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Confirm or Deny: D&D4e would be going strong had it not been titled D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6606540" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>Play agenda certainly alters the level of perceived risk and investment. </p><p></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Losing a character for a gamist means they <em>lost</em>. It's a reflection that they played "poorly," which can be disheartening, I suppose, but gamists are probably the easiest to appease, because give them a new character of equivalent strength and they can step-on-up immediately. The challenge of doing "better" with their new character can almost be cathartic and reinvigorating to a gamist.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Losing a character to a simulationist is slightly worse, because the character inhabited a "realized space" in the fiction which can be difficult to rebuild. But assuming the character death followed a substantiated cause/effect tree in the game world, and makes sense within context, it's generally met with disappointment but acceptance. "Based on circumstances of the fiction, this was a probable, maybe even expected outcome."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A narrativist will struggle the most, because losing a character strips away the ability of the player to interact with the themes and conflicts going on in the campaign. You simply can't drop in a new character to the milieu and have them pick up right where the last character left off, because the player's means of interacting the fiction has changed--even if you build an identical character mechanically.</li> </ul><p></p><p>Ultimately "death" as fictional stakes is most relevant when the <em>fiction</em> <em>is at stake</em>. If you're a player who doesn't try to push the fiction in directions beyond murderhobo-ing, losing a character is less a cause for distress. As soon as you view your character as being involved in the fiction beyond mere murderhobo-ing, then EVERYTHING at stake becomes interesting. </p><p></p><p>When the player has some investment in the outcome for the character in the fiction, death means unrealized potential for the character. The player never gets to see the fate of the character play out, or experience a character's "growth" within the fiction.</p><p></p><p>It's sort of like dating; every romantic relationship typically has one of two endings---long-term commitment or breakup. Same thing with PCs. Either a PC dies, or lives long enough in the fiction to become an NPC. (Obviously I'm ignoring the obvious third option, "The campaign died out due to real life game group circumstances." In this case the PC just remains in limbo. If the group/campaign never picks up again, it's the functional equivalent of the character dying.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 6606540, member: 85870"] Play agenda certainly alters the level of perceived risk and investment. [LIST] [*]Losing a character for a gamist means they [I]lost[/I]. It's a reflection that they played "poorly," which can be disheartening, I suppose, but gamists are probably the easiest to appease, because give them a new character of equivalent strength and they can step-on-up immediately. The challenge of doing "better" with their new character can almost be cathartic and reinvigorating to a gamist. [*]Losing a character to a simulationist is slightly worse, because the character inhabited a "realized space" in the fiction which can be difficult to rebuild. But assuming the character death followed a substantiated cause/effect tree in the game world, and makes sense within context, it's generally met with disappointment but acceptance. "Based on circumstances of the fiction, this was a probable, maybe even expected outcome." [*]A narrativist will struggle the most, because losing a character strips away the ability of the player to interact with the themes and conflicts going on in the campaign. You simply can't drop in a new character to the milieu and have them pick up right where the last character left off, because the player's means of interacting the fiction has changed--even if you build an identical character mechanically. [/LIST] Ultimately "death" as fictional stakes is most relevant when the [I]fiction[/I] [I]is at stake[/I]. If you're a player who doesn't try to push the fiction in directions beyond murderhobo-ing, losing a character is less a cause for distress. As soon as you view your character as being involved in the fiction beyond mere murderhobo-ing, then EVERYTHING at stake becomes interesting. When the player has some investment in the outcome for the character in the fiction, death means unrealized potential for the character. The player never gets to see the fate of the character play out, or experience a character's "growth" within the fiction. It's sort of like dating; every romantic relationship typically has one of two endings---long-term commitment or breakup. Same thing with PCs. Either a PC dies, or lives long enough in the fiction to become an NPC. (Obviously I'm ignoring the obvious third option, "The campaign died out due to real life game group circumstances." In this case the PC just remains in limbo. If the group/campaign never picks up again, it's the functional equivalent of the character dying.) [/QUOTE]
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Confirm or Deny: D&D4e would be going strong had it not been titled D&D
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