Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 9620164" data-attributes="member: 6915329">Probably not. Some of the most memorable scenes in the game have occurred after bad rolls or after I did something that got me seriously injured. I didn't know that the events would work, just that it was far less likely I would die from it. That meant I felt more free to try it. I don't think so. If death was a likely occurrence, I probably wouldn't do risky things, at least not as often, and that would lead to a somewhat less fun game overall. Or it would lead to me not character about my character quite as much, because if they die, I just make a new one. In the post he just made, [USER=697]@mearls[/USER] said "The groups I ran for that suffered a severe setback - losing three characters in one round to a vorpal sword, for instance - each rallied and absolutely crushed the adventure with inventive, teamwork driven play. The threat of defeat rallied them, rather than deflated them."But those are con games, and maybe those weren't characters the players really cared all that much about.* That's different than in a long-term game where I know all the other players and we've been together for a long time. If I was in a game where I'd played a character for months or years of real time only to have them get killed by a vorpal sword in what may not be the major climactic battle, I don't think that I would just "rally." I don't think a lot of people would just rally. At least not right away, which would likely have to be the case in a con game.*Or maybe these were characters the players had been using for years at con games. I don't know how con games work.Of course, it also depends on the game. Which I actually think might be the problem with what Mearls was saying, because not every game is a gritty O/AD&D-alike where death should be a constant worry. Not even every D&D game is or should be like that. Larger-than-life heroic fantasy is a perfectly acceptable genre that tends to not have a lot of PC death in it, at least outside of the major climactic battles. And many games, including some D&D games, are about things other than facing constant death.</blockquote>

Verification