Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3281478" data-attributes="member: 198">That's only true if death is the only repercussion in the game. I run a heavily player/PC-driven game with almost no possibility for resurrection magic, as well as running NPCs way more effectively than their CR says they should, so I took death out of the equation. PCs can use action pts to survive killing blows/effects at -9 hp (stable). Without that, I'd have had 25 deaths in 50 sessions.But that hardly makes combat in our game unexciting or means people try stupid stuff and don't care. That's because there are significant repercussions for defeat beyond death. PCs can be captured, lose valuable equipment, lose important items connected to the plots they're involved in, have enemies learn valuable secrets about them, fail in achieving some particular aim that is predicated on their success, etc. In many ways, death would actually be much easier on them, in comparison to being beaten and surviving. And, of course, there's the whole question of player ego, since nobody likes his PC to have his ass handed to him.In short, it's very easy to have tension in the game even without save-or-die spells, or death for that matter. The reason that people want death to be present is so that PC actions have dire consequences. As long as you ensure such consequences still exist in the game, the presence or absence of death becomes irrelevant.</blockquote>