Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Closing the Rotating Door of Death
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 5531640" data-attributes="member: 2303"><p>My solution is to close the revolving door of death - PC death is just not in my rules. This is the preference of me and my group; I realize others like it differently.</p><p></p><p>There is often talk about three styles of gaming - Simulationist, gamist, and storytelling. My games very strongly leans towards the storytelling side of this triangle. To us, the characters life story is much more important than what challenges he or she undergoes. To risk this accumulated story by letting a simulationist (nobody could survive this) or gamist (ops, a critical hit) element produce a random death simply is not interesting to us. Also, because so much is invested in the characters, I need "threaten" the players with much smaller setbacks to make the game exiting - the the death of an NPC associate, alienating a possible ally, or a career setback is just as large a deterrent against reckless behavior as death is in other campaigns where the players have invested less in their characters.</p><p></p><p>I used to have Fate Points that let characters escape death a limited number of times throughout their career, but in the end this became a sham as nobody ever ran out. It felt more honest to make death an optional rule instead.</p><p></p><p>I do agree that raise dead is not really a good idea - to me mainly because a world where raising the dead is a distinct possibility has to be quite different and because the ethical issues of who to raise and who not to raise become so hard and distracting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Starfox, post: 5531640, member: 2303"] My solution is to close the revolving door of death - PC death is just not in my rules. This is the preference of me and my group; I realize others like it differently. There is often talk about three styles of gaming - Simulationist, gamist, and storytelling. My games very strongly leans towards the storytelling side of this triangle. To us, the characters life story is much more important than what challenges he or she undergoes. To risk this accumulated story by letting a simulationist (nobody could survive this) or gamist (ops, a critical hit) element produce a random death simply is not interesting to us. Also, because so much is invested in the characters, I need "threaten" the players with much smaller setbacks to make the game exiting - the the death of an NPC associate, alienating a possible ally, or a career setback is just as large a deterrent against reckless behavior as death is in other campaigns where the players have invested less in their characters. I used to have Fate Points that let characters escape death a limited number of times throughout their career, but in the end this became a sham as nobody ever ran out. It felt more honest to make death an optional rule instead. I do agree that raise dead is not really a good idea - to me mainly because a world where raising the dead is a distinct possibility has to be quite different and because the ethical issues of who to raise and who not to raise become so hard and distracting. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Closing the Rotating Door of Death
Top