"PCs usually die of stupidity"

[Krypter]

LEEERRROOOY JENKINS!

http://z.wimp.com/v/leeroy.wmv

For my group, it's usually a Leroy Jenkins moment when somebody just snaps and goes bonkers on the monsters and/or NPCs. Sad, really. I guess some of the guys are a little high-strung in their jobs. It's a rare occurence though. The stupidest cause of death I ever had in my group was a TPK:

Player 1: "Hmm, a dark, bloodstained altar to a horrendous evil god...what should we do?"
Player 2: "Let's chant forbidden mantras in his name and see what happens!"
Whole Party: "Good idea!"

...

 

[Arnwyn]

I voted "not knowing when to quit", but for my particular group it's really a specific subset of that - horrendously bad resource management by the players. Either push on when they're way too weak, or expend all their resources immediately and wonder 'now what?'.

 

[kanithardm]

1)Something they should have known.

I had a town with no one in it.

Me:What do you do?
Paladin:We got to the bar.
Rogue:Ya!!!
Paladin:We look for beer.
Me: Do you.. look for the people?
Paladin:No, we grab glasses and drink beer.
Me: (grrrr)They're umm.. trapped and all the beer explodes.
Paladin:Fine, we look for the people.
.........
Me:You find them in the castle.
Paladin:We look for more beer.
Me:********************** Instead of the goblins attacking the princess they kill you.
Paladin:Now can I have beer?

Note:This paladin was banned. The monk just kind a watched and the rogue chimed in, but it was mostly me arguing with the paladin.

He should of known his death was coming.

 

[Sir Brennen]

The only TPK I've ever experienced was because the players violated the cardinal rule of "Never Split Up the Party."

Not only did they split up, but every single player managed to wind up wandering the dungeon (assassin's hideout) solo, without any encouragement from me (the DM).

Yeesh.

 

[Dakkareth]

-- Not knowing when to quit / surrender / retreat / rest. ("We can handle one more room...")

Hasn't happened to me yet, but it will, I'm sure of it. Until now the only threatening situation I had in the current campaign happened, when two enemy mages got initiative and fireballed us first thing. Hello, -9 HP! Hello, friend druid! And now, my enemies, die! A narrow scrape, but nothing we could have done about it. So ... arrogance will kill my character.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Not knowing when to quite, or just not wanting to quite. I used to use some house rules that made combat more grim and gritty so they would stop and rest more, but it was mostly futile on my part.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Not knowing when to quit.

Also, I vote an honorable mention for DM stupidity. I say this as a frequent DM. I've done plenty of stupid things to send the players to a dirt nap. I'm not proud of it, just saying. Working on getting better.

Back to not knowing when to quit: why do you all think this happens? Is it a failure to accurately evaluate remaining assets/abilities after a/several fight(s)? Dedication to a particular role-playing concept (the paladin who never retreats, never surrenders!)? To many video games where you can reload the last save?

I wonder if part of it isn't a kind of player hubris that says, "Hey, we're the players. The DM's not gonna kill us! Then there'd be no story." Ao the Overkitty mentioned this upthread. As a player, I've never assumed this (and I've lost plenty of characters, come to think of it, often through the "let's press forward" theory of dungeon exploration), but I wonder if a lot of players do.

Thoughts?

Warrior Poet

 

[KaosDevice]

It always seems to be player's overestimation of their own abilities in my games. The real fun was in the early days of 3.0 when players reeaaaaalllly didn't understand the whole "monsters can have classes and/or templates that up their danger factor by huge degrees" concept.

Good times...good times...

 

[sniffles]

Not knowing when to quit.

Also, I vote an honorable mention for DM stupidity. I say this as a frequent DM. I've done plenty of stupid things to send the players to a dirt nap. I'm not proud of it, just saying. Working on getting better.

Back to not knowing when to quit: why do you all think this happens? Is it a failure to accurately evaluate remaining assets/abilities after a/several fight(s)? Dedication to a particular role-playing concept (the paladin who never retreats, never surrenders!)? To many video games where you can reload the last save?

I wonder if part of it isn't a kind of player hubris that says, "Hey, we're the players. The DM's not gonna kill us! Then there'd be no story." Ao the Overkitty mentioned this upthread. As a player, I've never assumed this (and I've lost plenty of characters, come to think of it, often through the "let's press forward" theory of dungeon exploration), but I wonder if a lot of players do.

Thoughts?

Warrior Poet

I've never assumed that the GM won't kill my PC, but I don't allow my PC to stop doing what he's doing just because he's only got 5 HP left. In my thought process, PCs don't have a health meter telling them how they are, and in the heat of action/combat they may be so full of adrenalin they don't realize they're in bad shape. I've heard news stories of people with ultimately fatal gunshot wounds running from the scene of the shooting, for example, so I don't think it's unreasonable that a person would keep going when seriously hurt.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I've never assumed that the GM won't kill my PC, but I don't allow my PC to stop doing what he's doing just because he's only got 5 HP left. In my thought process, PCs don't have a health meter telling them how they are, and in the heat of action/combat they may be so full of adrenalin they don't realize they're in bad shape. I've heard news stories of people with ultimately fatal gunshot wounds running from the scene of the shooting, for example, so I don't think it's unreasonable that a person would keep going when seriously hurt.

Note that one carefully. They ran from the scene. And then died. They probably died when all that adrenaline stopped. But they did run from the scene instead of continuing fighting...

So - when the fight stops, you calm down and you're left on 5hps, you're probably hurting and hurting bad. And given that there is usually a supremely skilled medic standing right next to you in the average D&D campaign, it seems more than a little stupid of your character to not take advantage of the fact, or have a rest once you're out of danger.