Poll: PC Death

[sniffles]

"PCs rarely, if ever, die. DM pulls punches when we would die and it would ruin the story"

This would describe all of the games I'm involved in. Most of them have an overarching plot, and trying to come up with reasons why a new PC would get involved with the party would be difficult.

But even if we didn't use overarching plots, I believe that threat of death is not the only way to offer challenging adventures.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

If you make a dumb mistake you die. Only in the rarest most crucial time would I ever not kill someone who should die for story purposes.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Wow...

It's not player vs. DM nor is it stupid decisions that kill PCs. It's just how the game works that PCs die. Failed a fort save? Dead. That orc got a crit? Dead. Can't get out of the owlbear's grapple in time? Dead. DM rolled really good that round? Dead.

Especially now that my game is 14th level, PCs die every couple of sessions. I believe the last one was due to a crumbling cube on Acheron followed by a 2 mile fall. One had winged boots, two got caught by the wizard's featherfall, but one guy had nothing to "fall" back on (heh heh heh) and splatted.

But it was awesome!

Luckily that's what raise is for.

 

[howandwhy99]

Wow...

It's not player vs. DM nor is it stupid decisions that kill PCs. It's just how the game works that PCs die. Failed a fort save? Dead. That orc got a crit? Dead. Can't get out of the owlbear's grapple in time? Dead. DM rolled really good that round? Dead.

Especially now that my game is 14th level, PCs die every couple of sessions. I believe the last one was due to a crumbling cube on Acheron followed by a 2 mile fall. One had winged boots, two got caught by the wizard's featherfall, but one guy had nothing to "fall" back on (heh heh heh) and splatted.

But it was awesome!

Luckily that's what raise is for.

I agree with this message.

The game kills the PCs. Well... playing poorly at the game does.

 

[Treebore]

Why did they do those things?

I don't know. Never got a really good answer. I chalked it up to being too stubborn to admit they were being stupid.

I had a player, just a couple fo months ago, go confront a group of fire giants who he already knew had sold out on him. I told him, the other players told him, it was suicide to go see them alone. He never came back. He was thrown in a lava flow.