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If not death, then what?
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8712726" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Then I, as DM, have failed, and the game should end.</p><p></p><p>If the players care nothing for the world we have built together, for the things and places and people they have come to know, then I have simply, totally failed them in my job as Dungeon Master. I have wasted every hour of preparation and every moment of improvisation on a dull, pointless, empty façade that is no more worthy to occupy my players' attention than the latest celebrity gossip. If my players truly neither love nor hate <em>anything</em> in that fictional space despite my efforts to connect with them and empower them to shape that world, then the game was already dead long before any concern of TPK factored in.</p><p></p><p>I would rather they tell me to my face that they so dislike playing my game, instead of trying to mask this hollow, empty play experience with such a desperate attempt to finally inject some worth or meaning into it. It would of course upset me greatly to know that I had wasted my players' time and effort so badly, and had inflicted upon them a surely tedious, overwrought, tiresome, long-winded <em>nothing</em>. But I would rather learn that so I could <em>stop doing so</em>.</p><p></p><p>Thankfully, I am fairly certain my players do not feel this way, or they are extremely good at deceiving me over it. I could hear the humble joy in the Druid's voice when Shen, the gold dragon, told him, "My friend, I could not be more proud of you." I could hear the seething <em>hate</em> in the Battlemaster's voice when he swore an oath to himself to defeat Jafar after the party learned of his meddling with a Jinnistani court they were working with. I could hear the <em>delight</em> in the Bard's voice when he got the chance to cooperate with the author of his <em>Bestiary of Creatures Unusual</em> to extend it for a second edition printing, with his own notes and illustrations added as official parts of the work. I could hear the awe in the Ranger's voice when he realized that his inheritance of his grandmother's Clan Chief title was a pittance compared to the true legacy that awaited him, if he had the ambition and wherewithal to but seize it.</p><p></p><p>My players keep coming back because they love the world we're building together. They are as driven by wanting to make that world better as they are by wanting to prevent it from getting worse, perhaps even more. And all I need do to make them feel loss is to hurt the people or places or things they care about.</p><p></p><p>To lose a character would suck, yes. To disappoint Shen? Oh, that would be so much worse. And if they did so so badly that he truly turned against them? It would break some of their characters, I think. The players would be upset, but the characters would lose their will to go on.</p><p></p><p>And that is what is worse than death. Living, when you believe that you no longer merit it. Because, as I said, referencing CS Lewis, there are some things which have no survival value, which are wholly unnecessary to live, but which <em>give value to survival</em>.</p><p></p><p>Because survival is worthless if it has nothing to <em>give</em> it worth. Merely <em>being alive</em> is not enough. We must find things (ideas, places, people, animals, even objects) which give survival its value. Otherwise, it's rather a lot of work, all this survival business.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8712726, member: 6790260"] Then I, as DM, have failed, and the game should end. If the players care nothing for the world we have built together, for the things and places and people they have come to know, then I have simply, totally failed them in my job as Dungeon Master. I have wasted every hour of preparation and every moment of improvisation on a dull, pointless, empty façade that is no more worthy to occupy my players' attention than the latest celebrity gossip. If my players truly neither love nor hate [I]anything[/I] in that fictional space despite my efforts to connect with them and empower them to shape that world, then the game was already dead long before any concern of TPK factored in. I would rather they tell me to my face that they so dislike playing my game, instead of trying to mask this hollow, empty play experience with such a desperate attempt to finally inject some worth or meaning into it. It would of course upset me greatly to know that I had wasted my players' time and effort so badly, and had inflicted upon them a surely tedious, overwrought, tiresome, long-winded [I]nothing[/I]. But I would rather learn that so I could [I]stop doing so[/I]. Thankfully, I am fairly certain my players do not feel this way, or they are extremely good at deceiving me over it. I could hear the humble joy in the Druid's voice when Shen, the gold dragon, told him, "My friend, I could not be more proud of you." I could hear the seething [I]hate[/I] in the Battlemaster's voice when he swore an oath to himself to defeat Jafar after the party learned of his meddling with a Jinnistani court they were working with. I could hear the [I]delight[/I] in the Bard's voice when he got the chance to cooperate with the author of his [I]Bestiary of Creatures Unusual[/I] to extend it for a second edition printing, with his own notes and illustrations added as official parts of the work. I could hear the awe in the Ranger's voice when he realized that his inheritance of his grandmother's Clan Chief title was a pittance compared to the true legacy that awaited him, if he had the ambition and wherewithal to but seize it. My players keep coming back because they love the world we're building together. They are as driven by wanting to make that world better as they are by wanting to prevent it from getting worse, perhaps even more. And all I need do to make them feel loss is to hurt the people or places or things they care about. To lose a character would suck, yes. To disappoint Shen? Oh, that would be so much worse. And if they did so so badly that he truly turned against them? It would break some of their characters, I think. The players would be upset, but the characters would lose their will to go on. And that is what is worse than death. Living, when you believe that you no longer merit it. Because, as I said, referencing CS Lewis, there are some things which have no survival value, which are wholly unnecessary to live, but which [I]give value to survival[/I]. Because survival is worthless if it has nothing to [I]give[/I] it worth. Merely [I]being alive[/I] is not enough. We must find things (ideas, places, people, animals, even objects) which give survival its value. Otherwise, it's rather a lot of work, all this survival business. [/QUOTE]
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