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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8936837" data-attributes="member: 2629">It wasn't my message, but I do believe that you can tell good stories with invulnerable PCs.&nbsp; In comics, the PCs are essentially invulnerable, right?&nbsp; you have the occasional perm death, and a few too many temp deaths ... but for the most part, nobody believes the hero will actually die - yet people like those comics.If the drama comes from the non-vulnerable storyline aspects - why does it matter if PCs are at risk of death?&nbsp; If the PCs have to figure out how to set off 12 triggers in different parts of a castle in 10 rounds of action - what does it matter if they're going to risk death along the way?&nbsp; The race is the story.&nbsp; I'd argue that introducing a risk of death makes the story worse by distracting from the core drama - like an action movie that throws in fights that do not serve the story and seem random.D&amp;D is an RPG - a role playing game.&nbsp; Characters play a role in a story.&nbsp; the game is at its best when there is a well constructed story that has good tempo, well set character choices that have impact, and thrills.&nbsp; Violence can provide some of that - and it isn't wise to neglect the strategy game part of D&amp;D - but you don't want to be a one trick pony throwing deadly encounters at the PCs time after time.&nbsp; If every encounter is deadly, a 5th level PC feels as helpless as a low level PC, and so does an 11th or 17th level PC.&nbsp; In my experience, a hallmark of a really darn tooting great DM is pulling players into the story and getting them excited when the threat is not deadly - but the stakes are high nonetheless.&nbsp; These DMs put the storyline first - and the insanely good ones can do it on the fly so as to allow the PC choices, especially the unexpected ones, to drive the overall storyline in ways that may be unexpected, but still tell that great story.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8936837, member: 2629"] It wasn't my message, but I do believe that you can tell good stories with invulnerable PCs. In comics, the PCs are essentially invulnerable, right? you have the occasional perm death, and a few too many temp deaths ... but for the most part, nobody believes the hero will actually die - yet people like those comics.If the drama comes from the non-vulnerable storyline aspects - why does it matter if PCs are at risk of death? If the PCs have to figure out how to set off 12 triggers in different parts of a castle in 10 rounds of action - what does it matter if they're going to risk death along the way? The race is the story. I'd argue that introducing a risk of death makes the story worse by distracting from the core drama - like an action movie that throws in fights that do not serve the story and seem random. D&D is an RPG - a role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. the game is at its best when there is a well constructed story that has good tempo, well set character choices that have impact, and thrills. Violence can provide some of that - and it isn't wise to neglect the strategy game part of D&D - but you don't want to be a one trick pony throwing deadly encounters at the PCs time after time. If every encounter is deadly, a 5th level PC feels as helpless as a low level PC, and so does an 11th or 17th level PC. In my experience, a hallmark of a really darn tooting great DM is pulling players into the story and getting them excited when the threat is not deadly - but the stakes are high nonetheless. These DMs put the storyline first - and the insanely good ones can do it on the fly so as to allow the PC choices, especially the unexpected ones, to drive the overall storyline in ways that may be unexpected, but still tell that great story. [/QUOTE]

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