D&D 5E [+] Questions for zero character death players and DMs…

[overgeeked]

I think the point that unpredictable character death doesn’t have a place in some campaigns has been pretty well made.

If you're predisposed to that style of play, yes. If it's not a style of play you're interested in, no.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Boromir died!

100% a heroic sacrifice that established a major story beat and resonated throughout the rest of the campaign. Exactly the kind of death a player might choose for their character!

 

[JiffyPopTart]

So, lots of examples of a heroic heros death. Other than for comic relief can anyone think of examples of featured character death that is "random" in that it doesn't impact the story at large?

Best I can think of is some Lovecraft stories where people just ... die. If it serves a purpose it might just be to show how fragile humans are, but it's not always done in the traditional dramatic fashion.

There were also a couple Song of Ice and Fire deaths that were pretty gratuitous.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm not sure whether to reply to this thread because I'm basically a zero death GM outside D&D. But in D&D I tend to kill a character every half dozen or so sessions.

The reason is because in other games there's an expectation that I will do other things to PCs than killing them in ways D&D really doesn't support. For example my Blades in the Dark PCs routinely end up traumatised (and indeed play into it as it leads to XP), and characters in other games will end up injured rather than simply missing a few hit points. The only long term consequence D&D plays into mechanically is death - so I both DM and play with the expectation that that's the main one.

 

[Mort]

I'm not sure whether to reply to this thread because I'm basically a zero death GM outside D&D. But in D&D I tend to kill a character every half dozen or so sessions.

The reason is because in other games there's an expectation that I will do other things to PCs than killing them in ways D&D really doesn't support. For example my Blades in the Dark PCs routinely end up traumatised (and indeed play into it as it leads to XP), and characters in other games will end up injured rather than simply missing a few hit points. The only long term consequence D&D plays into mechanically is death - so I both DM and play with the expectation that that's the main one.

While I agree that D&D doesn't really have any other mechanical consequences to death (other than exhaustion) I've found non-mechanical consequences tend to work as well, or better.

If players see the only consequence of failure for their PCs is death - than that tends to become a rather boring consequence. You roll up a new PC, join the group and off you go. On the other hand, other consequences tend to be more interesting.

For example, I've found many players are as or more attached to their PCs stuff than they are to the actual PC. I've not seen a look of bigger fear on the players faces then when they ran into a horde of rust monsters after finding a big cache of adamantine.

Similarly, in many campaigns, fear of failure is as or more pressing than fear of PC death. Because, again, die roll a new character. but fail, and that consequence can stay for the long haul.

So, I guess, my point is - mechanical consequences aren't the be all end all and can often take a back seat to in-game, in-story consequences.

 

[Charlaquin]

If you're predisposed to that style of play, yes. If it's not a style of play you're interested in, no.

If you think you’re disagreeing with what I said, you’ve misunderstood something.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, lots of examples of a heroic heros death. Other than for comic relief can anyone think of examples of featured character death that is "random" in that it doesn't impact the story at large?

Best I can think of is some Lovecraft stories where people just ... die. If it serves a purpose it might just be to show how fragile humans are, but it's not always done in the traditional dramatic fashion.

There were also a couple Song of Ice and Fire deaths that were pretty gratuitous.

Tasha Yar in TNG. Explicitly random. They made use of it after the fact, but it was depicted as random and purposeless.

 

[Charlaquin]

So, lots of examples of a heroic heros death. Other than for comic relief can anyone think of examples of featured character death that is "random" in that it doesn't impact the story at large?

Best I can think of is some Lovecraft stories where people just ... die. If it serves a purpose it might just be to show how fragile humans are, but it's not always done in the traditional dramatic fashion.

There were also a couple Song of Ice and Fire deaths that were pretty gratuitous.

Yeah, SoIaF is a good example of a story which pointedly uses “random” character deaths to underscore its tone and themes. The Walking Dead is another. The thing is, I disagree that such “random” deaths don’t affect the story at large. Those stories would have gone down very different paths had those characters not “randomly” died. And I think that’s the point of such deaths in D&D. They mark a significant turning point - all the stories that might have been told with the deceased character are now lost forever. The emergent story must now take a dramatically different turn.

 

[Charlaquin]

Tasha Yar in TNG. Explicitly random. They made use of it after the fact, but it was depicted as random and purposeless.

Though in a meta-narrative sense, it’s purposelessness was its purpose. There’s really no such thing as a character death that doesn’t have huge narrative consequences. And that is as it should be, in my opinion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Though in a meta-narrative sense, it’s purposelessness was its purpose. There’s really no such thing as a character death that doesn’t have huge narrative consequences. And that is as it should be, in my opinion.

Agreed. However a character dies, hopefully it will lead to cool narrative stuff. I just want it to emerge from gameplay.