Piratecat ruined my D&D game

[donremus]

Lots of good advice in this thread. I'll add my tidbit.

Quasqeton (and others), have you read "Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering"?

Wow I never knew that book existed, I may buy it for my DM and hope he doesn't take offence to it lol

 

[Jolly Giant]

In a viking campaign, I'd bring people back via valhalla or hel (or comparable place per individual), via a quest to said realm, or by bargaining with the appropriate keeper of the realm. In the case of a fallen hero, the PCs would try to bargain with a valkyrie to return him. This could, perhaps, be done temporarily (a loan of the soul), or a trade, or a side quest or debt. If you kept the Raise Dead spell, you could word the fluff as stealing the soul from Valahalla or something.

In any case, PC death can be annoying, can ruin verisimilitude, and generally would be nice to avoid.

That's got much more of a Viking feel to it, yes. So you see why I want to keep those rules I mentioned out of the book; they don't really fit, IMO. On the other hand, i can see how some DMs might want to include them to keep their campaigns a little less deadly. Which is why I think posting them separately, as optional rules, is the way to go.

Raise Dead stays though. The sagas mention powerful spellcasters who can restore dead people to life; or take a person's life simply by pointing at somebody and speaking words of power. So that means Finger of Death stays too!

Edit: I suppose I'm high-jacking the thread here. Please Ignore me!

 

[Rystil Arden]

One other question, maybe I should ask of those folks who say "My campaign ran from 1st to 20th level": Did the original *PCs* go from 1st to 20th level, or was it just the campaign -- For instance, Player A's original PC went from 1-3, then died; Player A's PC #2 went from 3-7; Player A's PC #3 went from 7-14; Player A's PC #4 went from 14-20. Or did Player A's PC make it all the way from 1-20 (maybe dying and being raised along the way a few times)?

I'd like to have a campaign in which at least half the original PCs went from 1st to 20th level. As it normally is, my campaigns go from 1st to 6th level, or from 5th to 10th, or from 9th to 12th, etc. (Or 1st to 1st to 1st to 1st.

Quasqueton

I've run a campaign that ran from 1-20 with 100% of the original PCs. There were a huge number of deaths, but they always raised the old PCs (and eventually paid for True Res spells, even though that made them significantly poorer).

In the Shackled City game in which I'm playing, we've reached level 7 without a single death (and I hear SC is supposed to be a meatgrinder) due to tactics and teamwork.

 

[Piratecat]

Wow I never knew that book existed, I may buy it for my DM and hope he doesn't take offence to it lol

It's superb. Try to find it!

 

[donremus]

It's superb. Try to find it!

Easier said than done, it's not on Amazon or Ebay as far as I can tell.

 

[donremus]

Found it as an e-book here http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG30-3009 for $7.95

Thanks!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Obviously, revenge is your only recourse. Kill piratecat.

... and take his stuff.

If it hasn't been said yet (I'm reading through this awesome thread now).

 

[Rel]

Wow I never knew that book existed, I may buy it for my DM and hope he doesn't take offence to it lol

It is an absolutely excellent view on GMing and it completely revolutionized the way our gaming group approaches the dynamics of player/GM interaction. I got a chance to meet Robin at GenCon last year and I went all fanboy on him, which was a little embarassing.

Then I went and drowned said embarassment in beer and strippers, so it all worked out for the best.

 

[Slife]

It is an absolutely excellent view on GMing and it completely revolutionized the way our gaming group approaches the dynamics of player/GM interaction. I got a chance to meet Robin at GenCon last year and I went all fanboy on him, which was a little embarassing.

Then I went and drowned said embarassment in beer and strippers, so it all worked out for the best.

Drowning in strippers? Whatta way to go.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Actually, you can. It's all a case of slow training. As the Kitty says, reward the clever, and give the players ownership of the world. If the world reacts to your PCs, and if they have character based reasons to care about the challenges, they're going to stick around. And it's a case of rewarding what you want in your game play with things that matter to the characters and the players.
[/dog trainer hat off]

But not every player wants to be clever or have ownership of the world. Some come 'round the table for different reasons, and I can't see it as my job as DM to force them to get into it from a different angle.