What do you do when a PC dies because of a bad dice roll?

[MonsterMash]

At the moment, they die, but I am considering a fate/hero points system that allows a character to be stabilised at -9 HP at the expense of a point like the Conan RPG.

 

[cmanos]

I try not to kill PC's. If they 'die', there are ways back, but they will have to RP the hell out of things it they want it bad enough.


More likely than not I'll tell people to have a backup character just in case.

 

[swrushing]

First, i always have some form of action pt in the game. So its rarely just a single bad die roll that will kill you.

Second, most save-or-die have been ruled to take you to negative hit points, not dead. That creates drama with the "gotta get to him before he dies" kind of things.

Finally, i tend to not throw save-or-die until the party has reasonable access to bring-backs, whether by PC casting or contacts who can. "death" of the "down 'til we get you raised" is not the hero-gone notion that it is before that is an option.

PCs, aka stars, wont permanently die unless they bring it on themselves and i don't consider the simple die rolling to be bringing it on yourself.

 

[Afrodyte]

I would love to play in a game where the characters (and players) prized and worked for some valued ideal to the point that it was the measure of success and failure, while combat was just one of the options they had in search of that goal. Were that the case, dice rolls for the high ideal would stand, while lethal blows just took the character out of play for a bit.

But no. The games I play in, the sole metric of success seems to be combat, treasure, and cool stunts. That being the case, getting pounded into the tar seems to be the major success/failure issue that the players care about. And there's no real thrill to victory without challenge and risk.

You know, I'd really like to start a Blue Rose game, and you'd be the perfect player for it. This is the sort of thing I wish I could find more often amongst D20 players.

 

[diaglo]

Other: Mock them endlessly and tell them not to let their dice get near mine.

ditto.

also tell the player to break out his 3d6 and roll up a new character if he wants back in this session.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I mock their die rolling abilities incessantly and laugh while I reach out to grab the character so I can add it to the pile o' the dead.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm not crazy about "stupid" deaths, and I don't go out of my way to use save-or-die spells. Nevertheless, without the possibility of death I think the game becomes a lot less fun. I'm not going to fudge dice to prevent it.

 

[BlackMoria]

We don't fudge die rolls. Our group uses hero points from AU and players can use the hero points to save themselves or others. But deaths do occur.

Then they go to "The Wall", as the players call it. The backs of my two DM screens are papered and I use small skull decals to record each death. This is not some morbid sense of score keeping on my part. "The Wall" exists as a reminder, each time that the players look my way, that we are not playing Canasta here..... characters can die and will die if the players don't use teamwork, smart play and the proper mix of caution and panache.

It seems to work, because there are few deaths and what deaths there are, tend to be heroic deaths.

 

[Ibram]

I dont use Save-or-Die effects (they are just to annoying), as such I have no problem letting the dice fall where they may (unless its the third time in three consecutive games that a guys character has been killed). I dont have Res spells IMC (at least not readily available ones) so its not realy an option. Fortunatly character death is a rare occurence IMC.

We actualy had a character death like this recently. One of the party monks was slain by a troll afte the troll got a few good hits in. I offered to have him survive (the encounter proved more powerful the I had expected) but the player didnt want to (I think he was getting bored with his monk, which is why he went one-on-one with a troll). He made a barbarian realy quickly, and as the party reached the troll camp they found his new character nailed to the "Tree of Woe"

 

[KB9JMQ]

Basically I let the dice determine their fate.
Besides it probably wasnt the dice that got them to the point of battling someone with a Finger of Death/Disentigrate Spell.
Now if I think I threw somthing at them they couldn't handle then I will try to fix it.