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<blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 3946023" data-attributes="member: 1757">I do agree with Counterspin that the designers are targeting boring stuff rather than deadliness. Also, I cannot agree with Lanefan that &quot;the game is being designed by players rather than DMs&quot;; not merely because I have a hard time understanding how a &quot;your character's screwed, no save&quot; mechanic like 1e/2e level drain is &quot;good&quot; from the DM's perspective, but more to the point because it is in the DM's interest, possibly even more than the players', to have everyone involved in gameplay to the greatest extent possible. Building tension, cooperation, and deep involvement in something as immersive as a role-playing game is a delicate process. The more you kick people out of that process as it's cohering, the harder it is to get them back in and keep them involved. The moment your players head for the fridge, the XBox, or their laptops, you're in trouble as DM.A player whose PC is dropping negative hit points or at the bottom of the condition track is actually likely to still be involved in the game, in a manner of speaking; he's making stabilization checks and probably screaming bloody hell at his fellow players to heal him before he's dead. A paralyzed, dead, or otherwise removed-from-combat-entirely PC's player? Not so much. I'd rather a game in which everyone's able to do something every round. Note that this cuts a number of ways; for example, back in our 1e days, the two wizard PCs (the most powerful members of the party, natch) would habitually just sit out combat. The players would wander off to the kitchen, grab a coke, check on sports scores on the TV, and generally be out of the game for sometimes as much as half the session total. IMO, it wasn't an ideal situation. Anything the designers can do to mitigate the problem of players sitting out gameplay is, IMO, a good idea.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ruleslawyer, post: 3946023, member: 1757"] I do agree with Counterspin that the designers are targeting boring stuff rather than deadliness. Also, I cannot agree with Lanefan that "the game is being designed by players rather than DMs"; not merely because I have a hard time understanding how a "your character's screwed, no save" mechanic like 1e/2e level drain is "good" from the DM's perspective, but more to the point because it is in the DM's interest, [i]possibly even more than the players'[/i], to have everyone involved in gameplay to the greatest extent possible. Building tension, cooperation, and deep involvement in something as immersive as a role-playing game is a delicate process. The more you kick people out of that process as it's cohering, the harder it is to get them back in and keep them involved. The moment your players head for the fridge, the XBox, or their laptops, you're in trouble as DM. A player whose PC is dropping negative hit points or at the bottom of the condition track is actually likely to still be involved in the game, in a manner of speaking; he's making stabilization checks and probably screaming bloody hell at his fellow players to heal him before he's dead. A paralyzed, dead, or otherwise removed-from-combat-entirely PC's player? Not so much. I'd rather a game in which everyone's able to do something every round. Note that this cuts a number of ways; for example, back in our 1e days, the two wizard PCs (the most powerful members of the party, natch) would habitually just sit out combat. The players would wander off to the kitchen, grab a coke, check on sports scores on the TV, and generally be out of the game for sometimes as much as half the session total. IMO, it wasn't an ideal situation. Anything the designers can do to mitigate the problem of players sitting out gameplay is, IMO, a good idea. [/QUOTE]

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