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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8137005" data-attributes="member: 177">Well, let's talk about what other games that have death off the table look like...I'll start with the one I know best - Fate.&nbsp; Death isn't strictly off the table, but neither does it happen by chance.&nbsp; Death of a PC is a direct choice.&nbsp; While Fate handles other scenarios equally well, let us consider a straight up physical fight as the base situation...If the PC is getting close to being beaten, the player can concede - if the player concedes, the player gets to narrate how the character is removed from the scene, and fail to reach their goal, but manage to survive. If the player does not concede before being &quot;taken out&quot;, then the GM gets to narrate what happens.&nbsp; And the GM can choose, &quot;Your character dies.&quot;&nbsp; And, I suppose sometimes that's a fitting thing to do in the moment.&nbsp; But usually, if you have a choice... why would you do that?&nbsp; Saying, &quot;...and you die,&quot; is not itself very interesting, so most GMs I know don't choose that often.&nbsp; They instead use it as an opportunity to do something interesting that continues the story in some way.The results are, in my experience... kind of pulp-actiony.&nbsp; Players are a bit more free to attempt more dramatic, low-probability solutions, because they have somewhat more confidence that it won't outright end their investment in the character.This is not to say the results aren't also gritty - Fate has an innate way of handling long-term impacts on characters that D&amp;D lacks - &quot;Consequences&quot;.&nbsp; If you were trying really hard to do hazardous stuff, you probably rack up some Consequences that won't fix themselves overnight.&nbsp; Long-term injuries are easily modeled with higher level consequences.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 8137005, member: 177"] Well, let's talk about what other games that have death off the table look like... I'll start with the one I know best - Fate. Death isn't strictly off the table, but neither does it happen by chance. Death of a PC is a [I]direct choice[/I]. While Fate handles other scenarios equally well, let us consider a straight up physical fight as the base situation... If the PC is getting close to being beaten, the player can concede - if the player concedes, the [I]player[/I] gets to narrate how the character is removed from the scene, and fail to reach their goal, but manage to survive. If the player does not concede before being "taken out", then the GM gets to narrate what happens. And the GM can choose, "Your character dies." And, I suppose sometimes that's a fitting thing to do in the moment. But usually, if you have a choice... why would you do that? Saying, "...and you die," is not itself very interesting, so most GMs I know don't choose that often. They instead use it as an opportunity to do something interesting that continues the story in some way. The results are, in my experience... kind of pulp-actiony. Players are a bit more free to [I]attempt[/I] more dramatic, low-probability solutions, because they have somewhat more confidence that it won't outright end their investment in the character. This is not to say the results aren't also gritty - Fate has an innate way of handling long-term impacts on characters that D&D lacks - "Consequences". If you were trying really hard to do hazardous stuff, you probably rack up some Consequences that won't fix themselves overnight. Long-term injuries are easily modeled with higher level consequences. [/QUOTE]

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