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Potential Player to DM: "What Is Your Mortality Rate?"
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<blockquote data-quote="Feliath" data-source="post: 235365" data-attributes="member: 3008"><p><strong>PC Death</strong></p><p></p><p>First things first: My current campaign Mortality Rate is precisely ((1/3)*100)%. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Secondly, I tend to handle character death by this simple rule of thumb - close to one previously mentioned, by the way:</p><p></p><p><strong>Never kill a character unless:</strong></p><p><strong>1) He/she does something really, <em>really</em> stupid. Like decide to shoot an arrow at the leader of a band of 14 hobgoblins surrounding the party - at level 2 (this example is used because this actually happened in the campaign, and is responsible for the two deaths in my rating).</strong></p><p><strong>2) It is dramatically correct, <u>and</u> the player finds it agreeable.</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p></p><p>Other than that, PCs NEVER die. There are other kinds of loss one might experience - like NPCs the PCs and/or players like (I've taken out raising spells too), money, magic items (magic is horribly scarce IMC). </p><p>On that note, a lot of people seem to first state "it's boring if they don't die, it takes away the suspense" and then go on to state that you can resurrect anyway. How, I ask <strong><em>HOW</em></strong> is this separate in any way from the PC getting beaten into a pulp by a wraith, gaining a negative level (or in the case of more powerful resurrecting spells, just fighting a [whatever] and getting no negative level) and having [whatever sum] of GP stolen from them while out cold? </p><p></p><p>Y'know what? I'll answer the question myself: <strong>it isnt</strong>!</p><p>If all the repercussion there is to death is that you need to pay to get resurrected, then the tension inherent in dying <em>doesn't exist</em>. It's exchanged for the tension of losing money - something easily done even if you don't play with random character death. So I just do away with the "1-up!"framework and hit PCs hard with other things. They know they'll only get killed by their own stupidity, but that doesn't make them incautious (at least not generally; see above <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite11" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes :rolleyes:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> ): they <em>also</em> know that Bad Things will happen to them anyway.</p><p></p><p>Summary for the patience-impaired <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />: The ability to resurrect the dead takes away the tension of possible PC death just as effectively as doing away with most PC death. </p><p></p><p>/Feliath</p><p></p><p>Edit - fixed an incomplete sentence inside a parenthesis</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Feliath, post: 235365, member: 3008"] [b]PC Death[/b] First things first: My current campaign Mortality Rate is precisely ((1/3)*100)%. ;) Secondly, I tend to handle character death by this simple rule of thumb - close to one previously mentioned, by the way: [B]Never kill a character unless: 1) He/she does something really, [I]really[/I] stupid. Like decide to shoot an arrow at the leader of a band of 14 hobgoblins surrounding the party - at level 2 (this example is used because this actually happened in the campaign, and is responsible for the two deaths in my rating). 2) It is dramatically correct, [U]and[/U] the player finds it agreeable. [/B] Other than that, PCs NEVER die. There are other kinds of loss one might experience - like NPCs the PCs and/or players like (I've taken out raising spells too), money, magic items (magic is horribly scarce IMC). On that note, a lot of people seem to first state "it's boring if they don't die, it takes away the suspense" and then go on to state that you can resurrect anyway. How, I ask [B][I]HOW[/I][/B] is this separate in any way from the PC getting beaten into a pulp by a wraith, gaining a negative level (or in the case of more powerful resurrecting spells, just fighting a [whatever] and getting no negative level) and having [whatever sum] of GP stolen from them while out cold? Y'know what? I'll answer the question myself: [B]it isnt[/B]! If all the repercussion there is to death is that you need to pay to get resurrected, then the tension inherent in dying [I]doesn't exist[/I]. It's exchanged for the tension of losing money - something easily done even if you don't play with random character death. So I just do away with the "1-up!"framework and hit PCs hard with other things. They know they'll only get killed by their own stupidity, but that doesn't make them incautious (at least not generally; see above :rolleyes: ): they [I]also[/I] know that Bad Things will happen to them anyway. Summary for the patience-impaired ;): The ability to resurrect the dead takes away the tension of possible PC death just as effectively as doing away with most PC death. /Feliath Edit - fixed an incomplete sentence inside a parenthesis [/QUOTE]
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