D&D 5E How many PCs have you had die?

[werecorpse]

Page 4 before a "your way is less fun than my way" post.

I suspect that the op was after an idea of how deadly people found 5e.

I think the answer is "as deadly as the DM wants.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

...I don't coddle my players nor their characters.

The implication that anyone not killing off as many characters as you are means coddling is going on is completely unnecessary, and not even all that accurate.

I, for instance, don't coddle players nor their characters either. Me, the DM with zero PC kill count so far. The explanation is not that I am mistaken and that I do coddle the players or their characters, but that my players have had better luck in surviving the deadly situations they've gotten into (a well-timed good dice roll or two, mixed with a decent plan of action, pulling them through).

 

[Sacrosanct]

I suspect that the op was after an idea of how deadly people found 5e.

.

No, just curious.

 

[Morinth]

Today I learned that I really like all of my GMs.

 

[Lanefan]

If I'm losing PCs at that rate, at some point I'm just going to stop trying. I'll just roll up barely disguised carbon copies of the lost PCs and continue apace. I'm certainly not going to actually try to craft a three-dimensional character.

If I'm losing PCs at that rate I'll consider it a typical game and keep on keepin' on...as long as everyone else is losing 'em at about the same rate. Sooner or later the cream rises to the top.

Lan-"not everyone can be a superstar"-efan

 

[Lanefan]

In 5E: None, so far. I had one who should have died, but it was the most absolutely chump way of going out that I've ever considered that I told him he survived -- I won't try to explain in detail, just that he was down long enough that his own party forgot he was there.

His party FORGOT him??? That's epic!

Lan-"hey, anyone seen Joe lately?"-efan

 

[Morinth]

If I'm losing PCs at that rate I'll consider it a typical game and keep on keepin' on...as long as everyone else is losing 'em at about the same rate. Sooner or later the cream rises to the top.

Lan-"not everyone can be a superstar"-efan

Today I learned that "not being killed by some random monster" is "being a superstar".

I guess this approach works in combat-simulation games with no real overarching story or character buy-in. If it's just "let me throw my fighter at this group of kobolds, if he dies, he dies", then yeah, I guess this works. But I'm not going to be in any game like that. It's just not my thing. Vive la différence, I say.

 

[Lanefan]

The implication that anyone not killing off as many characters as you are means coddling is going on is completely unnecessary, and not even all that accurate.

I, for instance, don't coddle players nor their characters either. Me, the DM with zero PC kill count so far. The explanation is not that I am mistaken and that I do coddle the players or their characters, but that my players have had better luck in surviving the deadly situations they've gotten into (a well-timed good dice roll or two, mixed with a decent plan of action, pulling them through).

You're quite right that luck has a lot to do with it...which is to be expected in a dice-based game. As long as they take the bad luck as well as they take the good, you're gold!

Today I learned that "not being killed by some random monster" is "being a superstar".

Well, not quite.

Lasting through numerous adventures (and being useful in the process) while others come and go around you...that's what makes you a superstar.

I guess this approach works in combat-simulation games with no real overarching story or character buy-in. If it's just "let me throw my fighter at this group of kobolds, if he dies, he dies", then yeah, I guess this works. But I'm not going to be in any game like that. It's just not my thing. Vive la différence, I say.

Different view of the game, perhaps.

To me the party is greater than the sum of the characters in it. My usual analogy is a sports team...the team or franchise lasts way longer than any of the individual players (in this case, the PCs) who don the team uniform for a particular game, or season.

If you're familiar with American NFL Football, there's a guy you might have heard of - Peyton Manning - who just retired; a legitimate superstar in the game. Now he didn't play his entire career for the same team, but let's say for the sake of this discussion that he did. Over his career, how many team-mates did he have (fellow party members) who came and went while he just kept on going? And even though he's retired the story of the team he just left is not finished; they'll run out a bunch of players next season - some new, some returning - and keep that story going.

So, saying this about a hockey player:
"John Smith? Yeah, he played with us for a couple of seasons - left wing, I think - back around 2010-11 or so...tore up his knee and had to quit."
is to me exactly analagous to saying this about an adventurer:
"Lanefan? Yeah, he ran with us for a couple of adventures - fighter, I think - back a few summers ago...got killed and we couldn't revive him."

Lan-"also, if everyone's a superstar then nobody is"-efan

 

[Morinth]

Go sports!

To me the game isn't about dice rolls and shining in combat and all of that. It's about a group of people discovering a world and going through trials and tribulations and becoming a team, or even, dare I say it, a family. It isn't a competition, the GM isn't the opponent, and my fellow players aren't vying for the spotlight. It's a cooperative activity, and combat is certainly part of the story, but it's the side dish, not the entree.

In my view, a player character death that is just a series of bad dice rolls in a random encounter is a major letdown. Being killed by the evil sorceress who serves the lich goddess is another matter altogether. That's a cool story moment. Not saying that the GM should fudge every die roll, but they should think about challenge ratings or whatever (I don't GM, I just play). If characters are constantly getting killed, to me it's a sign that the enemies are too overpowered. Yes, GM, you can kill the players at anytime you want, you can have a meteor literally fall out of the sky and one-shot the paladin in his shiny armor any time you want. But what kind of a story is that? Not one I want to be a part of.

 

[Morinth]

Duplicate post, not sure how to delete?