What Do You Do When You're Dead?

[Votan]

They run one of their henchmen or a party hireling (often this has the side effect of making that particular NPC more 'real' for the entire group, and that effect continues even after the player returns to running an actual PC).

My groups don't usually have henchmen or hirelings but it is an excellent suggestion for how to make having them a good idea. I like the potential for improved player interaction with a recurring cast.

Nice idea.

 

[Lanefan]

Play their other character, that's in the party for just this situation.

I always play two at a time, and strongly suggest it to players in my games. Having one out of action happens quite often; be it by hold person, sleep, poison, turning to stone, death, whatever...but it's an unlucky night when both go down at once.

And, if your game is going to be a high-mortality affair, I suggest using a system that allows for reasonably fast character generation; so if someone has lost everything they're playing they can roll up a replacement while the rest of the encounter plays out.

Lanefan

Edit: p.s. it is in fact more realistic if a player with no active characters does wander away from the table for a while...

 

[The Shaman]

How do you counteract the problem of a player whose character can't do anything being bored or frustrated or disengaged from the game, since she can't do anything to affect the situation?

I play with people mature enough to handle being out of the action for a little while without being bored or frustrated or disengaged from the game.

 

[S'mon]

I play with people mature enough to handle being out of the action for a little while without being bored or frustrated or disengaged from the game.

Congratulations.

When I was running an open-access 3.5 game at my D&D Meetup I definitely had this problem. I remember that the foolishness of one player caused a disaster - the PC was a Barbarian and the very selfish player wanted to keep his Rage up, so after one encounter he went blundering on and ran into the BBEG Cleric of the module ('Rahasia'). The other PCs then followed; ran into the chamber, and per the module the BBEG's pet Bone Golem then burst out of its hiding place, within a 5' step of the 1st level Wizard PC. 4 sword attacks doing 1d8 each, some hot dice, and the 1st level Wizard was killed instantly.

The ex-Wizard player could have made up a new PC to resume play once the combat was over. But it was a lengthy combat, with PCs scattered around, some running into more monsters, a general SNAFU. The player got frustrated, kept complaining and demanding attention while I was trying to run the complex battle, I got curt with him, he got nasty with me, and eventually I had to tell him to go away. So the whole thing went very badly.

I learnt a few things from that, notably about managing expectations. In retrospect I think I could have left the battle for a couple of minutes to tell him to get to work generating his new PC, that I would bring him in ASAP, and possibly mollified him. Or not - considering the extreme fragility of 1st level 3e PCs combined with the entitlement mentality the game seemed to engender in some players, just killing his PC like that might have been what set him off.

Edit: Later on I booted the Barbarian player too, and eventually a third jerkish player. Not the highlight of my GMing career. But that was all in 2008, well over a year ago now and I've had no trouble since. In particular with running 4e I've had no trouble at all. Compared to 3e, 4e does a great job of setting and managing player expectations - PCs are more durable, and players are not so inculcated in an entitlement mentality. Plus I learned to be a bit more proactive and discriminating in player recruitment and I have a great group now.

 

[FireLance]

One possible option is for the player of the inactive character to get a special Aid Another action on his turn. Perhaps the sight of the unconscious or dead character spurs the other characters to greater heroism or instills in them a greater sense of caution. This could possibly be expanded to give the player of the inactive character more options than granting a bonus to attack rolls and defenses - a bonus to saving throws, a bonus to damage rolls, perhaps an extra square or two of movement, etc.

 

[Aus_Snow]

They run one of their henchmen or a party hireling (often this has the side effect of making that particular NPC more 'real' for the entire group, and that effect continues even after the player returns to running an actual PC).

Sometimes this.

They get to run, or at least roll dice for, the monsters.

Other times, this.

I play with people mature enough to handle being out of the action for a little while without being bored or frustrated or disengaged from the game.

Always this. Thank gawd.

 

[ggroy]

I learnt a few things from that, notably about managing expectations. In retrospect I think I could have left the battle for a couple of minutes to tell him to get to work generating his new PC, that I would bring him in ASAP, and possibly mollified him. Or not - considering the extreme fragility of 1st level 3e PCs combined with the entitlement mentality the game seemed to engender in some players, just killing his PC like that might have been what set him off.

In one game I played in back in the day, a player got really pissed at the DM for killing his character. So the player retaliated by punching the DM in the face, and smashing a beer bottle over the DM's head.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Normally I'd give them the opportunity to roll dice for the monsters (although they are often happy to just keep cheering on the home team)

 

[Mr. Wilson]

When a PC dies, which depending on campaign style and who's running it in my group happens more frequently, there are usually a few different solutions.

1.) The player begins to work on his or her new character while paying half-attention to the battle (and chucking in one-liners).

2.) The player picks up an NPC in the party if available and waiting on a res (only good in games like DnD).

3.) We hand over some of the monsters to the PC and tell them to take out their frustrations on his friends.

4.) He/She becomes food run (edit).

My campaigns usually feature less PC death, but more dramatic PC deaths. The 3.X campaign I'm in right now, OTOH, featured 3 PC deaths in 3 weeks.

 

[Jhaelen]

I play with people mature enough to handle being out of the action for a little while without being bored or frustrated or disengaged from the game.

A little while? Yep, no problem at all.

It becomes a problem when it's a long time. And especially in 3e even being out for a single combat can be a long time. We've had combats lasting 6 hours. It's definitely a case where going home early seems to be the best option.