Ever try PC death at 0 hit points?

[schnee]

My god is it so hard to believe that a different table might have different ideas of what constitutes fun?

It's not like we haven't had truisms like 'Different strokes for different folks' in the language since forever.

And here are people saying 'MY fun is right, YOUR fun is not, you should do MY FUN'.

Am I alone here thinking both alternatives are fun depending on the goals of the game, and the style the table wants to have? (This is rhetorical. No, I'm not - not by a long shot. But this thread has become a back-and-forth between two camps who can't respect another style of play.)

 

[reelo]

Note -

"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."

These two statements belie each other especially in the context of IRL random deaths.

People get in over there heads without a chance to escape IRL all the time. Especially if they indulge in risky behavior.

So, once a GM accepts that there is always an escape if they choose to run, that GM is tailoring the encounters to the party.

Or do you have scenarios where out of the night four gruesomes roll up on the party of four 3rd level guys with no warning and wipe them out? Or a hungry dragon swoop in and pluck a few for late night snacks?

Or are these things maybe just maybe not quite as random and escape not as uncertain and maybe a weee bit of tailoring (actually a lot but lets not pop all the balloons) is happening?

I was referring to random wilderness encounters, mostly. And in dungeons, even if running isn't possible, and the odds are stacked against the party, maybe parley is possible. Bear in mind that I approach gaming from an OSR angle (BX D&D) where character creation takes 2 minutes, and deaths are expected. A smart party will survive fights that a foolhardy party won't, and "Save or Die" effects are always a threat.

 

[5ekyu]

I was referring to random wilderness encounters, mostly. And in dungeons, even if running isn't possible, and the odds are stacked against the party, maybe parley is possible. Bear in mind that I approach gaming from an OSR angle (BX D&D) where character creation takes 2 minutes, and deaths are expected. A smart party will survive fights that a foolhardy party won't, and "Save or Die" effects are always a threat.

How you approach chargen and so on is great and fine and wonderful and glory to the all.

But, once one says things like parley is always possible or running is always possible and so on and so forth (reading possible as "has a noteworthy chance of working ) then one is either tailoring encounters or severely limiting the adversaries of the world.

if its non-tailored, random encounters and especially for say tier-1 characters there should be encounters on the fly that do not offer either or both run away successfully or stand and fight successfully or parley successfully options.

By higher levels, the odds can clearly change as fewer things that challenge those are just roaming around as often as say - trolls.

But hey, thats fine. Maybe a Gm only ever randomly rolls encounters that are either winnable, runnable or talkable or eveadable... and that has nothing to do with nod nod wink wink at the stages of "rolling" or the "create our table" either.

nod nod wink wink..

 

[Maxperson]

I tried the death at 0 during 1e and stopped it almost immediately. First, death was already common as 1e was just built to be deadly. Making death at 0 just increased the number of deaths dramatically. Second, it created a situation where you couldn't really be knocked unconscious with a hit. You were conscious, conscious, conscious, DEAD! So I scrapped it and went back to negative hit points.

 

[FrogReaver]

I tried the death at 0 during 1e and stopped it almost immediately. First, death was already common as 1e was just built to be deadly. Making death at 0 just increased the number of deaths dramatically. Second, it created a situation where you couldn't really be knocked unconscious with a hit. You were conscious, conscious, conscious, DEAD! So I scrapped it and went back to negative hit points.

Not the primary point of your post I know but I wanted to point out that con checks when you get to low hp would also be a valid way for you to be knocked unconscious if that was the only thing holding someone back from death at 0. It doesn't solve the more deadly aspect though.

With that said 5e even in basic form, even with death at 0, is much less deadly than 1e ever thought about being IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

Not the primary point of your post I know but I wanted to point out that con checks when you get to low hp would also be a valid way for you to be knocked unconscious if that was the only thing holding someone back from death at 0. It doesn't solve the more deadly aspect though.

With that said 5e even in basic form, even with death at 0, is much less deadly than 1e ever thought about being IMO.

That's an idea, but how does it work at low levels? Does every hit require a save until you have enough hit points to give you a cushion? Would it be a percentage of your total? Some other method?

 

[FrogReaver]

That's an idea, but how does it work at low levels? Does every hit require a save until you have enough hit points to give you a cushion? Would it be a percentage of your total? Some other method?

I like 1 hp per class level but there's ton of implementations. Maybe con mod + 1 per class level or something.

 

[S'mon]

I think 5e D&D is the only game I play which has death at 0 hp.

OK you get your 3 death saves, but a lot of monsters will quickly finish off a fallen PC - either they're animals & hungry, or they're intelligent and have seen the party Cleric revive a fallen PC, or they have a multi-attack routine & some bonus attacks, or they're a horde of vicious zombies who just like ripping apart the fallen, Romero style.

 

[S'mon]

With that said 5e even in basic form, even with death at 0, is much less deadly than 1e ever thought about being IMO.

IME 5e is more deadly at 1st level than 1e (especially with UA added in) but rapidly becomes less deadly as PCs get more hit points.

I run all sorts of D&D and don't see a huge difference in fatality rates IMCs, though.