Dead in your first combat ever?

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Have to say go with the -5, if only because I myself experienced death-in-first-combat-ever and was given a second chance by my DM.

That first character of mine turned out to be very memorable and was a blast to roleplay. I suppose if my DM had made me make up a new PC, that character might've been just as fun, but in hindsight I wouldn't want to miss out on my true first PC.

J. Grenemyer

 

[LostSoul]

Unfortunately the lesson learned might be 'This game is not fun.'

If, by playing according to the rules, the new player learns that "This game is not fun", that's fine. Not everyone is going to like D&D.

 

[Melan]

I would let the player roll a new character - or, celebrating a thirty-years-old tradition, rejoin play with MyGuy #2, MyGuy's Cousin, MyGuy's Long-lost Twin Brother or such.

And for the record, the very first time I played AD&D, my character was instantly killed in (I think) the second or third combat, because the DM didn't use the -10 rule. I was hooked. It was so much fun! (And it still is. Woo hoo!)

 

[diaglo]

where is the he rolls 3d6 in order and starts at lvl 1 option? 0hp = dead in real D&D

it will be up to me to insert him and all the other new PCs into the ongoing adventure.

 

[Hussar]

Insertion is fairly easy and painless. (Wow, how often do I actually get to write that?)

We're in the World's Largest Dungeon, so, what's the point of an eternal prison if you can simply off yourself and escape back to whatever plane spawned you? Naw, stuff that dies in the WLD comes back. Reincarnated somewhere else in the Dungeon with its memories more or less intact. There's only one way to escape and that's to find the door.

 

[KB9JMQ]

In that situation I would go with the -5 HP route.
I would hate to give the smackdown to a newbie in their first session.
Heck it takes so long to make another character for someone new that alone might be discouraging enough to keep them from gaming again.

 

[Merkuri]

Naw, stuff that dies in the WLD comes back. Reincarnated somewhere else in the Dungeon with its memories more or less intact.

Hah, so it's entirely possible that the new player's character's soul could actually win the battle with the others and get its own body back. Perhaps not very feasable, but possible.

 

[Elf Witch]

This happpened in a game that I was playing in. We had a newbie player who was encouraged to write a background and realy think about her character.

She spent a lot of time on it and was very exicited to finally play. In our very first combat an enraged barbarian with a great axe critted and killed her character.

She then got to sit there for three hours working on another character and waiting for the right role playing moment to be brought into the game.

It was so obivious that she was upset and that as the night wore on that she was bored she quit the game later in the week.

She later told me that she had found the night not to be fun and that she could find more fun ways to spend her time.

It was really to bad because I think given time she would have been a good player. The little she played she was great she got into her character and added a lot to the role play.

When I DM I roll behind a screen and as a player I will not play in a game that its let dice fall where they may. For a total newbie I would fudge until they got their feet. I fudge for my older players if they are doing everything right and are just having really bad luck with the dice.

Yes characters die I won't fudge if they do something stupid or if they die in a well fought battle.

But death is rare in my game. My players are very much into role playing and developing their characters and wanting to have a believeable reason for a new character to join the game. Hey you look trustworthy join us does not work for them.

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

Well, here's my take: There's no better time to learn an (admittedly somewhat Darwinian) lesson about caution, tactics, and just plain dumb luck - all of which play a part in character lifespan in D&D - than at first level. Better early in the game then once they've hacked their way up to mid-level and have a lot of time and energy invested in their character. (This is especially true in pre-3rd edition games, where it takes a hell of a lot longer to advance.) And if you don't start letting the dice fall where they may at the beginning, you really can't go back - unless you're prepared to risk an unexpected TPK halfway through a campaign, just because you suddenly started playing for keeps.

I had a player (by no means a newbie, but one returning to the game after many years) roll up a monk in my current campaign. The monk tends to be a character that looks a lot more indestructible on paper than in actual play, and I repeatedly reminded him that he wouldn't be a front-line fighter until much later in the game, but in probably the third combat he was involved in, he charged ahead of the party to Layeth the Smacketh Down on some bandits, only to have the rest of the party knocked out with a sleep spell from a hidden wizard. Two Ftr2s + one critical ='ed one monk at -9, and the deus ex machina clot check was not forthcoming...

He was bummed, to be sure, but it was bound to happen eventually the way he was running his character. I gave him the option to just create "brother of Monk A", with the same stats, but he chose instead to roll up a ranger that he's still playing today. What's more, he now plays a monk in a campaign we both play in, and he's much more cautious in battle with that character. In other words, lesson learned.

And, there's one other thing - You need to foster a player group that can handle it when things don't go their way. True - you may lose a player. There's not really a way around that, but if they can't get down with losing a character at 1st level, what makes you think they're gonna handle it better when they're 5th level? This is simply not a game for everyone, and some folks can't enjoy a game with no "save" feature. Such is life.

 

[Lanefan]

Dead is dead, and bad luck is sometimes a harsh reality.

However, for a new player, during the initial roll-up process I'll make good and sure they know that PC death can lurk around every corner, and not to get *too* attached to any given character. I can only hope something similar was done in the OP's case...

I've got one player, relatively new to my game but has played before elsewhere, who's been going through characters like Spinal Tap drummers! He's been in for maybe a year, and has had 9 characters, with a total of (I think) 8 or 9 deaths...one or two were revived only to die again...and of the 9, only 3 made it out of the adventure they started in. Yet, and to his immense credit, his enthusiasm remains unbowed; he's now playing in both parties I run. Much of it in his case is plain bad luck; as an example, his Dwarf got hit by a Beholder's death ray; he needed a natural 3 to save, and rolled 2. Corpse taken outside and revived. Next day, with better preparation, party goes back in, meets the same Beholder; by sheer bad luck the death ray goes for the Dwarf again...this time he needs a natural 2 to save and (can ya see this coming) rolls 1. End of career for Dwarf.

And for those of you who are saying PC's don't die, or rarely die, in your games: you're playing a different game, I think, than the one I cut my teeth on.

Lanefan