D&D 5E Take Infinity Damage

[pming]

Hiya!

Just re-load your saved game.

LOL! Sorry to semi-derail here...but this just made me LOL and instantly think of a "campaign that never was". I own, yes, I admit it, about a half-dozen of the d20-based "Everquest RPG". I had actual random tables that I had created for when certain rolls/situations came up.

You didn't "roll for divine intervention"...you rolled on the "Favorable Bug Table"; it had things like 'PC's camera clips through side of wall and can see 10d10 feet in a 45 degree arc', and 'Temporary Exploit Loop found, PC can repeat last action to get exact same result', and stuff like that. There was a "Bad Bug/Glitch Table" as well; it had things like 'PC's actions are completely ineffectual for Xd10 rounds and at end of that time PC is reset to exact location where this glitch started'...and the dreaded 'PC manages to DC and must wait 5 minutes of real time before he is respawned at his last save spot' (fyi, "DC" in mmo lingo means 'Dropped Carrier'...ie, his game crashed or internet connection gets lost too long).

Anyway, yeah, you could 're-load' your character if you got a lucky "Death Happenstance Table" roll.
The whole purpose was to REALLY bring home that feeling of playing a video game MMORPG, but in table-top form. Guess what? It worked. Well. Almost too well!

Ok, back to the regular discussion.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[jasper]

I think the most sensible thing to do is to run down a list and compare: "do I think you're more likely to survive this, or falling on lava".

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/volcano-lava-cold-fall-survive/

But that's an extreme example. Similar, but slightly different is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghe_Special_Steel_Corporation_disaster

6 people survived, and at least one one of them claims to have gotten molten steel (twice the temperature of lava, and way more effective at transferring heat) on their clothes.

MOM MOM MOM UM MORRUS MORRUS MORRUS
He getting SCIENCE ALL OVER MY FANTASY!

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Just re-load your saved game.

Ah, but D&D hails from an era before you could save a game. Instead you used a quarter and got a handful of 'lives' before your game was over. The old Resurrection-costs-a-point-of-Con mechanic is a reflection of this ethos.

 

[77IM]

In that case, you have to very quickly give the DM a quarter.

 

[BookBarbarian]

The whole lake of lava thing came up in one of my recent games. One of my players failed their don't-fall-in-the-freaking-lava check, and I was left with a conundrum. How do you include the tension and excitement of an insta-death situation without setting up a straight save-or-die? Is it possible?
Bonus comic for illustrative purposes.

I find that having save or die scenarios is no fun for anybody at my table. As such i don't set adventures near lava. There are plenty of other places to have awesome adventures.

Now if I was in a Lava scenario I still would hate save or dies, so here is what I would do. I would describe failure not as falling into the lava, but falling onto cooler rocks that are above the lava, but were so small you couldn't even see them before. Then i'd have the character take fall damage and Lava damage (that's in the DMG right?)

Now they might have a chance to get themselves out or have the party get them out. And if they do die it's struggling heroically, not tripped like a fool.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

 

[Storyteller Hero]

When you know that the PC is going to die outside of some Deus Ex Machina intervention, go with the flow and begin a narrative.

"As your body rages with pain from the melting heat of the lava, a torrent of memories, hopes, and regrets come to the surface of your final thoughts. You remember the day when you first left on this adventure, the day you first met your comrades on this journey, the day when you lost that battle with the lich and swore vengeance. As all the world around you is drowned out by the agony of your demise, you hear a whisper in the distance - it's calling to you, it's calling your name. It's time to go home and rest. Your loved ones are waiting."

"Do you want to keep playing with this character?"

PLAYER: "What? You mean like getting rescued at the last minute?"

"No. Something else. Do you want to keep playing with this character?"

PLAYER: "Hell yes."

"Wait a bit then."

AFTER THE ENCOUNTER ENDS...

"You find yourself floating in the Gray of the Fugue Plane, drifting towards a rainbow-colored circle in the distance. You can see what looks like the image of a shining city of white and blue beyond the inner part of the circle. Two glowing humanoids with wings and spears stand guard next to the circle, which seems to be a portal now that you realize where it leads: To the afterlife realm of the very goddess you would pray to in the darkest hours. They are beckoning you to come to them..."



DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING...

 

[Fauchard1520]

Darths and Droids is always appropriate. Well done that man!

 

[merwins]

My players always run when presented with the _possibility_ of a save or die scenario.

They'll contort themselves to any other option, rationalize it however they have to, but they fight like hell to avoid them.

Their creative desperation usually results in a pretty good story.