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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6622717" data-attributes="member: 97077">If you're going to start offing unconscious PCs on the regular, my advice is to make sure you have a plan for what happens after a character dies. One of the crummy parts of Monopoly is that when a player goes bankrupt, he or she is no longer really participating in the game. So for however long the game lasts (and boy can it last), you've got your friend twiddling his or her thumbs watching everyone else play. That's not very fun. A lot of modern games end when the first person is "out" or are set up where nobody can be forced out of play before it ends.Unfortunately, D&D suffers from the same issue as Monopoly. Short of the party having a raise dead spell prepared or the like, your friend is going to be a spectator instead of an active participant. Therefore, it's a good idea in my view to plan for PC death since it can happen even when you're not gunning for unconscious characters. Backup characters that have already been introduced in the fiction and can seamlessly be brought into play is a good way to get the player back into the action (henchmen and hirelings are great for this). Bob's character, Lack-Toes the Intolerant, has just had his brain sucked out by a mind flayer? Damn the bad luck. Okay, let's tap his backup PC, Lucida Blackletter into play. Because we've created the context that allows Lucida to hop into the scene, it's not jarring at all that she turns up and is promoted to protagonist status.Other options include making deals with Death to come back from the Other Side or having mechanical death mean that you're taken out of the scene and suffering some cost rather than mean actual death occurred. Bottom line, I think the ideal situation is that the player who came to the table to play does so and isn't put outside primary participation in the game unless he or she wants to spectate. It's worth considering how to handle that if you plan on increasing the lethality of your games.Good luck!</blockquote>

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