Dead in your first combat ever?

[the Jester]

Sucks to be that player.

As sympathetic as I am in that situation, I think it's entirely unfair to favor a player just because they're new. Why not favor certain players because they're stupid, or because they've had a bad day, then? Nope- start rolling, pal, and don't let pc deaths get you down.

This happened in my campaign a bit over a decade ago. That player has never looked back- he's one of the most fervent players in my game now. And he's a proponent of high-risk, high-lethality games.

 

[pawsplay]

You don't want to favor the new player. The problem was the scenario. There's little to do but, "Hm, guess I made that a little tough... sorry about that!"

 

[devilbat]

I'd reduce the damage, and put him at the brink of death.

I'm all for lethality in the game, but I wouldn't want to dissuade the newbie from the game, because I, as the DM, put him smack dab into a battle that he had no chance to win, and he didn't have the experience to know it.

 

[Allandaros]

Kill him dead.

But I'm usually running 2e, so it's much simpler to make a new character. And to speed things up, I'd probably assign him some freebie equipment and an arbitrary number of gold pieces to start off.

 

[Merkuri]

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

We were in the middle of a World's Largest Dungeon campaign, played online, and a new player asked to join. We're somewhere around 11-13th level. DM said, "sure," after the player was willing to spend a session just watching us. Three of the normal players were missing that day, including the barbarian, so the party was a little underpowered. The DM tried to go easy on us. The NPC with our party figured out a way to "convince" the guardbeasts we'd run into not attacking us on sight, but one of the PCs decided to attack anyway. Our side actually made the first move. It was a bit of stupidity on our part, along with underestimating our opponents, mixed in with a little bit of a new 11th level cleric with only 50 HP that decided to go toe-to-toe with one of four Huge (might have been bigger, I forget my sizes) monsters. They stopped attacking us when we stopped attacking them, but it took one badly-placed swipe, killing the cleric, to make us realize we should stop attacking.

The DM does seem to enjoy killing PCs, but he's very strict with using the die as they land. He would take the suggestion that he fudge a roll as an insult and considers the term "metagaming" a swear word. He doesn't try to throw things against us that are too hard, but he doesn't coddle us, either.

 

[Crothian]

He dies, but learns a good leason ofabout D&D. We never had this happen, but we did have a TPK the first session a newbie was there.

 

[Nyaricus]

I'd reduce the damage, and put him at the brink of death.

I'm all for lethality in the game, but I wouldn't want to dissuade the newbie from the game, because I, as the DM, put him smack dab into a battle that he had no chance to win, and he didn't have the experience to know it.

DB, this was my answer as well - surprizingly the first such answer on this page

I wouldn't call this sort of thing as favouring any player in particular. I would liken this to a pick-up game of soccer. Sure, the new player who's never seen a soccerball might use hands once or twice, but he'll get the swing of it eventually, and life will go on

FTR, when I started DMing two years ago this coming February, I did the same thing for my completely greenn players. It just isn't fair when they had just made characters and the elven rogue finds such a quick death.

cheers,
--N

 

[dren]

Depends: do you roll the dice in front of the players? If you do, let the PC die. If you don't, drop him to -1, and proceed from there.

Alternatively, have the character drop, then stop the events and roll it back to the prior morning waking up from a dream in a cold sweat screaming. Take the player aside and say "My fault for sending you in over your head." Then replay from there.

I understand some people wanting the dice to drop where they land and this is what I do in my campaigns, but you don't want to discourage the newbie from playing. Making the events fun and exciting imho is more important than teaching them D&D lessons. A little later on when they get bloodlust or cocky you can teach them that characters can and do die. This is the DMs fault for not taking the PC's level in mind, especially with a newbie involved, but hey, many of us have all made this mistake, so not a huge deal.

 

[airwalkrr]

I voted he gets to make a new character. This is based on my DMing philosophy though. I think all players need to learn death is part of the game. If a new player dies after just starting the game and makes up a new character, he will assume that is how the game is played. And that IS how I think the game should be played. Character death should never mean you can't keep playing the game, but when a character dies and no resurrection magic is available, that character is over.

However...

If I were running an RPGA game where death in the first 10 minutes means you effectively have nothing to do during the next 3 hours and 50 minutes, I would be much more generous. Since I roll behind a screen I would probably fudge enough to give the whole party the idea that they are in over their heads and give them a chance to escape. I would only kill them if they insisted on being foolish after I have made their foolishness clear to them and given them a second chance.

 

[Dracorat]

PCs don't usually die in my campaigns. So I voted something completely different.

Instead, I just apply an XP penalty and we keep playing.

[Edit]In an RPGA event, I would recommend he find a different table and start with another group. Not impolitely, but genuinely interested in him not being bored.[/Edit]