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Death and Storytelling
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7451130" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>At the most basic level, my answer is- D&D is a game, not a story. The story is an emergent property. It's what you tell after the game, about how the game went. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A game is not a book or movie. If you want to ensure that your favorite character survives, write a story instead of playing a game. (Of course, this ignores the fact that, perhaps not often but certainly some of the time, the main protagonist doesn't make it to the end of the story. Witness Samuel Jackson getting eaten by a shark out of nowhere.) </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Pc agendas can move in and out of focus depending on the party's actions and choices. I run a fairly hardcore sandbox, so pretty much everything is directed by the party members' agenda(s), though it might be informed by any number of plot hooks, npcs that they are allied with/invested in, etc. If their interests are threatened, they are likely to move to defend them. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Not everything gets tied up nicely. If a pc dies while questing to find her mother and father, and the rest of the party isn't interested in following up on that quest, so be it. It's possible that the pc's parents will be working their own agenda, which might later intersect with the pcs, but it's equally possible that they will never come up again. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes. If the game has no chance of death, I lose interest very quickly. I'm fine with a game with real risk of pc death, but no actual pc death occurring because of the party's luck or (especially) skilled play, but if the DM will go to great lengths to keep me alive if I do something suicidally stupid, I'm not long for that table. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There is nothing to reconcile. The death is part of the story of how the game went. Even a TPK is part of that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 7451130, member: 1210"] At the most basic level, my answer is- D&D is a game, not a story. The story is an emergent property. It's what you tell after the game, about how the game went. A game is not a book or movie. If you want to ensure that your favorite character survives, write a story instead of playing a game. (Of course, this ignores the fact that, perhaps not often but certainly some of the time, the main protagonist doesn't make it to the end of the story. Witness Samuel Jackson getting eaten by a shark out of nowhere.) Pc agendas can move in and out of focus depending on the party's actions and choices. I run a fairly hardcore sandbox, so pretty much everything is directed by the party members' agenda(s), though it might be informed by any number of plot hooks, npcs that they are allied with/invested in, etc. If their interests are threatened, they are likely to move to defend them. Not everything gets tied up nicely. If a pc dies while questing to find her mother and father, and the rest of the party isn't interested in following up on that quest, so be it. It's possible that the pc's parents will be working their own agenda, which might later intersect with the pcs, but it's equally possible that they will never come up again. Yes. If the game has no chance of death, I lose interest very quickly. I'm fine with a game with real risk of pc death, but no actual pc death occurring because of the party's luck or (especially) skilled play, but if the DM will go to great lengths to keep me alive if I do something suicidally stupid, I'm not long for that table. There is nothing to reconcile. The death is part of the story of how the game went. Even a TPK is part of that. [/QUOTE]
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