TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
I keep coming back here to see if my old Junior High school friend Josh is going to post something like this:
Ah, good times.
Josh said:
Ah, good times.
Session to Death Ratio
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Haltherrion
First Post
Interesting poll but seems incomplete without also asking about resurrection in your game. Too bad we can’t do a tiered poll of some sort.
Death with resurrection is a different beast than death with no resurrection. Most game systems require some material price to come back from the dead but it still isn’t really death to me if you can undo it.
Over the years, I’ve mellowed and now allowed resurrection to some extent but in the past I often said ‘no resurrection, no exception.’ You die, your PC is finished, roll something new. I’ve also used “softer” limits by making it very expensive so that only higher level characters could reasonably expect it. I’m still opposed to it in principle but since it is a game and my players seem to really like it, I just leave it be.
My opposition to resurrection comes less from a desire to be a hard-ass (although I do believe there needs to be some irrevocable penalty) and more from my own personal sense of setting aesthetic. In a world with resurrection magic, and for that matter perfect curing of disease and many other ills, it just seems to me that things would be very different than how most games portray the affairs of the rich and powerful. For instance, it seems no rich or high ranked person would ever die of anything other than extreme old age. Daddy King and Mommy Queen would certainly find a pinkie or other little body part to resurrect poor Princy-pooh if he ever died on the battlefield or wherever that might be. Assassination would require elaborate methods to prevent the deceased returning, and so on.
Since I like making use of assassination, disease, unexpected death, it seems better to eliminate the in-game magic ways around it than to propose elaborate ways to defeat it. For one, people will do anything to avoid death if they have the means and any amount of protection and resurrection magic would be exploited, it seems to me.
I think I'll do an irrevocable death poll
Death with resurrection is a different beast than death with no resurrection. Most game systems require some material price to come back from the dead but it still isn’t really death to me if you can undo it.
Over the years, I’ve mellowed and now allowed resurrection to some extent but in the past I often said ‘no resurrection, no exception.’ You die, your PC is finished, roll something new. I’ve also used “softer” limits by making it very expensive so that only higher level characters could reasonably expect it. I’m still opposed to it in principle but since it is a game and my players seem to really like it, I just leave it be.
My opposition to resurrection comes less from a desire to be a hard-ass (although I do believe there needs to be some irrevocable penalty) and more from my own personal sense of setting aesthetic. In a world with resurrection magic, and for that matter perfect curing of disease and many other ills, it just seems to me that things would be very different than how most games portray the affairs of the rich and powerful. For instance, it seems no rich or high ranked person would ever die of anything other than extreme old age. Daddy King and Mommy Queen would certainly find a pinkie or other little body part to resurrect poor Princy-pooh if he ever died on the battlefield or wherever that might be. Assassination would require elaborate methods to prevent the deceased returning, and so on.
Since I like making use of assassination, disease, unexpected death, it seems better to eliminate the in-game magic ways around it than to propose elaborate ways to defeat it. For one, people will do anything to avoid death if they have the means and any amount of protection and resurrection magic would be exploited, it seems to me.
I think I'll do an irrevocable death poll
Last edited:
Wombat
First Post
In the current systems I run or play in (FATE, NWoD, Ars Magica), I would say about one death every 10-15 sessions sounds about right. During the D&D days it was far higher, probably every 3-5 sessions for a PC death, playing strictly by the rules. GURPS (which I have also played recently) is something of a middle ground between these two.
What ratio would I prefer? Whichever one is appropriate to the tale being told...
What ratio would I prefer? Whichever one is appropriate to the tale being told...
Olaf the Stout
Legend
In my Shackled City campaign we have played 43 sessions and there has been 1 PC death. I have not fudged any dice.
Overall I am really surprised by the lack of deaths. The campaign has a reputation for being a meat grinder, yet my PC's have not found it too tough for the most part.
Having 5 PC's and access to most splatbooks has definitely helped the survivability rate. There was 1 combat that almost ended in a TPK and another combat that would have been a TPK if the PC's hadn't agreed to make a deal with an Erinyes.
The campaign has still been tough though. In 43 sessions there have been 41 occasions where a PC has gone into negative hit points, so they are definitely being challenged. This campaign has made me realise that encounters in 3.5E D&D can go from balanced to overwhelming or balanced to a cakewalk with just a few good or bad rolls.
Olaf the Stout
Overall I am really surprised by the lack of deaths. The campaign has a reputation for being a meat grinder, yet my PC's have not found it too tough for the most part.
Having 5 PC's and access to most splatbooks has definitely helped the survivability rate. There was 1 combat that almost ended in a TPK and another combat that would have been a TPK if the PC's hadn't agreed to make a deal with an Erinyes.
The campaign has still been tough though. In 43 sessions there have been 41 occasions where a PC has gone into negative hit points, so they are definitely being challenged. This campaign has made me realise that encounters in 3.5E D&D can go from balanced to overwhelming or balanced to a cakewalk with just a few good or bad rolls.
Olaf the Stout
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