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General Tabletop Discussion
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Tension, Threats And Progression In RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7731422" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I think its possible to have very different values for what 'PC Death' means to the players depending on the sort of game you are playing. As examples:</p><p></p><p>Pemerton's style of evolving stakes game which he is discussing above doesn't really care about PC death. PCs COULD die, and that might or might not change the stakes in some fashion, depending on the details of the narrative. I think shidaku is right, death isn't 'off the table', it is simply part and parcel of the 'what do the players care about?' of the game.</p><p></p><p>EGG's style of 'skilled play' OTOH is focused heavily on character progression in a purely mechanical sense. It is generally lighter on plot and more designed around player skill where the measure of that is character level. You die, you go back to the start in pretty much classic arcade game like fashion. Gygax did invent ways to recover, resurrection and such, as well as an emphasis on troupe play, which usually allows for a player to assume the persona of some other henchman or whatnot. So maybe you suffer a setback, now you're a level 4 cleric instead of a level 8 wizard, but you got some loots and you can keep playing, maybe even find the body of your 'master' and get him rezzed. Death definitely is something to avoid, pretty much THE thing to avoid, in this kind of game, though of course players in practice often didn't care that much if they died or not.</p><p></p><p>You really can't discuss this sort of topic without first establishing what sort of a game you're playing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7731422, member: 82106"] I think its possible to have very different values for what 'PC Death' means to the players depending on the sort of game you are playing. As examples: Pemerton's style of evolving stakes game which he is discussing above doesn't really care about PC death. PCs COULD die, and that might or might not change the stakes in some fashion, depending on the details of the narrative. I think shidaku is right, death isn't 'off the table', it is simply part and parcel of the 'what do the players care about?' of the game. EGG's style of 'skilled play' OTOH is focused heavily on character progression in a purely mechanical sense. It is generally lighter on plot and more designed around player skill where the measure of that is character level. You die, you go back to the start in pretty much classic arcade game like fashion. Gygax did invent ways to recover, resurrection and such, as well as an emphasis on troupe play, which usually allows for a player to assume the persona of some other henchman or whatnot. So maybe you suffer a setback, now you're a level 4 cleric instead of a level 8 wizard, but you got some loots and you can keep playing, maybe even find the body of your 'master' and get him rezzed. Death definitely is something to avoid, pretty much THE thing to avoid, in this kind of game, though of course players in practice often didn't care that much if they died or not. You really can't discuss this sort of topic without first establishing what sort of a game you're playing. [/QUOTE]
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