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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 5787338" data-attributes="member: 2804">Frequent reloading due to death isn't fun. Its why I prefer RPGs over videogames in the first place. Nor do I play RPGs to simulate being "hazed" by others. Since gaming is a hobby often taken to by those who have difficulty fitting into the social structure of say, high school, everything you describe sounds like a complete turn off and not a selling point of playing fragile beginner characters. I was a football player and track athelete in high school, but I grew up a geek and gamed with a lot of good friends who really struggled to fit in socially. Gaming was fun for me, but an important social escape for them.But we both played RPGs to be a larger than life hero. And that should start from the moment one begins playing the game. At level 1.I want to play a wizard. A WIZARD who uses MAGIC. Not a guy who uses CROSSBOWS.Again, I don't want to play an RPG to experience a fantasy simulation of a cruel and unjust world. I want to be a hero who saves princess, battles dragons, and does other cool cinematic things. Getting stabbed by a kobold and dying in the first encounter is none of those things. Its frustrating and absurd.I'm not saying you share this attitude, but generally speaking, I find this whole notion that you have to "manage" the expectations of beginners, to teach them their place and know that the DM and the dice are cruel merciless gods that can snuff their PC's short brutal life at any time is patronizing and condescending."Sorry new player, you thought you could be like Harry Potter and do all sorts of cool things? Guess again. You get one spell and a crossbow and you better learn to run away and hide anytime you get into combat with anything tougher than a house cat."Advanced players are rewarded by gaining newer options and being able to overcome the story goals before them. This is where the "role" in role-playing comes in. As I posted in my other thread, the idea that the game should start out hard and get easier is completely backward to how most games work.Sure, in some open world CRPGs you can make a beeline for the harder areas and die instantly. But if you explore the world in measured steps, that shouldn't happen. It also gets more into the concept of status quo vs. tailered encounters and while sort of related, I think that is really a tangential discussion to this one.Because the game assumes you start at level 1 and new players would naturally start at the beginning of the game. The default should assume that 1st level PCs are capable and competent and not fragile. There should of course be dials in place for those that want more lethality.Or like one brilliant suggestion I read before from someone else, simply create different modular tiers of play, each with their own level 1 starting point. The more I think about that idea, the more I like it. For those that want true zero to hero, they can have the Apprentice Tier which runs from level 1 to say 5. At 5th level you can then go into the beginner or heroic tier which also starts at level 1 but you are far more capable.</blockquote>

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