What do you do when a PC dies because of a bad dice roll?

[Shieldhaven]

I don't know if other DMs are kidding about mocking players whose characters get killed. I hope so. I mean, as DM, I have an infinite statblock, based solely on how awful of an encounter I'm willing to dump on them. I feel less sympathy if they were obviously overmatched and ought to have run away. But a round of bad luck - i.e., you went total defense to boost your AC to 27 because you've just got too many people on you, but you still get killed by the direwolf because no one in the party can bail you out - that's not a cause for mockery. Sorry, kiddo, have fun waiting for the rez. This is actually why I enjoy the game more at 9th level and above - the PCs can cast their own Raise Dead spells, so I don't have to derail the evening's plot nearly as much to get them back in the action.

Haven

 

[dagger]

All dice rolls stand as rolled. Also in our games, all rolls are in the open, even the DM, so no fudging......besides the DM can fudge in other ways.

 

[National Acrobat]

Everyone at my table just deals with it. All dice rolls for everything are done out in the open by everyone, and we understand that rolling the dice is part of the game. I deal with it when the party has an easier time dealing with a challenge when the dice fall their way, and they accept it when the dice are against them. It's part of the game.

 

[apesamongus]

At the moment, they die, but I am considering a fate/hero points system that allows a character to be stabilised at -9 HP at the expense of a point like the Conan RPG.

That's what I'm currently doing. Except instead of points, it's an XP penalty. The xp penalty thing is just an experiment, though.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I let the dice fall. If I really think a PC death will screw up the story aspect of the game at that particular time, I may have the enemy make different tactical decisions (No, the enemy does not have Power Word Kill memorized...he used it earlier in the day when one of his minions spilled soup on him). I might fudge a roll behind the screen occasionally - usually a possible critical strike that fails to be a critical, or a maximum damage roll gets dropped a little - but that is not removing the risk, it is just mitigating it. The PC might get hit again on the next round and that time it might be enough to kill him - oh well, he had one more chance to retreat or get assistance or whatever and chose not to. But I let player rolls stand, I don't make the rolls for them, and I won't pull some kind of divine intervention crap unless somehow it REALLY fits into the story, that just takes away too much from the game.

 

[deltadave]

It's almost never just one bad die roll. Usually there is a sense of impending doom due to a run of bad rolls. If a character is about to be struck out of the blue by a lethal strike, I'll always do some kind of foreshadowing...

 

[Spade4u]

Its the PC's luck that determines the die roll. my PC's just won't be quiet(xecpt for a couple) about their crappy die rolls and not letting them roll on the computer. the computer is an easy way to get high die rolls.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Save or die spells and abilities annoy me, so while GMing I never use them or allow them into my games.

You can have so much more fun with save or be stunned/paralysed for later interrogation...

 

[Zander]

...without the possibility of death I think the game becomes a lot less fun..

I agree.

...{but} I'm not going to fudge dice to prevent it.

I disagree.

The idea of the game is to have fun. If my players think their PCs are immortal, then their fun is reduced. If their PCs drop like flies, that's no fun though. So how do I reconcile these two? Easy: I make the players think their PCs can die but in fact I'll normally fudge die rolls so that they don't. For this reason, I always roll dice behind the screen. Or to put it differently, I don't let the dice determine the tension in the game, I control it myself.

To do this, you have to be able to convince players that killer die rolls are misses. Yes, the DM has to bluff the players sometimes!

 

[nopantsyet]

Rolled is rolled. It has to stick. I allow Action Points, so the players have plenty of opportunity to keep thing from going too wrong. It doesn's prevent character death, but it lets the players feel like they've got a little more contorl over what happens.