On the Importance of Mortality

[DestroyYouAlot]

The First Sin of D&D is novel-writing: the DM is telling a story in which the players are spectators and the dice cannot change the outcome.

The Second Sin of D&D is circle-jerking: the DM and players are telling a story in which the players are doomed to triumph. (Yes, I meant that.)

Most of us avoid the First Sin. Almost none avoid the second. The dice save us. The dice inject raw chaos into the story. They are the source of terror and salvation. They can kill you, or they can give rise to the stories we retell over and over.

That's a pretty apt way of putting it.

Both "death-is-the-end" and "death-is-a-revolving-door" are bad literary tropes. Both are wrong. Break out those literary chops, and make death mean something, but get the player back in the game. This is the single hardest and important job of the DM.

Hear, hear!

I even go so far as to develop an entire adventure -- scaleable to level -- that I will run in the event of a TPK. I am then eager to run that adventure. My players know it. They know I will kill them without batting an eye, and that death will make the game better. It makes for some hair-raising games.

Huh - that one I hadn't thought of. Have any examples?

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I even go so far as to develop an entire adventure -- scaleable to level -- that I will run in the event of a TPK. I am then eager to run that adventure. My players know it. They know I will kill them without batting an eye, and that death will make the game better. It makes for some hair-raising games.

What could possibly be hair raising about knowing that a TPK will result in a cool adventure hook? If the regular campaign got boring, I'd be looking for a red wyrm to take on to get to the DM's A game.

 

[Carpe DM]

Huh - that one I hadn't thought of. Have any examples?

Well, the current campaign that I'm running used a TPK as the starting point. We played a regular D&D campaign until a TPK occurred. Then the real plot began -- the PCs woke up on a mass-grave barge, moored in the river of the largest and most corrupt city in the world, naked. Each one had a mark of one of the seven sins branded on his / her forehead, and a tarnished silver coin in his / her left hand.

And so the campaign began in earnest...

Another one: Upon death, the characters become damned souls, and the adventure shifts from stock fantasy to Planescape "Escape from Hell."

Another one: The players become the people who killed them. (This is from the famous double Dungeon adventure where you became the Giants who had just been raided by the pesky insect humans).

I also do partial versions of these -- I really try to have one story-based way to kill a PC and have the player still have a *ball* in my back pocket so that when the time comes I do not penalize the player.

Killing characters is necessary. Taking a player (all your players?) out of the game for the evening is unforgivable. That's why we make so many mistakes with this part of gaming.

Cheers!

Carpe

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

We played a regular D&D campaign until a TPK occurred. Then the real plot began...

As long as the players are on board that can work. There are however plenty of players that would object to playing an adventure different to genre they agreed to play.

 

[shilsen]

Carpe's Law: the chance of anyone reading a post 200 posts down in a list is infinitesimal compared to any effort expended in writing it.

I like it!

The First Sin of D&D is novel-writing: the DM is telling a story in which the players are spectators and the dice cannot change the outcome.

The Second Sin of D&D is circle-jerking: the DM and players are telling a story in which the players are doomed to triumph. (Yes, I meant that.)

Nice. Personally, I take a different approach.

The First Sin of D&D is playing the game and not enjoying yourself.

The Second Sin of D&D is assuming that what you enjoy about the game is automatically something other people will (or should enjoy).

Which is why, even though I wouldn't be guilty of your two Sins, if a particular group are and it actually helps them enjoy the game, I say more power to them.

Killing characters is necessary.

As this thread proves, it isn't. It may be for some people, but not for all DMs and players.

Taking a player (all your players?) out of the game for the evening is unforgivable.

Agreed. I can't remember the last time I did that, and I'm never going to do that again.