D&D General How Often Should a PC Die in D&D 5e?

[Vaalingrade]

"Misreading" him? You mean his strong implications in On Writing that he strongly prefers free-writing to working from an outline, and that he didn't intend for the kid to die in Cujo? I think the problems you're pointing at are less a matter of not planning and more a matter of not being honest about the effects of the deaths they include. I think you can free-write a death in a story and not have it lie there like crap on the road, and I think you can have a death emerge in a TRPG's narrative and handle it well; in neither case does the death or its aftereffects need to be planned.

It's sadly less informed than that.

I'm talking about the apocryphal 'when in doubt, kill a character'. Which makes sense for a horror/thriller, but is less useful in say, cozy romance or yes, heroic fantasy. You don't just randomly kill off characters and expect it to be poignant.

And I think it's even less likely but not impossible when that death is by random meaningless chance or a god you can't kill for it putting his thumb on the scale.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I don't think superheroic = spells. So we are going to disagree on that.

I mean 'round these parts 'superheroic' tends to mean 'literally nothing to do with superheroes from the past fifty years and even before that, just the One Guy.' or 'I don't like it.' Just like 'anime' and 'videogame'.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Maybe for stories, but to me stories are not games.

I play the game to collaboratively tell a story. So a game is a structure for storytelling for me.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I don't think popularity is a good reason to do much of anything.

Yeah, but I think the Wizards of the Coast want to make a popular game rather than a deadly one.

 

[prabe]

I'm talking about the apocryphal 'when in doubt, kill a character'. Which makes sense for a horror/thriller, but is less useful in say, cozy romance or yes, heroic fantasy. You don't just randomly kill off characters and expect it to be poignant.

I'm a fan of Horror fiction and thrillers (and various kinds of crime fiction) and I'm not convinced that even makes sense for those genres. The likewise-apocryphal advice, "When in doubt, have a man walk through the door with a gun in his hand" (that's probably a paraphrase, I didn't look it up) at least introduces tension and/or stakes, it's not reducing your character count.

(Now I'm wondering if the people are maybe additionally misunderstanding what King has said about resolving getting blocked in the middle of The Stand by having Harold plant a bomb, killing a bunch of characters. I just might have read a lot of what King has written about writing. )

 

[Imaro]

Yeah, but I think the Wizards of the Coast want to make a popular game rather than a deadly one.

Or a dead one.

 

[theCourier]

Depends wholly on the tone of the campaign, imo

 

[Umbran]

See, to me if that goes on long enough the perceived danger goes away, as the trigger on it never gets pulled.

There is no trigger. There is only beating the odds, or not.

 

[dave2008]

I mean 'round these parts 'superheroic' tends to mean 'literally nothing to do with superheroes from the past fifty years and even before that, just the One Guy.' or 'I don't like it.' Just like 'anime' and 'videogame'.

Sorry, I don't know what this means

 

[dave2008]

Considering the tag is D&D General and the title just says 5E (not 5.5E or 5E 2024), I don't know why you would think it is more about the rules pertaining to 2024 than 2014?

So, I see it the other way around... feeling like that is on you (or anyone who makes a similar assumption) to me.

Clearly I see it differently.