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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5469255" data-attributes="member: 4937">I don't see how.No, if you want to insist on level of importance, they are more like Gandalf or Frodo than Rand.  Rand is The Messiah, so leaving aside that this seems to imply the need to die, Rand occupies a position that no one in my campaign has (because the mythology, for reasons I won't discuss isn't Judeo-Christian).  But Frodo, if you read the story of LotR seems pretty irreplaceable.  He is, afterall, as things worked out, the Ring Bearer.  But, it if we were doing the game of the quest, I wouldn't actually know whether Frodo or Sam would end up completing the quest.  Indeed, if it had to come to that, we might need to find a way for Pippin or Gollum to complete the quest and from the start I might not know how things will play out and who will complete the quest.  However, certainly if the Nine Walkers fail their quest, then Sauron wins.  They are as important as Gandalf.  Gandalf has a destiny.  It turns out that destiny was not to die on the Bridge of Khazad-dum.  It's pretty rare for characters to be brought back to life in my game because I generally play below 9th level and NPC's capable of bringing people back to life in my game are rare (in fact, in the entire starting country of some 450,000 people, there are zero clerics of 9th level or higher).  However, it does occasionally happen.  Awkward though it may be at times, it is part of the game of D&D since the beginning and sometimes it is less awkward to bring Gandalf or Wesley back to life than it is to give the player a new character and integrate them into the story line.Among other things, I think you are being unfair to Boromir.  Boromir is the heir of Gondor.  He is the strongest and bravest man in middle earth, exceeding even Aragorn strength and exceeding probably all but Aragorn in martial skill.  He is important to his people and to the destiny of middle earth.  He recieves visons and dreams that quite possibly come directly from the Valar, if not Illuvatar himself, and he takes up the quest to find Imladris.  Then, he fails one stupid saving throw and it ends up getting him killed.  Tough break that; but you know, take Iron Will next time.  Still, you've got to feel for the player.  But in the game of the quest, maybe Boromir makes his saving throw and Aragorn throws a one.   Maybe Boromir takes the halflings to the edge of Mordor and meets his brother, and the four of them together complete the quest.  Who knows.  However, if everyone throws a one, TPK, and Sauron wins.  Time to start a new campaign.I find it problimatic for any campaign that rises above pure hack and slash.  My current game has been going on about 10 months (about 16 sessions).  The group is now 3rd level.  In that time, the game is beginning to move around the PC's and their particular relationships - Gareth and Father Anwell, Lythen and the Painted Lady, etc.  If a particular thread snaps, it won't be particularly easy to fill the void.  If Jarl dies now, the parties connection to the Shrouded Order of St. Janivieve is broken.  If Lythen dies now, the parties possible conflict with The Spider loses much of its tension.  Plot elements like the Sea Elf spy depend on connections to Rex, and looking forward Rex could have huge impact on the RP later on.  Without Father Marauth, the tension with the Nauti is reduced.  And what of the parties existing relationship with the Demarch Bel-Mercado, or young Sir Drystan Ap-Moltari?  If PC's start dying, I start having plot threads snap, players start losing emotional attachment to their PC's, and promising story lines die still born.  Building back that level of depth takes time.  A story based game can survive player death, but too much character turn over robs it of much depth and eventually begins to border on the ridiculous.  Sure, we do get some RP oppurtunity out of the tragic death of a colleague, but its not exactly pure win.  And quite simply, speaking as a player now, it's emotionally painful to lose a long established PC.  It hurts.  Well, I'm not that emotionally invested in the future of my homebrew.  You put in contingency plans in the event of a villain win.  If in a certain year it happens that almost everyone in a couple hundred mile radius dies, and various other things happen that I won't reveal at this time, then well, that sounds like an interesting starting point for a new campaign and a nice peice of history to add to the world. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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