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Death and Storytelling
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7449369" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>In my campaigns I have only once had a player death occur, but it is never unexpected, or unfair.</p><p></p><p>Most of my campaigns start with all of the PC's at level 1. During the early levels, all encounters are fairly balanced, so that deaths are just not going to happen. But with each milestone, I increase the difficulty. Once the players surpass level 10, they can expect to face encounters that have the odds stacked against them, and will require them to be careful and tactical. Those encounters are designed to cause severe harm to their characters.</p><p></p><p>When they pass level 15, encounters will be scaled up even further. But it's the boss battles they should really dread. Boss battles are the encounters that I deliberately design so that they 'might' kill a PC. I make sure to include a large number of 'heavy hitters', and opponents that attack their weaknesses. I also include multiple objectives, so the party has to split their attention. If a PC were to die during a boss battle, I would not be surprised in the slightest, but it's also what makes those fights significant when they survive.</p><p></p><p>If a PC should happen to die, so be it. The players know what they're in for, and that a boss fight is always going to be tough. I'm not going to fudge any dice to save them. They're already nearing epic level at this point, so a death would not be unreasonable.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7449369, member: 6801286"] In my campaigns I have only once had a player death occur, but it is never unexpected, or unfair. Most of my campaigns start with all of the PC's at level 1. During the early levels, all encounters are fairly balanced, so that deaths are just not going to happen. But with each milestone, I increase the difficulty. Once the players surpass level 10, they can expect to face encounters that have the odds stacked against them, and will require them to be careful and tactical. Those encounters are designed to cause severe harm to their characters. When they pass level 15, encounters will be scaled up even further. But it's the boss battles they should really dread. Boss battles are the encounters that I deliberately design so that they 'might' kill a PC. I make sure to include a large number of 'heavy hitters', and opponents that attack their weaknesses. I also include multiple objectives, so the party has to split their attention. If a PC were to die during a boss battle, I would not be surprised in the slightest, but it's also what makes those fights significant when they survive. If a PC should happen to die, so be it. The players know what they're in for, and that a boss fight is always going to be tough. I'm not going to fudge any dice to save them. They're already nearing epic level at this point, so a death would not be unreasonable. [/QUOTE]
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