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How to deal with death in RPG?
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<blockquote data-quote="uzirath" data-source="post: 7585561" data-attributes="member: 8495"><p>This has been discussed quite a bit on these and other forums. Two threads I recall from a few years ago were <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547741-The-Dying-Conundrum" target="_blank">The Dying Conundrum</a> and one that I started, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547996-Not-dying" target="_blank">Not Dying</a>.</p><p></p><p>My own position is that it depends a lot on the style of campaign and what your players are looking for. As I mention in the Not Dying thread, in my longest running campaigns, I don't irrevocably kill PCs due to bad die rolls. There are scenes and encounters that are significant enough that death is on the table, but usually the stakes are deeper than mere character death: the PCs are deeply invested in the game world and care about their allies, local and international politics, etc. When they're invested in the in-game stakes, you get plenty of drama from the game without knocking characters off.</p><p></p><p>In other types of games, keeping your character alive against the odds is the whole point, so in those games you can definitely die from a bad roll. The idea in those games is to minimize the number of times you need to roll-or-die. Since that's a core element of the fun, to take it away would be counterproductive.</p><p></p><p>Do you find that your ideas differ from your players? What are their preferences?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="uzirath, post: 7585561, member: 8495"] This has been discussed quite a bit on these and other forums. Two threads I recall from a few years ago were [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547741-The-Dying-Conundrum"]The Dying Conundrum[/URL] and one that I started, [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547996-Not-dying"]Not Dying[/URL]. My own position is that it depends a lot on the style of campaign and what your players are looking for. As I mention in the Not Dying thread, in my longest running campaigns, I don't irrevocably kill PCs due to bad die rolls. There are scenes and encounters that are significant enough that death is on the table, but usually the stakes are deeper than mere character death: the PCs are deeply invested in the game world and care about their allies, local and international politics, etc. When they're invested in the in-game stakes, you get plenty of drama from the game without knocking characters off. In other types of games, keeping your character alive against the odds is the whole point, so in those games you can definitely die from a bad roll. The idea in those games is to minimize the number of times you need to roll-or-die. Since that's a core element of the fun, to take it away would be counterproductive. Do you find that your ideas differ from your players? What are their preferences? [/QUOTE]
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