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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9277905" data-attributes="member: 2067">Games don't always work that way. Death is a pretty standard and unsurprising mechanic in a lot of games, even games with strong narrative tendencies. Games don't have to have death, but it's not exactly radical to suggest that they can have death, and that this is a meaningful distinction from other media like movies and books where the concept of a &quot;protagonist&quot; is important. Games don't need a protagonist. Even fiction-heavy games don't need a protagonist. And games with protagonists can kill them or not as much as they like. Oh, so you want this to be An HP Thread, now. No, I don't think so. As a gameplay function in D&amp;D, traps can be said to potentially cause death. Whether they do this via HP damage or a CON save or a save vs. death or whatever, the point is that traps can cause PC death. It's irrelevant to the mechanics of traps if you narrate the event as dodging the boulder or being hit by the boulder or whatever. That risk of death is an important function in the gameplay, because it's important in player psychology. It triggers that loss aversion, it commands attention, it is not something you can ignore and be confident of still achieving your goals. This works regardless of if your HP are meat or not.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 9277905, member: 2067"] Games don't always work that way. Death is a pretty standard and unsurprising mechanic in a lot of games, even games with strong narrative tendencies. Games don't have to have death, but it's not exactly radical to suggest that they can have death, and that this is a meaningful distinction from other media like movies and books where the concept of a "protagonist" is important. Games don't need a protagonist. Even fiction-heavy games don't need a protagonist. And games with protagonists can kill them or not as much as they like. Oh, so you want this to be [I]An HP Thread[/I], now. No, I don't think so. As a gameplay function in D&D, traps can be said to potentially cause death. Whether they do this via HP damage or a CON save or a save vs. death or whatever, the point is that traps can cause PC death. It's irrelevant to the mechanics of traps if you narrate the event as dodging the boulder or being hit by the boulder or whatever. That risk of death is an important function in the gameplay, because it's important in player psychology. It triggers that loss aversion, it commands attention, it is not something you can ignore and be confident of still achieving your goals. This works regardless of if your HP are meat or not. [/QUOTE]

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