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

[dave2008]

It's not a bad thing at all. I love stories more than games, actually. But they are simply not the same thing, and I don't play RPGs because I want to tell a story. I do it because I want to explore and interact with an imaginary world. A story will come out of that, as part of the process, once we have a chance to look back at it and sort it out, but I'm telling the tale of my PC as I'm playing, at least not deliberately as a story.

To me, this is the important part. Whether deliberate or not, you are in a story and it happens even if you never look back at it. If you can't tell, I am tree that falls in the woods makes noise kind guy (even if no one is there to hear it).

 

[Micah Sweet]

To me, this is the important part. Whether deliberate or not, you are telling a story and it happens even if you never look back at it. If you can't tell, I am tree that falls in the woods makes noise kind guy (even if no one is there to hear it).

Fair enough. I just don't feel you get a story without looking back and creating one out of events, certainly not in the playstyle I favor. Going into the game with a narrative focus in mind simply isn't fun for me on either side of the screen.

 

[Lanefan]

Birth, death, success, failure, discovery, love, loss, change, happiness, sadness. Story beats one and all.

You call those things story beats, I just call them stuff that happens.

To me, calling something a "story" implies there's more of a specific intent behind it; that someone (or numerous someones) has taken some events real or fictional and intentionally applied some sort of introduction-buildup-climax-denouement story structure to them in order to make those events more entertaining/readable/pleasaing for the end consumer of said story.

 

[dave2008]

Fair enough. I just don't feel you get a story without looking back and creating one out of events, certainly not in the playstyle I favor. Going into the game with a narrative focus in mind simply isn't fun for me on either side of the screen.

My point is that you don't need to have or go in with a narrative focus in mind for it to be a story. IMO, what you play, how you play, is a story. You just don't call it that. We both agree with Bart, I just call it a story and you don't (and both perspectives are OK obviously).

 

[adrianthebard]

Outside of magic what other ways would you want PC's to deal with challenges. I think skills are a given but what other ways in D&D would be less superheroic?

well, ingenuity would be a way, instead of searching for "the right roll"

 

[Vaalingrade]

well, ingenuity would be a way, instead of searching for "the right roll"

So... in the context of a character that is not oneself and thus doesn't have your knowledge an life experience... skills.

That would be the right roll.

 

[dave2008]

You call those things story beats, I just call them stuff that happens.

To me, calling something a "story" implies there's more of a specific intent behind it; that someone (or numerous someones) has taken some events real or fictional and intentionally applied some sort of introduction-buildup-climax-denouement story structure to them in order to make those events more entertaining/readable/pleasaing for the end consumer of said story.

That is a way to look at it. To me, a story = stuff that happens. Though it can be something more, it need not be.

 

[KYRON45]

You call those things story beats, I just call them stuff that happens.

To me, calling something a "story" implies there's more of a specific intent behind it; that someone (or numerous someones) has taken some events real or fictional and intentionally applied some sort of introduction-buildup-climax-denouement story structure to them in order to make those events more entertaining/readable/pleasaing for the end consumer of said story.

I like to think I DM with intent.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I like to think I DM with intent.

Lots of DMs do. Adventure paths, for example, are all about intent. And it can be a lot of fun. But it's not my favorite, and it's not how I choose to DM.

 

[prabe]

Lots of DMs do. Adventure paths, for example, are all about intent. And it can be a lot of fun. But it's not my favorite, and it's not how I choose to DM.

The decision "what makes sense here" can include anything. Some GMs will try to answer that based on calculations based on decades of studying pre-industrial societies and economies. Other GMs will respond based on what makes the best story, which could be the thematics of the campaign or the character, or something different, or involve some pre-written story the PCs are interacting with, or whatever. Still others will try to consider all of those, any of those, whatever will at the moment make for the most-engaging campaign, with perhaps less explicit calculation.