Unexpected Deaths

[Grogg of the North]

The worse has happened. You've just gotten ten minutes into a session and a PC has died. Maybe the dice were against them from the get go. Maybe the consequences of their actions finally caught up to them. And to top it off, they've crossed a point of no return and can't just hop back to town for a quick raise dead. How do you handle that in your games? Do you let them take over a henchman/cohort if there's one available? Do you let them survive but they gain some sort of flaw, curse or other drawback? Find a way to introduce a new character mid dungeon? Or do you let the dice fall where they are and just assure them that the dungeon crawl won't take that long and they should just sit back and wait?

 

[Reynard]

The context of what's happening in game is certainly a big deal, but assuming the character is not likely to be brought back from the dead soon, usually the player starts working on a new character and once reasonably complete it's my job as GM to find a way to bring them into play. Maybe they were independently involved in an aspect of the same quest as the other PCs. Maybe they have been trying to catch up with the PCs for days with an important piece of news. Maybe they are lost or prisoners in the place the PCs are exploring or active. I even had a new PC be the victim of a trap in the dungeon that turned them to stone centuries earlier and the other PCs inadvertently release the new character on disabling the trap. I find that there is usually a reasonably quick way to get the new PC into play, even if it is a bit messy.

 

[billd91]

The decision is going to partly rest on the shoulders of the other players. Do they leave the dungeon and head back? Maybe a quick raise dead is out of the picture, but recruiting a replacement may not be. Either way, forge ahead of head back, will depend on the players.
Then, if they forge ahead, we'll have to talk with the dead PC's player on what they want to do. Meanwhile, as GM, my gears would be working to think of options if none are immediately available. Is there a convenient way to introduce a new character ahead? Can I add one?
And if there isn't one, well, how interested is the player in running monsters? How much fun can they have trying to kill the other PCs who didn't want to head back to have his PC raised (this being the RBDM option)?

 

[Lanefan]

Situationally dependent, as others have said.

If the PCs have access to revival effects in the field, no problem. Carry on. It's then on the remaining players/PCs as to how long it'll be before good ol' Deadly Dooright is upright again.

But if they don't:

If there's a reasonable means of introducing or having the party find a new PC in what the DM knows (or guesses) might be coming next in the adventure, get the dead PC's player started on rolling up a new PC ASAP. Lob an extra prisoner into the castle dungeon, for example, or modify one already there, and let the PCs run on to it. Or have the new PC be found blundering around in the woods with no idea how it got there. Etc. (note that if you place the new PC in a static location there's a slight but non-zero risk the other PCs never find it, or take ages to do so; I was once in this situation and it took the party five sessions to find me!)

If the party can relatively easily return to town, simply pointing out that now Deadly is gone the party is missing or short on whatever class/abilities he had should be enough to turn 'em around. Once back in town either revival or meeting a new PC should be easy.

If, as in the example, the party have passed a point of no return then options become fewer; and down to near zero if where they've gone is a place where nothing alive normally goes. Here Deadly's player might just have to wait it out, or you-as-DM could have the party stumble over the new PC and say it somehow wound up here by accident.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[R_J_K75]

I try to build in a way to introduce new characters into the party when one dies at session zero. Usually if a players character dies they don't want to jump right back in in my experience anyhow. They usually just watch the rest of the game, think about what they are going to play next, and start working on a new character. We generally don't play for long stretches, 3-4 hours at most. Worst case scenario they are out of the game for the remainder of the session and will be brought in at the beginning of the next. At best they roll up another PC and join the party at an appropriate time in the same session. In all my years of playing I don't ever remember this approach being a problem.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I would be more worried if my character died and the other players and DM considered it an "Expected Death."

 

[Shiroiken]

In general, we just let it ride. The player can take up an NPC (if available) or start making a new character. If the character is expected to be revived, then usually the player sits out until the party gets back to town (usually the player leaves, or might read/play on phone if expected to happen quickly).

If a player makes a new character, the DM should try to find a good spot to introduce them, but it doesn't always end well. In one adventure, a PC died early on, and we were too low level to revive them. The player worked on their new character while we continued. Once done, the DM started looking for spots for him to appear. We were investigating the dungeon of a castle, where we ran across the prison cells. The first one was already written in as a werewolf, who attacked us a soon as we freed him. The next cell, our fighter decided "screw this" and stabbed the sleeping prisoner... who was the new PC. It didn't make for good party relationships.

I would be more worried if my character died and the other players and DM considered it an "Expected Death."

I've know a few players that would make some increadibly stupid characters. We'd often bet how many sessions they'd survive. The best was the wild mage (2E AD&D) who got magically trapped in a suit of platemail in the second session. He couldn't cast spells, and with no proficiency, he was completely useless. Later that adventure he charged a dragon alone (the rest of us were blocked by a magic barrier), who tail slapped him across the cavern into the wall, then stomped the corpse into goo.

 

[Lanefan]

Only twice in over a dozen years has one player lost TWO PC's in one session.

It's rare, but I've had players lose two PCs simultaneously!

That was a well-fed Dragon...

I would be more worried if my character died and the other players and DM considered it an "Expected Death."

Oh, I dunno about that - many's the time I've seen a character come in and quietly laid bets with myself as to which had the longer life expectancy: the character, or the beer in my hand.

And some of these were my own characters!

 

[R_J_K75]

The next cell, our fighter decided "screw this" and stabbed the sleeping prisoner... who was the new PC. It didn't make for good party relationships.

Thats great. I may have told this story before but its worth repeating. In 2E a player was introducing a replacement for his dead PC. The DM tells us we see a lone figure approaching from a distance, gets within 10'-20' of us then cordially introduces himself. The parties Fighter/Berserker decides he's cutting this interlopers head off. He gets surprise on the stranger, rolls a natural 20 in his called shot and lops the guys head clean off. It was hilarious, at least for us who werent playing the abruptly deceased character. The whole encounter took maybe a minute or two of actual game time. Probably the shortest amount of time Ive even seen a character "in play", Before 3E this stuff was common place, PVP crime, DMs who made players sit out for long periods after after their PC died. There was a whole different paradigm once 3E came along, which I sometimes dont think was necessarily a good thing.