New WotC Article - Deadly Dice
UngeheuerLich
Legend
uncommon.
I prefer PC death to be both final, and very rare. I dislike casual resurrection, and disposable characters.
What there really needs to be is a good way to have "players fail to achieve their objectives, but they live to fight another day". I'd rather the tension be on "do we succeed?", than on "do we survive?". But it's hard to have those situations, especially in games where the mechanical focus is so strongly on combat. Once a combat starts, it gets hard to justify it ending in any way other than one side being dead.
What there really needs to be is a good way to have "players fail to achieve their objectives, but they live to fight another day". I'd rather the tension be on "do we succeed?", than on "do we survive?". But it's hard to have those situations, especially in games where the mechanical focus is so strongly on combat. Once a combat starts, it gets hard to justify it ending in any way other than one side being dead.
Infiniti2000
First Post
I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at all the comments implying that death is necessary for tension and excitement:
- I like a fairly lethal game as they exude tension.
- Death needs to be a possibility, or there is no excitement...
- The threat of death must always be present or the fights turn dull.
Li Shenron
Legend
Uncommon is a good default, but the best is of course if the rules make it easy for the DM to control lethality.
I think it is important to have death of characters as something to be concerned about. Otherwise play can potentially devolve down to the party fighting anything even when logic dictates they should run for their lives.
I'm currently running a sandbox without tightly tied plotlines so death is common. In a different campaign style it would be less so, but still an everpresent possibility.
I'm currently running a sandbox without tightly tied plotlines so death is common. In a different campaign style it would be less so, but still an everpresent possibility.
ExploderWizard
Hero
[Monte Cook-from article]
I remember way back in the earliest days of the game how someone told me that people didn’t even bother naming their characters in their campaign until 2nd level because there was so little chance that a 1st-level character would survive. As silly as that might sound, the feeling of accomplishment at surviving such a lethal game, even for a little while, must have been great. []
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.
[Monte Cook-from article]
Of course, one could argue that the D&D game isn’t about feelings of accomplishment. It’s about creating characters and developing fantasy stories. Characters perhaps shouldn’t die unless circumstances dictate it, rather than when the dice go against them.[]
No. There are plenty of other games one can use to tell stories. In D&D, death happens when it happens. Sometimes due to certain circumstances and other times due to rotten luck.
Uncommon.
Being an adventurer is dangerous always but death isn't common. Sometimes death comes from foolishness and is deserved. Sometimes it is bad luck and unfair. But death is always there and it just happens sometimes.
Adventurers have dead friends and the number increases as they live. They mourn and remember them. They know stuff happens, yo.
Being an adventurer is dangerous always but death isn't common. Sometimes death comes from foolishness and is deserved. Sometimes it is bad luck and unfair. But death is always there and it just happens sometimes.
Adventurers have dead friends and the number increases as they live. They mourn and remember them. They know stuff happens, yo.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
Death should be a possibility at any time. I've seen TPKs to a group of pretty suck bandits just because the party totally borked it up.
But most of the time, death should only be a very real threat on the "big fights".
But most of the time, death should only be a very real threat on the "big fights".
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