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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zak S" data-source="post: 6606379" data-attributes="member: 90370">It's pretty simple:It's not money, it's not really about "character health" or hit points", death-as-stake is based on a simple assumption:If you are playing with a character, you like that character and you would like to continue playing with that character. And if you have made some progress with it, you want to keep that progress.While not universal (nothing's universal), those are EXTREMELY common feelings.PC death means those two things are taken away.A character is, essentially, a kind of way to play the game. Playing the game as a 10th level thief is different than playing it as a 1st level wizard, or even a first level thief, or even a different 10th level thief. A certain game or kind of game (one you presumably enjoyed, since D&D isn't compulsory) is threatened when the character's death is threatened. If you fail, you'll have to start playing the game with a new character--i.e. in a slightly new, different way.So long as we can assume the player likes the game they chose to play and the way they chose to play it (not big assumptions) we can assume their potential disappearance is a big deal. Maybe not the only big deal and maybe a kind of big deal they are not emotionally equipped to want to see threatened, but a big deal.</blockquote>