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Do You Think Encounters Should be Difficult?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6954369" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I have been DMing my current campaign for over 6 years. In that time the PC's have managed to hit 9th level. However, for the 6 current PC's, there are 10 dead PCs, and only 1 extant PC has survived since the beginning of the game at 1st level. All 10 deaths have occurred since 5th level. Several players are notably less effective at keeping PCs alive than other, with 7 of the 10 deaths divided among 3 players.</p><p></p><p>Of those 10 dead PC's:</p><p>1 PC died to pure bad luck (failed saving throw) during a fight with the Boss of a major multi-year story arc</p><p>1 PC died to cumulative general recklessness (spending more hit points than he needed to in encounters, until it finally caught up with him)</p><p>8 PC's died to splitting the party</p><p></p><p>In general, I think encounters should be tough but fair, with the possibility of those tough but fair encounters becoming grossly unfair if the players take actions that stack the odds against the players. I tend to have encounters of widely varying difficulty, from encounters that represent little threat, to encounters that should be bypassed lest the party end up in way over their heads. I expect players to learn to recognize the signs of enormous challenge and only pursue that challenge when they have a real and pressing need.</p><p></p><p>I don't like to kill PC's. I think dead PC's are bad for the game and usually a drag on the story, as they represent the death of in game knowledge (the new character hasn't in game experienced the story), a resulting loss of continuity, the death of story threads, and the failure to get a return on the investment in characterization. I also think it's not particularly fun for the players. I do not try to kill PC's, and I generally avoid flat 'save or die' stuff. But, I agree that there has to be some stakes up before achieving anything is fun. The only thing worse than killing PC's, is a game where the player's know that the PC's have perfect plot armor.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6954369, member: 4937"] I have been DMing my current campaign for over 6 years. In that time the PC's have managed to hit 9th level. However, for the 6 current PC's, there are 10 dead PCs, and only 1 extant PC has survived since the beginning of the game at 1st level. All 10 deaths have occurred since 5th level. Several players are notably less effective at keeping PCs alive than other, with 7 of the 10 deaths divided among 3 players. Of those 10 dead PC's: 1 PC died to pure bad luck (failed saving throw) during a fight with the Boss of a major multi-year story arc 1 PC died to cumulative general recklessness (spending more hit points than he needed to in encounters, until it finally caught up with him) 8 PC's died to splitting the party In general, I think encounters should be tough but fair, with the possibility of those tough but fair encounters becoming grossly unfair if the players take actions that stack the odds against the players. I tend to have encounters of widely varying difficulty, from encounters that represent little threat, to encounters that should be bypassed lest the party end up in way over their heads. I expect players to learn to recognize the signs of enormous challenge and only pursue that challenge when they have a real and pressing need. I don't like to kill PC's. I think dead PC's are bad for the game and usually a drag on the story, as they represent the death of in game knowledge (the new character hasn't in game experienced the story), a resulting loss of continuity, the death of story threads, and the failure to get a return on the investment in characterization. I also think it's not particularly fun for the players. I do not try to kill PC's, and I generally avoid flat 'save or die' stuff. But, I agree that there has to be some stakes up before achieving anything is fun. The only thing worse than killing PC's, is a game where the player's know that the PC's have perfect plot armor. [/QUOTE]
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