What Do You Do When You're Dead?

[ExploderWizard]

I haven't killed a player in forever. I'm not sure how they'd handle it, but they are a mature bunch. I'm working on finding out what happens, but they keep winning. Tricksy players.

You killed a player!! You are seriously hardcore. I have had many characters die in my campaigns but killing players is harsh!!

 

[Nifft]

You killed a player!! You are seriously hardcore. I have had many characters die in my campaigns but killing players is harsh!!

It's really her own fault for naming her rogue "Blackleaf".

"No sympathy", -- N

 

[diaglo]

It's really her own fault for naming her rogue "Blackleaf".

"No sympathy", -- N

the player who named their PC Blackleaf in our campaign got shunted to the cold snowy North.

diaglo "i misfired for the MSU steam tunnels, " Ooi

 

[Mark Chance]

What do I do? Drink some more and whisper unhelpful suggestions to the players near me. I also bug the DM with crass IMs.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I've never actually seen players feel particularly left out, probably since games I play tend to be low level-- so no one ever ends up sitting on the bench for more than half an hour or so anyway.

As a player, I don't mind sitting out a combat. They're fun to watch, plus it gives me a chance to run to the fridge.

As DM, I'll let the player run an NPC or monster if he wants, but I've found most are content to watch events unfold and/or roll up a new character (though backup characters are usually ready to go, for exactly this reason )

I've toyed with the idea of allowing a PC interact with the world from Beyond (or from the Dreamworld, I suppose) in some minor way so he can continue to contribute, or at least try to. The idea would be to let the PC's spirit assail badguys or aid his buddies somehow... but I've never put together a mechanic for this. It might make an interesting premise behind a little campaign sometime.

 

[Edgewood]

A player of mine had a character death. They were pretty bummed during the rest of the campaign. So I handed him a note saying that his character was a ghost. I told him to take the MM and apply the ghost template to his character and come back to the table.
When he was done the combat was over. The group were not of a high enough level to raise the dead and in my campaign world, finding an NPC to do so is a whole adventure in itself.

I had him play the rest of the session as a ghost following the PCs. He couldn't materialize at first but was able to aid them in small ways. He actually played as a ghost for a few sessions and even got to materialize at one point and interact with the PCs for a short period. Eventually he was raised. He said it was the most fun he had playing the character.

 

[Chrono22]

Truth be told, I've only had one character of mine actually die in a campaign. He adventured in the afterlife.

 

[Iron Sky]

Back in 2e or 3e, if someone lost a character, they'd sit at the periphery of the game and work on making a new character. If they could get it done before the game was over they could join back in with their new character.

This rarely happened (usually they couldn't get one done in time) with the exception of the guy who always played wizards in 2e. His wizards died somewhere around 13 times in the course of 1 campaign (5 of those deaths in one session!) He got to the point where he could make a new wizard in about 5 minutes and be back in the game.

In my 4e game I've had ~7 character deaths through the course of Heroic Tier (including 4 in a near-TPK). In all cases except the ~TPK, the session went on and the other person whipped up a new 4e character on the Character Builder, back in 10-15 minutes(faster if they already had another level-appropriate character built on their laptop). I'd always let them fully-redesign their character after the session since they were building them so quickly.

The worst death ever was in a short-lived Alternity game I ran back in High School where the PCs were angels sent from heaven to battle demons. One of the PCs angels was killed in the first gunfight with the police (long story). In order to get him resurrected, they needed to get him to the East Coast (they were on the West Coast).

They were left $5,000 by the contact they were supposed to meet on the East Coast. The money was supposed to be for airline tickets, but the PCs said "hey, if we steal some cars, we can just drive to New York and then we'll have 5 grand!"

It took 5 hours in RL(4 days in game) of the dead player sitting there bored out of his mind as the players took out dozens of cops, stole half-a-dozen cars(the dead body transferred from trunk-to-trunk as cars were ditched/destroyed), and left a trail of destruction across the country.

When they finally got there and got him resurrected, it was late and the game ended. The campaign never had a second session (since I was looking for Blade meets the Matrix versus demons and I got Grand Theft Auto meets Fast and the Furious versus cops).

 

[Krensky]

Incapacitation doesn't last that long in my games, but if pressed playing the NPCs works. I'll also use this for those times the party has massively split itself up (like different parts fo Europe split up).

It can be used for PC death too, but typically I encourage players to spend their time coming up with a really good story to Cheat Death, since they really want lots of agreement from the rest of the table that their tale is cool to avoid the worst results on the Cheating Death table. If they don't want to Cheat the pale man, it's a good time to make a new PC.

 

[dogoftheunderworld]

In my more mature (i.e. "we're getting to old for this...") group, character incapacitation means a well-deserved bathroom break, or snack run, or hovering over the other players giving out advice.

In my son's game (teenagers, low level 3.5), it has already become an issue to deal with. Once they are out (dead, asleep, etc), they tend to zone out or pull out their cell, etc. I try to keep them involved in the spirit of the game, but it's harder since they don't have a feel for the RPG-ness yet (i.e. giving OOC advice, hanging on the edge of suspense for the rest of the party to survive).

Couple of things I might try as adopted from earlier responses:

1. Keep an NPC hireling handy. I will call him Bob. He shall be the torch barer and will keep to the fringes of the party until someone goes down - when he suddenly becomes a brave young lad with a fiery weapon.

2. Have the player actively play the character's spirit (ghostly or meditative) whenever they become unconscious. Thus giving them an active IC role and reason for giving advise and generally being a nuisance to the party.