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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Similkameen" data-source="post: 5086580" data-attributes="member: 79812">The threat of dying - and dyingI've been DM over quite a few years, and now have the happy opportunity to be playing in both 3.5 and 4e games.I find one of the most important things I am doing as DM is setting up adventures where there is the threat of death.  If there isn't a real chance that the party can die or fail in some way, a lot of the fun, the anticipation, the need to really find other solutions is lost.  The game goes flat without that threat.It is a challenge for the DM to not kill all the party members all of the time, but just have death an actuality often enough for the players to enjoy the game.I can see that if you are a DM for young players this might need to be moderated somewhat.It is built into the game that you can be raised from the dead, so party members are meant to die.  As a player in 4e, I've been turned to stone, and left there, so built a new character.  An opportunity to play something else, and try different elements of the game.  I've died and been raised since we're high enough level to cast the ritual, as have two other characters.In the 3.5 game, I've survived.  Most other party members have died, and some several times.  The threat there is real, and when we get careless and don't think through what we're doing and just float in, someone dies.It is sad for our characters, sometimes it is hard to keep campaign cohesiveness, as new characters constantly join us.  But the DMs in these games are awesome, a couple of them are very very good.  They run the encounters to the fullest, the monsters use all their capabilities, including acting intelligently.  It is a much more exciting game, when that thrill is there.In our games too, the model is that you aren't so attached to our character, that we can't acknowledge that some heros and heroines don't make it, we mourn them, bury them, or leave them to rot depending, eh.  New characters join in, the dynamics change, feathers get ruffled.  It is part of the interesting roleplaying.So no, I wouldn't be house-ruling a game where death was avoided.  I think it would take away the challenge, the thrill, the anticipation.</blockquote>

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