Death of Player Characters

[Andrew Gronosky]

How to handle the death of a player characters (or a whole party!) is a controversial subject. My own thinking is that it depends on the game's genre and tone. I have a new article on the Shewstone Publishing blog about this topic:

Drintera Behind the Screen: Death for Player Characters — Shewstone Publishing

Let me know what you think!

 

[tetrasodium]

I think that the first step is to split up the different types of PC death and maybe acknowledge that they have different ways they need to be handled. IMO those are probably something like this

• Alice is dead because Bob did something reckless. Obviously talking about teamwork and maybe what Bob could have done differently to avoid throwing his party members down a hole. There are lots of ways this particular scenario can play out at the table, but generally, I find that it tends to come down to Bob behaving like it's a single player game and just soloing near the others with little or no consideration for the party.
• Dave is dead because he did something dumb like holding the bomb that Eddy's hacker was trying to disarm even though there was no logical reason for him to not be wayyyy back outside possible blast range with everyone else in the party. Dave needs to be more concerned about his safety.
• Frank is dead because it's a dcc funnels or similar meat grinder drinkinggame-esque thing and he did something... Frank should pull out the next PC in the stack.
• Gwen is dead because she wanted to make a new pc and forced the gm to kill her. This is really something Gwen should apologize to both her gm and the other players for, but this is also a problem often caused by games that allow players to rest up out in the field instead of needing to go back to town... IMO this is a good excuse for the gm to change that rule and point to Gwen forcing the GM to kill her as the reason why there is not going to be discussion. Gwen really should have been up front with the GM and asked to rebuild her PC or come in with a new one next session... The only thing I've seen∆ directly provide guidance encouraging players to do this kind of outreach is draw Steel. That is very much something that more ttrpgs should encourage players with.

∆ only one that I remember. I don't doubt I've seen games with similar, just none that come to mind.

 

[Morrus]

How to handle the death of a player characters (or a whole party!) is a controversial subject.

Is it?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I think that the first step is to split up the different types of PC death and maybe acknowledge that they have different ways they need to be handled.

Interesting to note that Clarence inexplicably avoids death as an example, but since you skipped what's arguably the most common type of demise I'll kill him myself:

- Clarence died because the dice said so. Player characters are frequently doing dangerous things, and in most rules systems no matter how skilled, powerful, or clever you are, sooner or later there is a very real chance that random outcomes will lead to a PC death. There are a few games that explicitly take that possibility off the table, but usually if there's any for of randomization in your mechanics you need to face the fact that it'll kill people sometimes. You can fudge dice to avoid that, but one of the surprising outcomes that we use randomness for in the first place is unexpected death. The whole table needs to understand that and decide if they'll accept the hand of fate, or if they'll make exceptions and if so, when and why.

Is it?

Sometimes, for some people, yes. If that isn't ever true for you, it doesn't mean others are wrong for feeling differently.

 

[Morrus]

Sometimes, for some people, yes. If that isn't ever true for you, it doesn't mean others are wrong for feeling differently.

I think you may have added extra imaginary words from your own head that aren't in my post. To be clear, "others are wrong for feeling differently" are your words, not mine.

 

[tetrasodium]

Interesting to note that Clarence inexplicably avoids death as an example, but since you skipped what's arguably the most common type of demise I'll kill him myself:

- Clarence died because the dice said so. Player characters are frequently doing dangerous things, and in most rules systems no matter how skilled, powerful, or clever you are, sooner or later there is a very real chance that random outcomes will lead to a PC death. There are a few games that explicitly take that possibility off the table, but usually if there's any for of randomization in your mechanics you need to face the fact that it'll kill people sometimes. You can fudge dice to avoid that, but one of the surprising outcomes that we use randomness for in the first place is unexpected death. The whole table needs to understand that and decide if they'll accept the hand of fate, or if they'll make exceptions and if so, when and why.

Sometimes, for some people, yes. If that isn't ever true for you, it doesn't mean others are wrong for feeling differently.

I don't know how I skipped c by accident but thing that in his case it often comes down to the players putting their heads together and saying "what could we have done differently to avoid that". Sure you might have that freak max damage crit or something, but usually the players can always brainstorm some teamwork and prep stuff to keep in mind and do more often that would have mitigated his downfall.

That's one discussion where nothing good comes from the gm saying much more than "there's always something that you guys could have done" since the something needs to come from the players or it comes across negatively..

Also what Morrus said in post 5, that last blub came out of nowhere

 

[bloodtide]

If your playing a game with a mechanic like hit points, combat and death: then your game is made for random death all the time. It is the whole point of all those rules. It is a basic part of most games.

Anyone who wants to play a game fairly with good sportsmanship would accept such rules. Again they are part of the game.

Of course, the world is full of 'That' gamer type. You see them in every game. Should anything even slightly negative happen, they will complain "they were not ready". Or that it "was not fair" for some reason. Or that someone else "did something wrong". Or the classic one of "they only are having fun if they are winning", so as soon as they even "start to lose" they will suddenly "not want to play any more".

You see it often too in video games with people using cheat codes or god mode to just get through a game to 100 level.

And you see the same thing for TTRPGs. A lot of games just ignore player side of hit point loss. Sure they make a show of doing it, but with and understand agreement that the PC will never lose all their HP. Though many DM just do an automatic 'rare pc death setting'.

I think character death is a unique thing that TTRPGs should embrace.

 

[sevenbastard]

In my last 5e campaign it went 115 or so sessions. 5 or 6 players on average and Everyone had at least two of thier PC die. Longest PC lasted 70 sessions.

I did xp each session based in monsters killed and a few verry rare story goals. We handled it as you next PC started at half your last PC xp total. This worked great.

I made sure everyone was aware at the start of the game thier would be death. Rolls made in the open, so no I'll will by the players.

 

[grankless]

Coolest and most interesting character death is when it just happens to be the most dramatically fulfilling thing that can happen. Love when death is a player choice.

 

[FrogReaver]

How to handle the death of a player characters (or a whole party!) is a controversial subject. My own thinking is that it depends on the game's genre and tone. I have a new article on the Shewstone Publishing blog about this topic:

Drintera Behind the Screen: Death for Player Characters — Shewstone Publishing

Let me know what you think!

I think there should be some actual substance in your post instead of just a redirect. Makes me not wanna engage on the topic just because of that.