Eytan Bernstein
Explorer
I think it's presumptuous for DMs to ever put a character in a situation where they must die, unless that's something that clearly would be ok with the player. I definitely disagree with the notion that if a player disagrees with you, screw them. The only thing a DM does not have control over is how PCs envision their characters. With some of my characters, death would not be a big deal. I'd like to die with certain heroic characters if it fits the game. If it's in a shared world, I almost always have a later plot involved.
A lot of DMs think that when their games, a character ends. That's not necessarily true. I like keeping a store of old characters in my mind, especially for fiction. I don't like resurrecting them if they die, so once they're gone, that's it for them. If a DM is going to do this, I think s/he must make sure that it is ok for the players. If it's fine, go for it - it could be a very cool ending. If it's not fine, well that's certainly the last time I'd be associating with said DM. I had this sort of thing sprung on me a couple times, once where I agreed to do it (though the DM bungled it) and the other where the DM just let a PC kill me in my sleep with no chance of survival (I later mentioned that said PC "convinced" me - in a rather devious way that I think his PC was incapable of - that he had everything under control and I could go regain my spells, when said PC had a 5 Charisma and couldn't convince anyone of anything). If you're gonna sacrifice Charisma (this is a special points based system we used where -5 charisma gives you +5 elsewhere), you have to pay for it. That game had all sorts of other problems, but it wouldn't have been a heroic end for a 9th level wizard to be murdered in his sleep by a party member. My experience has been that such events are often railroading and unless done extremely well, they will always seem cooler to the DM than the player. But perhaps, my RPG experiences are not overall, as positive as those of other people (I often suspect this). If the game really was as involving in roleplaying as I'd like (but never seem to find), I might go for this.
A lot of DMs think that when their games, a character ends. That's not necessarily true. I like keeping a store of old characters in my mind, especially for fiction. I don't like resurrecting them if they die, so once they're gone, that's it for them. If a DM is going to do this, I think s/he must make sure that it is ok for the players. If it's fine, go for it - it could be a very cool ending. If it's not fine, well that's certainly the last time I'd be associating with said DM. I had this sort of thing sprung on me a couple times, once where I agreed to do it (though the DM bungled it) and the other where the DM just let a PC kill me in my sleep with no chance of survival (I later mentioned that said PC "convinced" me - in a rather devious way that I think his PC was incapable of - that he had everything under control and I could go regain my spells, when said PC had a 5 Charisma and couldn't convince anyone of anything). If you're gonna sacrifice Charisma (this is a special points based system we used where -5 charisma gives you +5 elsewhere), you have to pay for it. That game had all sorts of other problems, but it wouldn't have been a heroic end for a 9th level wizard to be murdered in his sleep by a party member. My experience has been that such events are often railroading and unless done extremely well, they will always seem cooler to the DM than the player. But perhaps, my RPG experiences are not overall, as positive as those of other people (I often suspect this). If the game really was as involving in roleplaying as I'd like (but never seem to find), I might go for this.
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