Weak Deaths

[Dannyalcatraz]

You're totally fine with that?

As someone who thought the scene in Westworld where Josh Brolin's character gets shot, leaving Richard Benjamin to carry the film was sheer genius...

and

As a person who played a PC who- Gollum-like- failed to completely cast off the dominating effects of an evil artifact that the party was to destroy...and who made a last-ditch effort to claim it, Mordenkainen's baby still his arms when his partymate's hammer fell, completing the mission...

the resultant release of energy killing the baby.



I can say "Yes, I'm totally fine with that."

 

[Stormonu]

Scenario: You're playing an 18th level character you've run since first level for over 3 years in real time. He's the leader of the party, and the hope of middle-earth. He's defeated dragons and hordes of undead. His magic weapons are legendary. This character is really part of YOU. You've played with him every week for THREE years.

Your party is on their way to the island fortress of the Demon King for the final epic battle. It's gonna be awesome. The entire campaign has led up to this. You have to swim across a river to reach the castle. You roll a 1 on your swim check. You get another chance, and roll a 2. One more chance, roll another 1. You are swept away and drown. Your character is dead. You miss the final epic battle, because you had a bad stroke of luck, and the greatest hero the world has ever seen drowned in rather unheroic fashion.[\Quote]

What, and no one has a resurrection to bring this guy back?

 

[Jon_Dahl]

If my character lives, great.
If it dies, I have a fantastic opporturnity to create a new one.
Whether the death is heroic or weak, matters not.

Lot of characters in our games die from fumbles. Death can't get any weaker than tripping over at your own feet and hammering your friends skull in. And I love it.

 

[Doctor DM]

As a person who played a PC who- Gollum-like- failed to completely cast off the dominating effects of an evil artifact that the party was to destroy...and who made a last-ditch effort to claim it, Mordenkainen's baby still his arms when his partymate's hammer fell, completing the mission...

the resultant release of energy killing the baby.

I'd say that's hardly a weak death. That's actually pretty cool...

 

[Doctor DM]

Scenario: You're playing an 18th level character you've run since first level for over 3 years in real time. He's the leader of the party, and the hope of middle-earth. He's defeated dragons and hordes of undead. His magic weapons are legendary. This character is really part of YOU. You've played with him every week for THREE years.

Your party is on their way to the island fortress of the Demon King for the final epic battle. It's gonna be awesome. The entire campaign has led up to this. You have to swim across a river to reach the castle. You roll a 1 on your swim check. You get another chance, and roll a 2. One more chance, roll another 1. You are swept away and drown. Your character is dead. You miss the final epic battle, because you had a bad stroke of luck, and the greatest hero the world has ever seen drowned in rather unheroic fashion.

What, and no one has a resurrection to bring this guy back?

I was wondering when someone would say something about that lol. Yeah obviously this is a super extreme scenario, and probably would never happen, I was just trying to convey that it's a heroic character that you've been playing for a while.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, it sucked for the baby...

And like the death in the other example, it happened because of a single lousy failed roll.

OTOH, I had a 2Ed dwarf Ftr with a 19 Con who failed a sequence of multiple saving throws vs magic, poison and system shock- requiring rolls of 1s on d20s and d100s that had I been playing in Vegas, I would be several hundred million dollars richer right now.

I'll never forget him, nor will the players who saw that spectacular implosion.

 

[Doctor DM]

Yeah I guess OTOH sometime a death of just pure failure is going to be memorable and cool in its humor. "Remember that time Jimmy couldn't roll above a 4, tripped off the cliff, caused an avalanche and landed on his sword? That was hilarious! How can you suck so much? "

I just don't like something like that happening to a character with a lot invested in him, and who's very involved in the plot.

Like Huskar said, I guess it depends on what kind of game it is: plot-y or not.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I just don't like something like that happening to a character with a lot invested in him, and who's very involved in the plot.

Minion1: "You have slain the one fortold in the prophesy- the Chosen One has died by tripping and falling upon your sword!!!"

Minion2: "Apparently, he wasn't as chosen as he thought he was..."

 

[Elephant]

I don't have a problem with a "weak death". If there's no risk to my PC in the game, I start to feel like the game is pointless. Part of the game is risking failure.

What I *do* have a problem with is measures to make death *worse*. In a game where you end up dead by rolling a single natural 1 on the wrong save, it seems unsporting to add house rules making Raise Dead unavailable.

 

[Elephant]

Your party is on their way to the island fortress of the Demon King for the final epic battle. It's gonna be awesome. The entire campaign has led up to this. You have to swim across a river to reach the castle. You roll a 1 on your swim check. You get another chance, and roll a 2. One more chance, roll another 1. You are swept away and drown. Your character is dead. You miss the final epic battle, because you had a bad stroke of luck, and the greatest hero the world has ever seen drowned in rather unheroic fashion.

Well, sure, it wouldn't pass off very well in a novel, but I consider that sort of random chance in the game to be one of the draws of the game.