Dead in your first combat ever?

[Merkuri]

A new player just joined a game where you are the DM. He's new to the D&D scene and is just getting the hang of the rules. You're exploring a dangerous dungeon. After a half-hour of not much happening, the party wanders into an encounter that is above their heads, but they don't realize this immediately. The party attacks, and the new player follows suit. It's probably the first combat this new player has ever been in. In the second round, the new PC is hit by one of the baddies and takes enough damage to put him into the -30 range. There is no magic available to bring the character back to life. He's only been playing for an hour or less, and he's already dead. It wasn't really anything he did wrong that got him killed, the party was just in over their heads and he was the unlucky one who "found out". What do you do? Pick the answer closest to what you'd do.

This just happened in the game I'm in (I'm neither the DM, nor the new player). For the record, I think the DM made a good choice, but I'm curious to see what other people would do.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Couldn't happen in my game. If a newbie player joins the game, we start a new campaign at 2nd level and start off nice and easy. I can't imagine it being a good idea to put someone who is just learning the very basics of the rules into a situation where they can be one shot killed easily. It's very doubtful I would put them in a truly dangeorus situation until the fourth or fifth combat. Then we can start talking about deaths.

Dying in the first combat slows down their learning curve too much. D&D is also generally not a spectator sport, so keeping newbies in hte actions is preferable if you want to keep them coming back for more.

 

[delericho]

Couldn't happen in my game.

Nor mine. If I'm dealing with truly newbie players (as opposed to experienced players who are simply new to my game), I'll spend a few sessions running a side campaign with pre-gen characters. These characters will be taken through some classic adventures, but will not face a truly overwhelming encounter.

Basically, I give them a chance to get the hang of the game before throwing them in over their heads. (If, however, they die due to stupidity or a run of bad luck, then I'll explain that sometimes that happens, and is a feature of the game rather than a bug.)

Killing the PC of a new player in his first ever combat is a very effective way to turn a potential player into a non-player.

 

[pawsplay]

Why was the party sent in over their heads? Was the DM angling to kill a PC?

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Actually, this happened to me both the very first time I played D&D (I rolled a fighter with 18str and 1hp!), and the first time we played Runequest (we rolled beginner characters , and the DM made us fight a troll with a poleaxe, on a bridge).

And here I am 30 years later, still playing.

Ken

 

[Delta]

This is absolutely the best time to "let the dice fall where they may". The player knows that PCs can die, and learns it before becoming invested in a particular PC. Roll up again, get more info about PC options, and try better next time.

 

[pawsplay]

Ordrinarily, if you die, that's too bad, start rolling, but in this particular case, it makes sense for Vinny the Fighter's cousin, Jimmy the Fighter, to show up at the first available opportunity.

 

[Celebrim]

I generally like to get the 'WARNING: Sometimes you may be in well over your heads' situation out of the way early. But in particular, I prefer the consequences to be nonlethal and the opponent to be sufficiently potent that they can say, idly beat the PC's up with non-lethal damage and take some of thier stuff or some such like that. Or simply just have them watch the bady easily take out something which they barely handled. (Like one hitting an ogre.) Something which says, "Geez, we were soooo toast.", without them actually becoming toast. Having such an encounter go lethal is a serious failure of DM control over the game, probably as the result of very poor planning.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Something entirely different:

I would ask someone else to DM that doesn't throw overwhelming encounters at newbie players. They'll have plenty of time to learn that even challenging encounters can hand their butt to them and they should keep fleeing in mind. Kinda hard to learn the flee option when you go from alive to -30...

 

[pawsplay]

Everyone knows you're supposed to start off by killing a snake or a dire rat.