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Should D&D Have an Alternate Death Mechanic?
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<blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3620408" data-attributes="member: 198"><p>Serious answer: To expand on what hexgrid put so succinctly above, because death is only among the possible repercussions for failure in the game. And, IMNSHO, one of the more boring ones. In my games, PCs are almost immune to death, since I allow usage of action pts (and now, swashbuckling cards) to survive a killing blow/effect at -9 hp and stable. In nearly 60 sessions in my Eberron game, we've had 1 PC death (without the rule, we'd have 30). But PCs are constantly being challenged during combat. If taken down, PCs have been kidnapped, lost valuable equipment, prevented from achieving some important objective, failed to prevent the BBEG from some objective, lost valued friends and allies, been magically mutated, etc. They constantly face the risk of defeat, without death being a common one thereof.</p><p></p><p>I joke that if I kill a PC that's a failure on my part because it means he escaped and his suffering stopped, but I'm only half kidding. A permanently dead PC can't suffer and doesn't have to live with the repercussions of his failures. A temporarily dead PC isn't dead anyway, so the repercussion for failure isn't death but the associated issues, which one can have without death. In short, I get all of the benefits of death in my game without any of the negatives.</p><p></p><p>And one last thing. Whether death is or isn't on the line, players will usually be just as invested in winning a fight, because players hate for their PCs to lose. Especially to theoretically weaker opposition, which is something I tend to use a lot.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="shilsen, post: 3620408, member: 198"] Serious answer: To expand on what hexgrid put so succinctly above, because death is only among the possible repercussions for failure in the game. And, IMNSHO, one of the more boring ones. In my games, PCs are almost immune to death, since I allow usage of action pts (and now, swashbuckling cards) to survive a killing blow/effect at -9 hp and stable. In nearly 60 sessions in my Eberron game, we've had 1 PC death (without the rule, we'd have 30). But PCs are constantly being challenged during combat. If taken down, PCs have been kidnapped, lost valuable equipment, prevented from achieving some important objective, failed to prevent the BBEG from some objective, lost valued friends and allies, been magically mutated, etc. They constantly face the risk of defeat, without death being a common one thereof. I joke that if I kill a PC that's a failure on my part because it means he escaped and his suffering stopped, but I'm only half kidding. A permanently dead PC can't suffer and doesn't have to live with the repercussions of his failures. A temporarily dead PC isn't dead anyway, so the repercussion for failure isn't death but the associated issues, which one can have without death. In short, I get all of the benefits of death in my game without any of the negatives. And one last thing. Whether death is or isn't on the line, players will usually be just as invested in winning a fight, because players hate for their PCs to lose. Especially to theoretically weaker opposition, which is something I tend to use a lot. [/QUOTE]
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