Inconvenient PC death in D&D

[Cor Azer]

How about an inconvenient crippling? Like, say, the wizard being Intelligence drained down to 5. Or the fighter getting a bunch of negative levels. The barbarian's axe getting sundered (with no backup).

Quasqueton

As Joshua said, different kettle of fish. Specifically, the death situation takes a player out of the game completely. A crippling event severely hinders a character, but the player can still play.

Often, it's those "crippling" events that separate the heroes from the adventurers.

 

[Drowbane]

[snarky]Interesting question. I'm not sure I truely understand it. Is there a convenient time to die?

PCs die, crit happens. Have backup PCs ready to go... as you can die before you leave town. [/snarky]

Seriously though, I think players should have 2 back up PCs on hand ready to bring in "just in case"... New PCs are fairly easy to add.

Deep in a dungeon? New PC(s) is encountered as the last survivor(s) of his former party... perhaps kept as a slave/prisoner somewhere close (to the party).

Out in the middle of teh wilderness? See above.

If the player is deadset on having his PC rezzed and refuses to play a backup until that time...? well Dragon mag is a suitable way to pass the time.

 

[Lanefan]

To avoid just this question, I allow and somewhat encourage players to run 2 PC's at a time, so when one dies they still have something to do.

Rarely, someone will lose *both* PC's at once, at which point they either have to take on an NPC, or start rolling up replacements, or sit and watch, or go home.

As for bringing in new characters, I'll tweak things a bit if needed, but my parties both have long-range travel now and thus can easily invent an excuse to go back to town if required.

The worst ones are when a pre-existing character is trying to join a party in the field, and the party unknowingly goes everywhere except where the PC is...

Lanefan

 

[Roadkill101]

In my campaigns, players will have a second and third character to fall back on, as soon as an opportunity to work the new character in arises.
In a campaign I play in, the GM approaches character death with a Highlander theme. Your character doesn't die unless decapitated. It's not uncommon for the BBEG to be of the Highlander variety either, so after a fight we tend to chop off all heads, just to be certain our vanquished foes are properly and permanently vanquished.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When I DM, it depends upon the situation. Ever since DarkSun, I've encouraged people to generate character trees...but they seldom do. Still, sometimes its "make a new PC, dude," but it could just as easily be "wait for a few minutes, man..."

In 2 of the last 3 campaigns in which I've been a player, I've had PCs either go negative for long periods of time or actually die, but in each case, the PCs were "rescued." In all probability, one was DM Fiat- in a 3 man party, a single PC's death can be more than inconvenient...and I would probably have played a "clone" anyway. Still, during the PC downtime, I was given nothing to do, so I took upon myself the duties of "Official Heckler."

Heaven help the DM who lets me play a PC with the taunt ability...

 

[Agent Oracle]

How do you handle “inconvenient” (for the game) character deaths in a D&D game?

Like when a PC dies in the first encounter of the adventure (first 15 minutes of the game session).

Hand the player 4d6, express condolences that their wizard drew the first critical hit in the game, and failed to stabilize at -9. (Had it happen.)

When a PC dies in a wilderness encounter, far from any civilization.

Hand the player 4d6, look at the other players and say "Well, you've lots an ally in the middle of nowhere, what will you do now?" nod encouragingly when funeral plans are discussed. sigh and shake my head when they begin splitting up his stuff. note to reduce treasure for next few encounters to compensate. (had it happen)

When a PC dies while the party is deep inside an enemy fortress.

hand the player 4d6, tell him to hurry through chargen. Take a good chunk of time narrating the loss of their ally, hopefully spurring the players into a vengeful frenzy, and giving the player a chance for a limited chargen. Scribble a speech for the new PC to deliver on arrival "He killed my father, i have to make him die". (have not had it happen... yet.)

When a PC dies in the middle of an adventure with a tight time schedule.

Hand the player 4d6. Pause play to order food. The only time a time schedule is too tight is if the bomb is already ticking down and is below 1:17. If they only have an hour before the end of the world, a new PC can show up. if they have a day. a new PC can arrive.

Does the party immediately pull out of the adventure, or start heading back to civilization to let the Player bring in a new PC?

Does the Player have to just sit around for the rest of the game session (or multiple game sessions) while the rest of the group finishes?

Dear gods no! Never. My players are fully aware that they are not the only adventuring heroes out there in the world. They also know that there are even heroes out there who are doing this as a solo profession. No adventure is too inflexible for another hero to join at (nearly) any point.

I think i answered your questions.

 

[el-remmen]

Does the Player have to just sit around for the rest of the game session (or multiple game sessions) while the rest of the group finishes?

Do you fudge the adventure to have a “prisoner” discovered or a “lost and wandering” character enter the area for the Player?

Some combination of the two of these.

 

[Woas]

For one campaign I ran once we used the variant rule in Unearthed Arcana where armor (only the physical kind: so actual armor, shields, natural... I think that was it) would convert damage taken into non-lethal damage up to the armor bonus granted.

So for example if you have full plate on and take 17 points of damage, you take 8 non-lethal and 9 normal.

This worked out pretty neat cause when characters dropped it was because they 'passed out', not cause they were 'bleeding out'. It was nice because characters could come back from being KO'd in a fight much easier.


But for other games that did not use that rule: hey, adventuring is a high-stakes job... if you die and want to somehow come back then that is fine. But it'll cost ya. If you want a new character thats cool too, I'll do my best to work them in ASAP, but it'll still cost ya...

 

[Sunderstone]

As a DM in a small sized group of 5 with myself included, I usually run an NPC (non-Rogue of course). When someone dies, I let them run the NPC until we get to a place that I can insert a new character in a more believable manner.
I just hope that no more than one person dies that session.

 

[Gundark]

simple... happens. Characters die. We adjust and move on.