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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9543540" data-attributes="member: 6801228">I'm glad you have fun with the way you want to play, but I want to express my frustration yet again with people's choice of wording. Five times out of eight examples. That's how many times you either directly, or indirectly, stated that character's die because the PCs are stupid/idiots/ect. Out of the remaining three, two of them are you acknowledging that luck can play a roll. And I find this deeply, deeply frustrating, because for all your blithe comments about stupid decisions, you don't actually clarify what that means. Sure, I'm all for character death if the PC pulls out a wooden spoon, declares themselves the Chosen of Gork and charges an ancient dragon. Okay, fine. Deserved death. But... not retreating? One fight I remember from some years ago had our party defending a young child from some deadly fey that were attempting to kill her. Could we have retreated? Sure... if we were willing to let the child die. But my character was a protector of the people, so that didn't really fly with them. They weren't going to allow a child to be murdered in cold blood. Was that stupid? That particular game comes to mind, because the DM decided to have the NPCs play games with our characters. We were there to rescue the town, and were put on duty defending the town walls. We were attacked by an enemy we were told to expect, but they didn't tell us what the enemy could do. My character was like "why didn't you tell us about this!" and got the response "You didn't ask". So later, they specifically asked about a different monster we were being told to hunt for a test. A test, to prove we were reliable enough to keep protecting the town. And the NPC lied to my character about what the monster could do, resulting in serious injury, and when I confronted them, they admitted they lied just to mess with us. "It was a joke".I'm sure to that DM, many of the things my character cared about were stupid, because they couldn't seem to understand why a character would want to save lives instead of take reckless risks for laughs and gold. And so, I just keep looking at these declarations of "well, death happens if you act like an idiot" and I have to wonder.... No one in your games stands up for what they believe in? No one puts their faith and their life on the line for what is right? No one heads into danger to save the innocent? I've seen all of these things called "stupid" behavior, but the Player isn't being stupid. They are being heroic. They are embodying the archetype of their character. And frankly, I think that should be rewarded more often than it should be punished. I like a "stupid" paladin who will decry an evil king as being unfit to rule, far more than I like the "smart" Fighter who decides to keep his head down, let his friend be killed, and then wonders if the evil king is hiring mercenaries for premium prices.</blockquote>

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