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DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7397352" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>And good advice to DMs should start with "know your players."</p><p></p><p>One group of players I DM for who are veteran roleplayers. They like tactics and are also fine from a roleplaying standpoint with character death. </p><p></p><p>I also DM games for my kids. My youngest isn't even comfortable with too much description of violence and would take character death very badly. My older son is "fine" but would not enjoy it and it would decrease his interest in playing if his characters died. </p><p></p><p>So, first, you should know:</p><p></p><p>1. What is the likely impact of character death on the players' enjoyment of the game? Some won't want to play without their favorite character. Their enjoyment may largely come from seeing the development of their character from level 1 to 20. Some may hate any death. Some maybe okay with death as long as it isn't permanent (e.g., if you are used to video games, also this is basically how Adventurers League is run). Others WANT death to mean something. It is want creates excitement for them. </p><p></p><p>2. Does your story arc depend on specific characters? </p><p></p><p>3. How easy is it to work new characters into the session so a player can continue to play without too much delay? Do you have NPCs that the player can take over until they roll up a new character?</p><p></p><p>4. How accessible is resurrection magic in your world? </p><p></p><p>If, based on the answers to the questions above, you feel that you need to avoid death, I've used some of the following:</p><p></p><p><strong>1. Knock out/capture the PCs</strong></p><p></p><p>No Thank You, Evil!, a Cypher System RPG for kids uses the "konked out" rule. Nobody dies, they are just konked out. DnD 5e allows a players to decide that when their characters bring a foe to 0 HP they can knocked out the foe instead of killing it. Same should be true for the NPCs/monsters. </p><p></p><p>Often the NPCs will want to interrogate the players. If this is a boss fight, this is the scene where the hero is defeated and the big boss gloats only for the hero to find an escape and save the day after all. E.g.: nearly every episode of the old Adam West bat man TV show and nearly every James Bond movie). </p><p></p><p>Or, just say that the foe leaves the unconscious characters for dead. Assume they made their saving throws but are unconscious. They wake up much later.</p><p></p><p><strong>2. Give the party an opportunity to run away. </strong></p><p></p><p>If you don't want the party to die no matter what, then don't make it a fight to the death. Make sure there are other options, including escape. </p><p></p><p><strong>3. Have the big bad run away</strong></p><p></p><p>Even if the big bad is winning, if it has taken a lot of damage, it may still run away to avoid risking death, even where it seems to have the upper hand. </p><p></p><p><strong>4. Saved by allies at the last minute.</strong> </p><p></p><p>Just when all seems lost, the Knights of the Vale ride in and save the King of the North. You can think of plenty of scenese from TV series and movies where this happens. Use it in your game. </p><p></p><p><strong>5. Make the goal something other than the death of the big bad. </strong></p><p></p><p>For example, I've had encounters where the big bad was a deadly encounter or even a near impossible fight at their level. But their goal was to distract long enough to get a MacGuffin, or just disrupt or destroy some evil artifact--something other than just killing the big bad. E.g., given them a magic item that will teleport tham back to the a teleportation circle. They are tasked with infiltrating the lair and grabing the macguffin and teleporting out. If you want to further death proof the encounter, state that the magic item automatically triggers when some takes a certain amount of damage. The rogue is trying to get to the macguffin while his party members who are covering him and creating a distraction are one by one being teleported away as they take massive hits from the big band. This could be as exciting as a full out fight. </p><p></p><p><strong>6. Fudge stats, not die rolls.</strong></p><p></p><p>I like to roll in front of the players. Also, while the die rolls are not sacred, I like for the dice to land where they may. Sometimes, however, if I realize that I wildly misjudged the difficulty of an encounter--either making it too easy or too hard--I may fudge the stat block or make other on-the-fly changes to the encounters. If you find that the battle is going to be too deadly for the characters consider:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Decreasing the foes' hit points </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Decreasing the foes' AC</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Decreasing the number of minions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Making the minions like 4e minions. If the players hit, the minion dies. Less to manage and fewer opportunities for minions to hit</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 7397352, member: 6796661"] And good advice to DMs should start with "know your players." One group of players I DM for who are veteran roleplayers. They like tactics and are also fine from a roleplaying standpoint with character death. I also DM games for my kids. My youngest isn't even comfortable with too much description of violence and would take character death very badly. My older son is "fine" but would not enjoy it and it would decrease his interest in playing if his characters died. So, first, you should know: 1. What is the likely impact of character death on the players' enjoyment of the game? Some won't want to play without their favorite character. Their enjoyment may largely come from seeing the development of their character from level 1 to 20. Some may hate any death. Some maybe okay with death as long as it isn't permanent (e.g., if you are used to video games, also this is basically how Adventurers League is run). Others WANT death to mean something. It is want creates excitement for them. 2. Does your story arc depend on specific characters? 3. How easy is it to work new characters into the session so a player can continue to play without too much delay? Do you have NPCs that the player can take over until they roll up a new character? 4. How accessible is resurrection magic in your world? If, based on the answers to the questions above, you feel that you need to avoid death, I've used some of the following: [B]1. Knock out/capture the PCs[/B] No Thank You, Evil!, a Cypher System RPG for kids uses the "konked out" rule. Nobody dies, they are just konked out. DnD 5e allows a players to decide that when their characters bring a foe to 0 HP they can knocked out the foe instead of killing it. Same should be true for the NPCs/monsters. Often the NPCs will want to interrogate the players. If this is a boss fight, this is the scene where the hero is defeated and the big boss gloats only for the hero to find an escape and save the day after all. E.g.: nearly every episode of the old Adam West bat man TV show and nearly every James Bond movie). Or, just say that the foe leaves the unconscious characters for dead. Assume they made their saving throws but are unconscious. They wake up much later. [B]2. Give the party an opportunity to run away. [/B] If you don't want the party to die no matter what, then don't make it a fight to the death. Make sure there are other options, including escape. [B]3. Have the big bad run away[/B] Even if the big bad is winning, if it has taken a lot of damage, it may still run away to avoid risking death, even where it seems to have the upper hand. [B]4. Saved by allies at the last minute.[/B] Just when all seems lost, the Knights of the Vale ride in and save the King of the North. You can think of plenty of scenese from TV series and movies where this happens. Use it in your game. [B]5. Make the goal something other than the death of the big bad. [/B] For example, I've had encounters where the big bad was a deadly encounter or even a near impossible fight at their level. But their goal was to distract long enough to get a MacGuffin, or just disrupt or destroy some evil artifact--something other than just killing the big bad. E.g., given them a magic item that will teleport tham back to the a teleportation circle. They are tasked with infiltrating the lair and grabing the macguffin and teleporting out. If you want to further death proof the encounter, state that the magic item automatically triggers when some takes a certain amount of damage. The rogue is trying to get to the macguffin while his party members who are covering him and creating a distraction are one by one being teleported away as they take massive hits from the big band. This could be as exciting as a full out fight. [B]6. Fudge stats, not die rolls.[/B] I like to roll in front of the players. Also, while the die rolls are not sacred, I like for the dice to land where they may. Sometimes, however, if I realize that I wildly misjudged the difficulty of an encounter--either making it too easy or too hard--I may fudge the stat block or make other on-the-fly changes to the encounters. If you find that the battle is going to be too deadly for the characters consider: [LIST] [*]Decreasing the foes' hit points [*]Decreasing the foes' AC [*]Decreasing the number of minions [*]Making the minions like 4e minions. If the players hit, the minion dies. Less to manage and fewer opportunities for minions to hit [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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