One of the last 2Ed PCs I designed died from a maxed-out crit from a 2-handed sword on the first swing of the first combat of the campaign. Hours of PC design, a campaign-specific PC history, etc...gone on a fluke roll.
Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.
Yep, and as an experienced player, I have no problem with that. Personally, I have a backlog of FRPG PCs a hundred or so deep (not including concepts that only exist as a description, or PCs for other genres), and growing.
But some people do.
For instance, I wouldn't wish that death on a n00b.
I remember my first adventure 29 years ago- all of the players were n00bs except the DM. Nobody died in the first combat, or even the third...but by the end of the adventure (which took months to get to), there were just 2 PCs left (no replacement PCs allowed)- my fighter and a wizard. We had an audience (the other players) cheering us on in the pentultimate encounter...in which we died.
AFAIK, nobody left the hobby that day...
But had we had a death on encounter 1, do you honestly think that green player would have stuck around until the end? You spend all that time, working on a PC, only to have your guy struck down in 10 minutes? Do you think that player would have stuck around to see the results months down the road?
Playing the game is a lot of fun, watching the others play- not nearly so much.
If important results are going to be fudged, why bother with the dice? Just tell me what you want to have happen.
Let me ask you about fudging in the context of second example I gave.
Would you as a player rather have started the campaign:
1) Walking naked out of a ship's hold in another dimension being told you're being hunted as prey...
2) or would you rather have had the chance to rack up some RP time getting to know everybody's PCs, followed by an attack by intradimensional raiders whom you battle heroically (racking up XP) until you're finally overwhelmed, THEN walking naked out of a ship's hold in another dimension being told you're being hunted as prey...
3) or would you rather have had the chance to rack up some RP time getting to know everybody's PCs, followed by an attack by intradimensional raiders whom you battle heroically (racking up XP) until you get away, only keep getting adventures where you're crossing that body of water again and again until you're finally overwhelmed, THEN walking naked out of a ship's hold in another dimension being told you're being hunted as prey...
4) or would you rather have had the chance to rack up some RP time getting to know everybody's PCs, followed by an attack by intradimensional raiders whom you battle heroically (racking up XP) until you get away, THEN waiting while the DM tries to figure out how to get you across that dimensional barrier?