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General Tabletop Discussion
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Do players even like the risk of death?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8268547" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>As PCs go higher and higher in level, there are less and less deadly fights in my games. This assists with the feeling that the heroes are more powerful. If they face deadly challenges as often at 17th level as they do at 3rd, it doesn't really feel like the PCs have grown. It feels like they're still overpowered and weak.</p><p></p><p>However, <em>every fight</em> needs to have a purpose and a risk. Outside of risk of death, there are other risks that you put out there for the PCs to have to handle. The enemy might be doing something you need to stop (such as hurting an ally, or completing a ritual, or escaping). There might be a time pressure (the PCs need to escape before the door closes, etc...) There might be Information the PCs need to gather while enduring the pressure of the combat ("Hold them off while I....") The PCs may be trying to STOP the fighting ("This is MADNESS... Put down your weapons! The dragon will be here in a minute. If we wear each other down fighting now, it will slaughter us!") You may need to recover something an enemy has ("Give us the Shield, John.") Think about video games and all the different types of missions that you do where the failures don't involve your character dying. The beauty of all of these is that the risk of failure can be much greater without ending the game. if the PCs are fighting to recover the MacGuffin before it is used, and you set the difficult to make it 50-50 odds or so... you can have subsequent games that deal with the consequences of whether the PCs managed to win ... or lose ... that key challenge. They can have real stakes in the future of your setting and game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8268547, member: 2629"] As PCs go higher and higher in level, there are less and less deadly fights in my games. This assists with the feeling that the heroes are more powerful. If they face deadly challenges as often at 17th level as they do at 3rd, it doesn't really feel like the PCs have grown. It feels like they're still overpowered and weak. However, [I]every fight[/I] needs to have a purpose and a risk. Outside of risk of death, there are other risks that you put out there for the PCs to have to handle. The enemy might be doing something you need to stop (such as hurting an ally, or completing a ritual, or escaping). There might be a time pressure (the PCs need to escape before the door closes, etc...) There might be Information the PCs need to gather while enduring the pressure of the combat ("Hold them off while I....") The PCs may be trying to STOP the fighting ("This is MADNESS... Put down your weapons! The dragon will be here in a minute. If we wear each other down fighting now, it will slaughter us!") You may need to recover something an enemy has ("Give us the Shield, John.") Think about video games and all the different types of missions that you do where the failures don't involve your character dying. The beauty of all of these is that the risk of failure can be much greater without ending the game. if the PCs are fighting to recover the MacGuffin before it is used, and you set the difficult to make it 50-50 odds or so... you can have subsequent games that deal with the consequences of whether the PCs managed to win ... or lose ... that key challenge. They can have real stakes in the future of your setting and game. [/QUOTE]
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