Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 1076932" data-attributes="member: 8158">Well, I think cataloguing how specific games handle death isn't as significant as noting that some RPG's assume that death is usually something permanent and irrevocable, and yet people still enjoy playing them. Remember, the claim being disputed is that D&D is so lethal that some form of resurrection is without a doubt necessary. D&D is certainly not as lethal as most of those games Bagpuss and I listed.As I played Cyberpunk (R. Talsorian brand), brain death equated to character death. Technology provided a GM mcguffin for resurrecting characters through means such as cloning, but it was pretty clear that characters were decidedly mortal. I believe the same goes for Shadowrun, although I haven't kept up with its latest versions.As for CoC, I don't know if horror RPG's should really count. As you say, characters are expected to snuff it when they're confronted with monsters.And I guess that's what lies at the heart of this discussion--not whether or not characters should have a way to cheat death (both heroes and villains do that all the time) but whether or not there should be a routine, repeat-n'-rinse formula that can be taken for granted. Give players a way to cheat death, but include that as something that adds to the action and excitement of the game, rather than something that diminishes it (as a Raise Dead spell does). I first said this a couple of pages back, and provided some examples of how magic could accomplish this .I thought Monte's hero point system provided a perfectly elegant way to keep characters alive that obviated the need for ressurection spells. Take Aragorn surviving his fall into the river in The Two Towers. The character wants to spend a hero point to survive, and appeals to the GM. The GM says "Looks to me like you're one drowned ranger; tell me how the heck you could have survived." And the player now has to earn his resurrection by employing his grey matter and expending a precious hero point (which he only gets at DM discretion in the first place, and thus can't take for granted).So, here's the part where I start running the AU campaign, and start doing the exact same thing I do with vanilla D&D--decide whether or not it's worth the trouble to excise the parts I don't like. There is one big difference though; if I find myself looking at remodeling large portions of AU, I might as well just go back to vanilla D&D.  I bought AU to give new, innovative options, not the same old options warmed over.</blockquote>

Verification