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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8710127" data-attributes="member: 2629">I run three types of games: One shots, adventures and campaigns.  I address death differently in each.In a one shot, if you die before the last event of the one shot, I have a backup available and drop you right back into the action in the backup.  It is usually something simple to run, like an NPC monster with three or four abilities, but it keeps you in the game.  One shots should have a story, but in the end, the short story is not worth forcing a player to watch from the sidelines for more than a few minutes.In an adventure (which spans between 3 and 10 sessions and then will end the run of those characters in my games), I tend to give the PCs 'last minute save opportunities' to keep a PC alive.  An adventure tends to be more of a railroad, and I tend to weave the PCs into the railroad more tightly, so it is better for the game if the PCs survive.  Death isn't off the table.... but there are a lot of safety bumpers.When I run a campaign - which is intended to run from level 1 to at least 17 - Death is always on the table.  There are threats around the PCs that are too tough for them.  There are situations where they can anger people with a lot of power.  They live in a dangerous world.  In campaigns, once I introduce something into the world, I don't cheat it back.  I don't revise it to make it weaker, or have it fail to act as I'd intended just because it would be rough on the PCs.  As a player and a DM, I have found the best experiences occur in a world where it feels like things are being discovered as the PCs encounter them - not created on the spot to fit a certain need.  I make sure the PCs have the capability to discover the information that will allow them to avoid great danger, but there is something really fun in discovering a threat that is too big for you and then growing into being the party that can handle it.  However, this comes with the reality that PCs die.  At low levels, that is usually a permanent death and a replacement PC situation, and my belief that the PCs need to feel like this is a world they're discovering, not one being crafted in the moment, means we have to wait for a place where it makes sense for a new PC to join the party.  If that is going to be a while, I'll usually turn the player into a 'co-DM' for battles (and some social encounters), allowing them to run key monsters or NPCs.  When a PC dies and 'their story ends', it doesn't end.  I have background story elements from the background of PCs, and I play those out without the PC being present.  This gives the fallen PC a legacy, even if the PC is not part of the game directly anymore.  Some of the best moments I've had in a DM have been when the players realize that things are going crazy in their world because of something their dead ally from 11 levels ago was wrapped up in... Still, about 1/3 of the PCs in a campaign die before 5th level.  Sometimes it is that random critical hit at level one, sometimes it is getting in over their head and not retreating fast enough.  Sometimes it is just bad luck. It just happens.Once they hit 5th level, PC permanent deaths becomes more rare.  It can still happen (and does about once more in a campaign on average), and I approach it the same way when it does.  PCs have to wait for an opportunity to introduce a new PC - but here, it is also because there is a far greater chance the PC will be able to come back.  Even at 5th level, it is pretty reasonable for the PCs to recover the body, find someone that can raise the dead, and then bring the PC back.  As a side note: in my game, the mechanics of death saves for PCs are understood by some foes (I have a status called Godtouched - all PCs have this status - and it gives creatures the ability to advance rapidly in class abilities and get the benefit of death saves).  To this end, some villains will focus on the true killing blow to make sure an enemy stays down.  In the same way that an Immortal Highlander makes sure they cut off a foe's head, a Godtouched in my setting will devliver those 2 or three attacks to a downed foe - and potentially will take the body to prevent raising of the dead.  However, Once you get to 9th level, assuming you can recover the body at some point, permanent death is not really likely at all.</blockquote>

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