Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3980116" data-attributes="member: 32164">It's really not that hard to alter D&amp;D to support &quot;that kind of play.&quot; Here are the, IMO, necessary changes:1) No level loss for character death.2) Rules for handling the &quot;Dramatic Sacrifice.&quot;3) Action points for enabling &quot;cinematic&quot; heroics and heroic survival.4) Elimination of &quot;random death&quot; events.5) Reduction of &quot;reset&quot; spells, like Raise Dead.That's it. It's a relatively short list. Item 1 is critical because you don't want death to penalize the player. In fact, if the player elects to allow his character to die in a dramatic fashion because it's good for the story, the player should be rewarded. Items 3 &amp; 4 pretty much remove random, pointless character death from the game. Item 5 is necessary because the character who makes the heroic sacrifice can't be brought back, or it's not a sacrifice.Then the only thing you need is the rules for handling the dramatic sacrifice. My thinking is that after his character is plunged below zero hit points, the player who chooses the &quot;last stand&quot; option can choose to fight on, temporarily refreshing his character completely (as if he were just joining the battle). Maybe this even happens again. When the battle is over (or he's exhausted his last stand), he gets a few final words and then he dies. And can't be raised.As you can see, characters would only choose this option when they had something the player felt was worth dying for. But I'd be willing to guess that 2 or 3 lives would be enough to finish off all but the most dire threats. And if the entire party chooses the option, we have Thermopylae. That's the kind of death where heroes shout &quot;this may be our end, but we will make such an end as to be remembered for eternity!!&quot;The player who takes this option then gets the option to rejoin the game with a new character who's the same level as his old one would have been had he survived. So the player isn't penalized.You might have to put a limit of &quot;once every X levels, per player&quot; to prevent glory hounds from potentially abusing this rule to always be the one who &quot;saves the day&quot; with their heroic sacrifice. But I imagine that wouldn't be a problem with most groups. On the other hand, in a super-gritty game, character death that frequent might even be appropriate.I dunno. Maybe it wouldn't work. But I think it might.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 3980116, member: 32164"] It's really not that hard to alter D&D to support "that kind of play." Here are the, IMO, necessary changes: 1) No level loss for character death. 2) Rules for handling the "Dramatic Sacrifice." 3) Action points for enabling "cinematic" heroics and heroic survival. 4) Elimination of "random death" events. 5) Reduction of "reset" spells, like Raise Dead. That's it. It's a relatively short list. Item 1 is critical because you don't want death to penalize the player. In fact, if the player elects to allow his character to die in a dramatic fashion because it's good for the story, the [i]player[/i] should be rewarded. Items 3 & 4 pretty much remove random, pointless character death from the game. Item 5 is necessary because the character who makes the heroic sacrifice can't be brought back, or it's not a sacrifice. Then the only thing you need is the rules for handling the dramatic sacrifice. My thinking is that after his character is plunged below zero hit points, the player who chooses the "last stand" option can choose to fight on, temporarily refreshing his character completely (as if he were just joining the battle). Maybe this even happens again. When the battle is over (or he's exhausted his last stand), he gets a few final words and then he dies. And can't be raised. As you can see, characters would only choose this option when they had something the player felt was worth dying for. But I'd be willing to guess that 2 or 3 lives would be enough to finish off all but the most dire threats. And if the entire party chooses the option, we have Thermopylae. That's the kind of death where heroes shout "this may be our end, but we will make such an end as to be remembered for eternity!!" The player who takes this option then gets the option to rejoin the game with a new character who's the same level as his old one would have been had he survived. So the player isn't penalized. You might have to put a limit of "once every X levels, per player" to prevent glory hounds from potentially abusing this rule to always be the one who "saves the day" with their heroic sacrifice. But I imagine that wouldn't be a problem with most groups. On the other hand, in a super-gritty game, character death that frequent might even be appropriate. I dunno. Maybe it wouldn't work. But I think it might. [/QUOTE]

Verification