[DMing style] Holding off on PC deaths?

[Malin Genie]

It is always great when your PC deaths are meaningful and heroic; holding off the troll to allow the rest of the party to escape, grappling the enemy wizard and jumping over a cliff so you both face certain death etc.

Sometimes a PC death occurs in a very 'unsatisfying' way (e.g. the orc with the greataxe crits the 5th level wizard, rolls well for damage and kills him in one blow in a minor side skirmish with a small group of orcs.)

Sometimes PCs die despite good tactics, careful reconnaissance etc. Other times they die due to sheer idiocy.

My question is - do you 'hold back' on player deaths (take them to -9 instead of -11, give them a round to be healed, have the character land on a rock shelf 30ft down instead of fall the whole 100ft down the cliff) if the players have played well, or the death would be banal, reserving player death only for heroic/memorable occasions or stupidity? Or do you 'let the dice fall where they may'?

 

[WizarDru]

In a game like GURPS, where death is much more threatening, I tend to avoid dishing it out, if possible, and have occasionally fudged the dice to make the game more enjoyable.

However, for D&D, where death is a minor inconvenience to a properly prepared group, I let the chips fall where they may. Short of a TPK, I tend to follow the book rule as written.

 

[Zappo]

I voted either 1 and 2, because I sometimes save PCs if they would die an extremely undeserved AND anticlimactic death. Either of the conditions isn't enough, gotta have them both, though.

 

[Leopold]

i voted "If they die they die" Kill them once or twice and they will learn how valuable being alive is when the other party members have good loot, higher experience level and so forth.

I just got done with a TPK and had 2 PC's roll new characters. Man were they pissed.

Remember as a DM you must repeat this saying to your PC's whenever possible:


The DM does not kill PC's, the PC's kill PC's.



This means simply: You don't kill them, they kill them themselves. Remember you do NOT have to kill everything that moves, running away, parlaying, bribery, etc. is ALWAYS a valid option..

 

[Schmoe]

I agree with Leopold, and I told my players that was the case when the campaign started. I roll ALL combat dice out in the open, so there can be no argument when things go south for the party. They've seen the NPC's get incredibly unlucky, and they've seen themselves get incredibly unlucky. It's an impartial system.

Having said that, I would like to add that there have only been five PC deaths in the first 6-7 levels of play. Of those, two could have been directly avoided by using slightly better tactics or just a little more common sense.

For example, when the last standing ogre retreats, grabs a golden globe from a necklace around his neck, and says "No come closer. I leave now," you should listen to him.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Heroic and meaningful deaths are only that if they are mixed in with normal deaths.

If everyone dies the hero then who cares.

 

[Tsyr]

I'm playing and DMing to have fun, and to let others have fun. Nobody in my games would have fun with stupid deaths. Deaths occour. Just not stupid ones.

 

[Harlock]

Heh, Everybody's game is different. I think D&D should be fun, and fun for me is not having to start over at level one every few sessions, or having to make yet another level 5 character to finish out scenario "B". I think my group agrees. Someday we may try a "grin-n-gritty" style game where you don't fudge a roll, or reduce the crit damage so the party mage doesn't go to -11 HP. I'm not saying characters never die, I'm saying if we played it by the book our group would not find the game as fun at this point. Of course, there has to be some risk in combat and characters do sometimes die. They fall unconscious a lot. They could lose their favorite magic weapon, animal companion, trusted mount, castle, home, village. There have to be risks, otherwise the game is reduced to a cakewalk with a few die rolls thrown in to keep up appearances. I say cater to your players. And make yourself happy as a DM. It is just a game after all, and games are supposed to be challenging and fun.

 

[Churchill]

No Vote

I didn't vote in the poll because none of the options quite matched my DMing style (such as it is).

I try to avoid putting the player characters in certain death positions, and I try to always include an "escape hatch" if the players are creative enough. If the players can come up with a way for their (or others) character to avoid dying that's interesting and compelling - from the point of progressing the story - I'll go with it more often than not.

In my current campaign, the characters are involved in things well over their heads, and they have a number of items at their disposal that they have no real clue as to what they do. When characters have died in the past, they players have come up with some truly novel ideas on how to prevent someone from shuffling off this mortal coil. So far this has worked extremely well in that it's kept the story progressing and added extra levels to the plot.

Still, if someone does something extremely boneheaded, death is there as a reminder (and I will use that without remorse).

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I let the dice do the talking. I roll in front of everyone, so if you get critted by the huge guy with the axe it's may kill you. I use solid tactics, and if the party doesn't they will get hurt. About the only bone I throw the party is if they get held, I won't waste them with my next attack at all times. I will sometimes have the opponents assume X is out of the fight and they can then move on to fight the active threats. At higher levels where dispels etc become more common I feel enemies would drop foes as soon as held. So they get a short low level grace period when both them and their foes aren't used to dealing with spells like dispel magic.