OD&D First Character Death

[Yaarel]

The players in my homebrew campaign had their first TPK a month ago. They fought a homebrew CR-13 Fire Drake, and it roasted them with dragonfire.

Being the evil overlord he was, the dragon’s master brought them back to life to serve as gladiators for his entertainment. The PCs’ allies tracked them down and managed to free them, and the players in turn were able to take their revenge by leading a slave revolt, killing both the dragon and its master in the resulting chaos.

That is the definition of failing forward.

 

[Mr. Spade]

Back in high school I had a half giant gladiator in dark sun. He was bitten in half by a black dracolich he had 1 hitpoint remaining, passed a constitution check with a natural 20. Dm gave him a final strike with his twin scythes 2 more nat 20s. He ripped through the dracolich's jaw they both died in a puddle of acid...

RIP big guy you may have been cursed at birth to be half a man, but you died a glorious death every giant should aspire to...

 

[cmad1977]

I don't remember my first character death (would have been sometime in the 80s), but I do have a most memorable character death (which I've shared here before).

A couple of years ago, I was teaching my now 13 year old son some basics of DMing, and he was running Death House for me as a solo character. I was exploring the 3rd floor of the house, and had just defeated a specter in the nursery room. After I left the room, I opened a storage closet, and I was immediately attacked and beaten to death by an animated broom (I missed on all of my attacks, and the broom hit on all of it's attacks). I failed all 3 of my death save attempts, and that was that.

That broom almost killed a PC in my game. Evil broom!

 

[cmad1977]

Traveller; tearing the vacsuit open in vacuum. Laser rifles suck.

My first death in TRAVELER came with my first character. Joined the Navy, didn’t survive the first tour.

New character.

 

[Bitbrain]

That is the definition of failing forward.

I’m not familiar with this term. Is it a bad thing? It sounds bad.

It was my first campaign as a DM for more than one player, and reviving the PCs and turning them into his slaves was completely in character for the villain, whose defining characteristic was “nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing my enemies suffer under my rule.”

I had already established in previous sessions that while he himself was physically very weak, he did have access to extremely powerful magic and could bring people back from death even if their spirits were unwilling.

Also, over the course of the campaign the PCs had gone on a number of missions that made them his enemies.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Has a person really played Traveller if they haven't had a character die during creation?

My first death in TRAVELER came with my first character. Joined the Navy, didn’t survive the first tour.

New character.

 

[Yaarel]

I’m not familiar with this term. Is it a bad thing? It sounds bad.

It was my first campaign as a DM for more than one player, and reviving the PCs and turning them into his slaves was completely in character for the villain, whose defining characteristic was “nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing my enemies suffer under my rule.”

I had already established in previous sessions that while he himself was physically very weak, he did have access to extremely powerful magic and could bring people back from death even if their spirits were unwilling.

Also, over the course of the campaign the PCs had gone on a number of missions that made them his enemies.

‘Failing forward’ is advice for the DM. It means something like, dont let a setback shut down the game. Figure out a way, how the setback can be an interesting step ‘forward’ toward what happens next.

‘Failing forward’ is something that a skilled DM does.

 

[Lanefan]

‘Failing forward’ is advice for the DM. It means something like, dont let a setback shut down the game. Figure out a way, how the setback can be an interesting step ‘forward’ toward what happens next.

‘Failing forward’ is something that a skilled DM does.

It can also be something a hard-railroading DM does, so as to prevent PC failure(s) from interrupting the pre-set story.

 

[Bitbrain]

It can also be something a hard-railroading DM does, so as to prevent PC failure(s) from interrupting the pre-set story.

Well, at least I can say it wasn’t railroaded. I had three outcomes planned (escape, victory, or defeat), and escape wasn’t possible because the PCs had decided to make a stand and fight.

If they killed the dragon, their castle would have come under attack by the master’s forces, and the PCs would have had to defend their headquarters from being besieged a second time.

Sadly, the Druid’s conjured animals missed every single attack roll against the dragon, so the fire drake defeated them.

 

[Li Shenron]

Cleric character in 3.0, died at 1st level (though not first session) from the Death Touch attack of an evil cleric of Death.