start at first level when you die' thing was very controversial.

It has a bunch of problems.

First of all, what do you do when a new player wants to join the group? Do you make a new player play a first level character, when all the other players are 8th level? I actually tried joining a game like this, as a player, back in the 70s. And let me tell you, it sucked, and I quit.

And it's much worse now than it was in 1st Edition, because it no longer takes near-exponentially increasing amounts of XP to level. Back in 1E if you were willing to hang in the back of the party with your first level character, accept whatever treasure share the others thought you 'earned', and suck up XP while hoping a fireball didn't come your way, you might have hope of catching up. In 3E, that will just never happen.

Ken

 

[Akaiku]

Yes, however, is that outside of the reach for the party, (the 50k). Game over penalties are different from setbacks unless the players make switching characters a setback. Which is usually a bad thing from a roleplaying standpoint.

 

[Scribble]

I think partially it's just human nature.

In real life, if someone threatens our lives, or our loved ones to get out stuff, the most logical course of action is usually to give up our stuff. It's just not worth the consequences of failing to defeat the person. I can't just head over to the temple and get my wife raised from the dead, and I can't just start over with a new character. So we suffer the feelings of helplessness as we hand over our stuff.

But D&D, escapist game that it is, is a chance to not have to feel that sense of helplessness. We have HPs and powers, and in the end even if we loose, we still have fun doing it. It's just part of the game.