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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8708245" data-attributes="member: 6779196">It isn’t true that they’re “in no way comparable” as [USER=82524]@Vaalingrade[/USER]  said they were. They’re not comparable in player investment, but they are comparable in other ways, and the way in which I was specifically comparing them was that neither is a punishment for playing wrong.Sure, personal investment in the character and narrative is one of the things that sets RPG play apart from other kinds of games, absolutely. I make no claims otherwise.I made the analogy specifically as a counter to @Vaalingrade’s claim that character death is “a punishment for playing wrong.” It is not, just as the capture of a piece or pawn in Chess is not a punishment for playing wrong. In that sense, they absolutely are comparable, which is why I made the analogy. There are many other ways in which they are different, none of which are relevant to the specific point of whether or not their loss during the course of gameplay is a punishment for playing wrong.The way it can be leveraged is in creating an emergent narrative in which characters might die unexpectedly.That’s all fine, play however you want to play. But that is not the only way to play, and unexpected character death can absolutely have a place in other ways of playing.Wait, have you been assuming resurrection is not possible in games that do allow for unexpected character death? If so we’ve been talking past each other.I have made no such claims, ever. I in fact have said multiple times that I have run and played in no death (and low death) games and they absolutely can have meaningful consequences.Who says there has to be a high chance of it being discarded? In 5e at least, character death isn’t very common, at least not if run according to the rules and guidelines in the book. And it’s the player’s own decision if they replace their character with a nearly identical one. If that hurts your ability to invest, and investing is something you want to do, I recommend not making that decision.You could do that, and that would be fine. But there is absolutely a place for putting all of that investment at stake.Ability to participate in play?? I don’t kick players out of the game when their characters die…Well, I’m not telling you that, so I don’t know why you keep replying to me like I am.But a D&D character is neither just an avatar or just a game piece. I understand and respect that for you, the possibility of unexpected character death makes it feel like just a game piece. I was expressing that for me, the impossibility of unexpected character death makes it feel like just an avatar. If you understand and respect that, you’re not really showing it.</blockquote>

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