I don't know about that. Trad games like D&D IME tend to be a might fuzzier on things that are mechanically very codified in Narrativist games. And while there are certainly codified rules in other areas in trad games, I feel the design philosophy gives even those areas more wiggle room. Just my thoughts on the matter.
I was thinking Deathmatch Island and Apocalypse Keys.
More commonly IME - particularly at very low levels - they need to turn around and go back to get new characters to replace what they lost; getting new supplies is done at the same time, helped (sometimes greatly!) by any treasure they've thus far managed to scoop from the place.
Interesting for all if the players try thinking of new and creative ways of getting around the obstacle, whether successful or not.
Fair, TB2e for instance has a lot of emphasis on gear and supplies. Shopping is thus high stakes. I'd note that in TB2e you're lucky if an adventure even nets you enough to buy supplies and heal up. So bargaining, stealing, and scrounging are vital. It also has very robust rules for running all of that within the context of town phase. Makes surviving a B/X dungeon crawl feel like easy mode IME.It also depends on how important the characters' gear and equipment are to play. In a game where gear and equipment are carefully tracked and-or can be vital to success, forgetting to pick up something while in town can have big consequences later and thus at least doing the basic "adding items to one's sheet and knocking off the requisite number of g.p." step is rather important.
A recent example from my game: the party found themselves in a null-magic zone in some caverns. All their magical lights went out, and most of them couldn't see in the dark (lots of Elves, and in my game their night-sight only works outdoors). Much checking of character sheets later, it turned out not a single one of 'em had a mundane lantern or torch to provide light! Someone did have three basic candles, which were used to get them through to where their lights came back on.
Next time in town they all loaded up on mundane light sources!
Because the way I see it, if the game can't go forward without getting through this obstacle, then there must be a story everyone is following that insists upon going through it. Otherwise, the party could simply do something else.
Yeah, that was true for me c1976 or so. Been there, done that.Meanwhile knowing that there is something beyond the door has unique character is one of the things I enjoy.
I did it last week in the game I run for my kids.
It encourages the players to take a different path they will hopefully find fun or interesting.
Good for you, I guess?
