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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8186257" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>Leaving this here for reference later...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And the typical, "Oops, you're dead! Just make up a new character, come back next week, and we'll handwave that the other characters trust you with their lives so we can keep going," isn't a cheap experience? If the characters are tossed aside like used tissues when they die, clearly they are pretty cheap, no?</p><p></p><p>Whether this would "cheapen the experience" depends on why your players are at the table. There are some types that would find rescuing PCs to be an issue. But, for many others, it isn't an issue. You should ask your players what they really want. For example, for some, the resuting narrative is what is important. The narrative sucks if it becomes, "I played the characer for a few sessions, but then just died in a combat we didn't really care about." The charcter sheet gets crumpled up and tossed in the recycling bin, to be forgotten in a couple weeks. It becomes cool if the narrative is, "I fell in combat, and then this awesome thing happpened and I was rescued form the edge of death!"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Exactly</em> because of that backstory, in fact.</p><p></p><p>Look at your life for a moment. There are things in it you care about, yah? Friends? Family you care about? Pets. A home you are attached to? A job that keeps you going? Aspirations for things you want to do in the future? Is your life really the only thing you have to lose? No? Then why should it be the only thing a character has at stake?</p><p></p><p>When you have that backstory, you have a key into things the character cares about other than just their own life. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So, consider - soap operas are perhaps the most successful genre of television ever created. They are <em>entirely contrived</em>, but to many, they are compelling and satisfying. </p><p></p><p>What's <em>more interesting</em>: 1) You're dead. Make a new character, or 2) You fell in combat, and the xvarts carried you off to be offered as the first meal to their new sacred centipede, soon to hatch from the one last egg the PCs missed. It will be a slow process of the centipede eating you alive, unless either the party, or you, find a way to escape this fate....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 8186257, member: 177"] Leaving this here for reference later... And the typical, "Oops, you're dead! Just make up a new character, come back next week, and we'll handwave that the other characters trust you with their lives so we can keep going," isn't a cheap experience? If the characters are tossed aside like used tissues when they die, clearly they are pretty cheap, no? Whether this would "cheapen the experience" depends on why your players are at the table. There are some types that would find rescuing PCs to be an issue. But, for many others, it isn't an issue. You should ask your players what they really want. For example, for some, the resuting narrative is what is important. The narrative sucks if it becomes, "I played the characer for a few sessions, but then just died in a combat we didn't really care about." The charcter sheet gets crumpled up and tossed in the recycling bin, to be forgotten in a couple weeks. It becomes cool if the narrative is, "I fell in combat, and then this awesome thing happpened and I was rescued form the edge of death!" [I]Exactly[/I] because of that backstory, in fact. Look at your life for a moment. There are things in it you care about, yah? Friends? Family you care about? Pets. A home you are attached to? A job that keeps you going? Aspirations for things you want to do in the future? Is your life really the only thing you have to lose? No? Then why should it be the only thing a character has at stake? When you have that backstory, you have a key into things the character cares about other than just their own life. So, consider - soap operas are perhaps the most successful genre of television ever created. They are [I]entirely contrived[/I], but to many, they are compelling and satisfying. What's [I]more interesting[/I]: 1) You're dead. Make a new character, or 2) You fell in combat, and the xvarts carried you off to be offered as the first meal to their new sacred centipede, soon to hatch from the one last egg the PCs missed. It will be a slow process of the centipede eating you alive, unless either the party, or you, find a way to escape this fate.... [/QUOTE]
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