Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7397331" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>Can you give an example of "the fate of an epic fight is decided by a single bad dice roll?" I suppose there's the possibility of a single villain being undone by a polymorph spell or the like, but that seems to me to be an issue with the challenge's design. But typically, even if the challenge goes awry for one side or the other in a way that was unexpected, there will have been a number of meaningful decisions and other die rolls preceding it.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think capture is just fine - if it's telegraphed at the outset of the challenge as the failure condition. "Knock out these fools and take them to the salt mines!" says the villain at the start of hostilities. Now the players know what to expect if they get dropped to 0 hp. If it's done after the fact, it seems cheap and tacked on, like trying to rob the players of the impact of the decisions they made. Better to get that out up front in my view.</p><p></p><p>For my part, I don't care if the dice go bad. I also don't think the "encounter builder" fails anyone since it's important to realize that the second a player (or DM) makes a decision during the challenge, the difficulty starts going up or down. So if anyone thinks a "Medium" encounter is necessarily going to remain so throughout and not get made "Easy" or even "Deadly" by the decisions of the players and/or the dice, he or she doesn't understand how a challenge works.</p><p></p><p>If the party dies, then the party dies, I say. Time to get those backup characters out and play on. It's not for me to decide when is a good time and when is a bad time for the party. If the players know it's a possibility their characters may die, there are many ways they can prepare for that and, if they care about keeping certain PCs alive, they should govern themselves accordingly in my view.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7397331, member: 97077"] Can you give an example of "the fate of an epic fight is decided by a single bad dice roll?" I suppose there's the possibility of a single villain being undone by a polymorph spell or the like, but that seems to me to be an issue with the challenge's design. But typically, even if the challenge goes awry for one side or the other in a way that was unexpected, there will have been a number of meaningful decisions and other die rolls preceding it. I think capture is just fine - if it's telegraphed at the outset of the challenge as the failure condition. "Knock out these fools and take them to the salt mines!" says the villain at the start of hostilities. Now the players know what to expect if they get dropped to 0 hp. If it's done after the fact, it seems cheap and tacked on, like trying to rob the players of the impact of the decisions they made. Better to get that out up front in my view. For my part, I don't care if the dice go bad. I also don't think the "encounter builder" fails anyone since it's important to realize that the second a player (or DM) makes a decision during the challenge, the difficulty starts going up or down. So if anyone thinks a "Medium" encounter is necessarily going to remain so throughout and not get made "Easy" or even "Deadly" by the decisions of the players and/or the dice, he or she doesn't understand how a challenge works. If the party dies, then the party dies, I say. Time to get those backup characters out and play on. It's not for me to decide when is a good time and when is a bad time for the party. If the players know it's a possibility their characters may die, there are many ways they can prepare for that and, if they care about keeping certain PCs alive, they should govern themselves accordingly in my view. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
Top