Ever try PC death at 0 hit points?

[GreyLord]

I use it all the time.

If you follow 5e, it's not THAT big of a thing as characters are made to really start at level 3. Levels 1 and 2 are excessively low in the necessary XP to get to level 3 due to this. Levels 1 and 2 are more like introductory levels.

Death at zero is far easier to keep track of for a DM, and if it's good for the monsters, it's good for the characters.

 

[Rhenny]

That's the way we played when I was a teen in the late 70s and early 80s until death's door came around. I haven't done it since.

I think it is really all up to your group. Also, since there are so many ways to get a PC back even after death now-a-days, death at 0 may be an inconvenience for the moment, but not a perma-death thing (unless you play in Tomb of Annihilation with the death curse).

From my experience over years and years, I think most players don't really want their PC to die in most situations so it is best to play with death saves or negative hit point limits.

 

[Mercule]

I played BECMI and 1E, so... yeah.

I prefer the death saves of 4E and 5E. Negative hit points don't really help with a lot of "killing blows" unless you give a stupid amount of negative hit point (like 1/4 max or so).

 

[77IM]

Well, I kinda did this the other day, when a beholder killed a PC using the "death ray" which has an instant-death-at-0-hp special effect. I actually really love this special effect, especially on spells and abilities with mediocre damage, as it's a good way to make the ability "scary" without having it deal a jillion damage.

 

[ccs]

The last time we used this was about 10 years back during a short 8 week Basic/Expert set campaign.

Character creation took about 5 minutes.
There were no replacement characters. If your character died you were simply out of the game. (this wasn't so terrible. We were all playing at a local shop & there was always some other board or minis game to entertain ourselves with)
The game ran until A) all the characters were dead, B) someone escaped the dungeon, C) a set date.
If memory serves 4 of us managed to escape on week 7.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I have played a lot of Moldvay/Cook basic D&D with death at 0 as a standard. Life is cheap and character creation is very simple. Getting to 2nd level feels like a real achievement with this too. It would be too much of a hassle to use death at 0 in a character generation system that takes a bit of time, but for simpler systems the excitement is hard to beat.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I appreciate the responses whether it’s thumbs up or down. Please continue!


Like a lot of people in this thread, I started out with the Red Box when I was 10 yo. Back then it was my big bro who was the DM and I was always the player. We switched to AD&D and sooner or later we adopted Max HP at 1st with -10 death and Dying rules. I was really relieved when that became a house rule. Relieved for quite a few reasons, in fact. Less paperwork, less stalling in the game, my character’s story developed resulting in me investing more interest into the game. In short, I could be a little bit braver and still live. Since then and throughout the editions, there has always been a buffer of some sort for death in our games; whether it’s a home game or at a store.


My interest in “0 hp = Death” stems from complacency I have witnessed in myself and others. Death is difficult at the tables I have played (coincidentally, this would make a good line to an old Blues song). With that in mind, I wanted to create a bit more pressure and fear (i.e. “urgency,” as someone else said) in the campaign I am creating. I have been lurking on these here forums to pick up tidbits on how to make that happen. I find myself futzing with a bunch a different house rules, which only seems to complicate my game and will probably just confuse the players. Making death happen easier seems like the simple solution, maybe not the best one though. Still not sure, til I talk to the players.


Currently, I just got onboard my niece’s Out of The Abyss campaign and am looking to forward to it. It’s good to be playing with the old group again.


Here’s a long and unfinished introduction to my campaign (3,000+ words with maps) It has all been pilfered from the Pandius site. So if you don’t like it, you can blame them. To be honest, I’m pretty fond of this stuff.
Note:I couldn’t get rid of the blue highlight from some of text. Too much copying and pasting. Oh well.

View attachment Mystara Intro.docx

 

[reelo]

My philosophy as DM is to only kill PCs if their players did an actual mistake.

Why? People die all the time by random chance without having made mistakes.
Adventuring is dangerous business, after all.

I like the OSR approach: combat as war, not combat as sports. Don't "tailor" encounters to the party (as someone above already suggested) running away is always an option, if the party bit off more than they could chew.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Why? People die all the time by random chance without having made mistakes.
Adventuring is dangerous business, after all.

Games are meant to be fun and not immitate real life.

 

[Reynard]

Games are meant to be fun and not immitate real life.

For some people, that possibility of random, horrible death in the game is part of the fun. The key is, of course, to make sure those people are playing together and not subjecting folks who want a deep emotional story or a stress reducing power fantasy to that playstyle.

As always: communication is most important.