Body Counts?

[Stormborn]

I was sharing a post with one of my players, who also happens to be the other DM in the group, and we began to reflect on how often characters seem to die in many of the games mentioned. We began to wonder if our group was jsut weird or something. No one has ever died in one of our games (OK, so One time we thought we were dead and gone to hell, but it was a CoC thing. You understand.) In fact, while I was running a game there was only one time when any one SHOULD have died, based on damage and HP, that I fudged it so they didn't.
My question: Do you play in campaigns where the PCs die frequently? Or do you have long running PCs?

I think I should clarify some about my group, and our game style, to help explain this:
- There are 4 of us, 2 couples (although it didn't start out that way) of which I am the baby at 31.
- We spend a lot of time on character development, and therefore get attached.
- We rarely play any campaign/adventure for more than a month or two. Although we have decided to try an ongoing one that I am currently running.
- I and one other person tend to DM, alternating, but occasionally her husband has run games, such as the aforementioned CoC game.

So, what about you?

 

[diaglo]

there has to be the risk of dieing or i'm gonna f with the campaign to force the issue.

i hate DMs who won't kill characters.

 

[cdsaint]

Well, in my games it varies. I have perpetrated a TPK on the first night of a new campaign, and I've also gone about a year and a half without a PC death. I roll most rolls in front of everyone, so I don't fudge things, but if someone goes below -9 hit points you have 1 round from the time it happened to bring them back to "life".

I guess my goal is to take some PC's into negative hit points in a major battle without actually killing any. It is important to make sure they know that death is a possibility though. Otherwise there isn't as much tension.

Chris

 

[astralpwka]

Early level deaths for our group are rare, except through stupidity.

Mid level deaths are usually decided by fate, with great DM rolls and poor player ones.

At High level, its no holds barred DM vs Player mayhem with deaths every week, though never TPK's.

 

[Silveras]

- We spend a lot of time on character development, and therefore get attached.
- We rarely play any campaign/adventure for more than a month or two. Although we have decided to try an ongoing one that I am currently running.

I think those are two controlling factors.

Most campaigns where characters die are, as far as I can tell, have frequent combat and last more than a few sessions. If you spend much of your time on interaction and role-playing development, that will result in fewer deaths (usually). If you also "move on" frequently, to new characters (?), it will also tend to cut down on the monster feeding rate.

My campaigns have almost all ended in Total Party Kills, and there have been other deaths along the way (some more heroic than others). Most campaigns lasted anywhere from 5 to 18 months.

Most of the TPKs came when the party had reached a new shift-point in strategy and failed to recognize it. By that, I mean that the characters had reached a level of spell-use or other abilities that the players were not used to, and so did not use them well. Often, though, it is poor planning.

Example (2nd Edition rules):
While scouting a ruined fortress where the villains were seeking something, the party managed to get themselves noticed and let the alarm be raised. The villains chased the party up to the next level, and the PCs ducked into a room to hide. Problem: There was only one door to that room. The lead villain was then able to blast them from the doorway with spells from a staff. Result: TPK.

That TPK came after about 8 months of playing. These players also put a lot of development effort into their characters, but it was spread out over the 8 months.

 

[Davelozzi]

I've had five PC deaths ever in my games. Interestingly, two players each had a character die on two separate occasions. The third time was when my wife's character died in the first session of what was supposed to be a new Alternity campaign (although the campaign never made it to a second session because everyone moved away).

Of those five deaths, one character was raised (and is still currently active) and the other four were permanently dead. I like to keep raise dead/ressurection from being too common so that it doesn't just feel like a saved game or another life in a video game.

In general, we get fairly attached to our characters. I like the threat of death to be real enough but not make death a frequent occurence. I've fudged things to avoid death in the past, but don't now.

 

[cdsaint]

Early level deaths for our group are rare, except through stupidity.

Mid level deaths are usually decided by fate, with great DM rolls and poor player ones.

At High level, its no holds barred DM vs Player mayhem with deaths every week, though never TPK's.

Well put. I have a slightly different experience with low levels though. 1st and 2nd level characters are very fragile. A slight miscalculation by the GM or party can easily end in a TPK at these low levels. Single character deaths are also fairly common, especially at 1st level. One good roll by an Orc with a battle axe or worse yet a greatsword and it's all over for one PC. If the group is fairly small (say 4 or fewer PC's) then the loss of one PC can quickly steamroll into a TPK.

Once the party hits 3rd level though, TPK's are very rare and only seem to happen if the party makes a big mistake. Single character deaths also become more rare, and seem to get less and less common until 10th level, which is where my GM experience falls off. At high levels single character deaths seem to pick back up from my experience as a player. I can vividly recall Father Jared, My 18th level cleric getting hit for 150 hit points in a single round. The only reason I think TPK's are more rare at high levels is character ability to run more effectively (word of recall, teleport, etc.)

Of course, the groups I play with do tend to like lethal challenges. If there is no rel chance of dying we get bored.

Chris

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I've very rarely killed of PC's. Inversily (sp?), my PC's have died so many times it's not funny anymore.

AR

 

[carpedavid]

I seem to have a reputation among my players as a killer DM. In my current campaign, only one player is on her original character. One player has only had one death, and the character was reincarnated. Two players are on their third characters, and one is on his fourth. I think that they've had 8 total deaths among 5 players so far this campaign (9 if you count a low-level NPC cleric).

I guess things get pretty messy in my games. In their (and my) defense, I believe that they've slain at least 3 times that amount of bad guys, each of which were of a CR at or exceeding their average party level.

From what they tell me, previous campaigns haven't been much better.

I'm just trying to make things challenging. Really. *sigh*

 

[Kemrain]

I think the most recent permanant PC deaths in my most recent games have been inflicted by other PC's...

- Kemrain the Bloodthirsty.