What happens when a character dies in your campaign?

[jester47]

KahunaBurger, JimAde,

It only really works if you use status quo encounters. My example was the Morume brood. So lets say you had a party that was all seventh level when a member finally died that could not be raised. Then the when the other characters reached 14th the first character was 7th. They decide to strike against the Morume brood and thier hobgoblin allies. So lets think about this. the hobgoblins have a fortress. So there are a number of hobgoblin warriors led by mightier hobgoblins. There is a power heirarchy. So it stands to reason that when the players get into a fight, they will be fighting a mix of normal warriors, elite units and "hero" hobgoblins. Variety enough for everyone. If you plan the encounters around the character's levels, then yes, having a mixed party becomes very difficult. Also lower level characters will advance in leaps and bounds slowing down as they get closer to the rest of the group.

Also, this method also works better if there is some amount of regular character death in your game. This way you get a really mixed party. Say you start with 4 1st level characters, they advance to 3rd without deaths, then in the next adventure one dies. The player has gotten bored with his character so decides that he wants to play somthing else, so he starts a new 1st level character, then next level, the wizard bites it in all the wrong ways. So now you have one 1st, one 2nd, and two 4th. This combo is really effective and they advance 4 levels without a death and due to the experience differential, the party is now 2 8th, 1 7th, and one 6th. Also, higher level characters can gift lower level characters (or sell at discount) weapons and armor or magic items that give the lower powered character a better chance at survival. But that just makes sense to me.

So basicly the back to first level works if 1) you make the world so the players can get into serious trouble if they want. 2) Characters die more often and 3) Use an experience system that lets lesser characters catch up. (even if 3 15th level characters are with a 1st level character, that character will be 6th level when the other 3 have leveled up once.)

Aaron.

 

[Agback]

G'day

I don't suppose that anyone cares much, because I don't run D&D but ForeSight/HindSight. In ForeSight characters start out much more capable than a D&D 1st level character and progress much more slowly. So there is no problem with new replacement characters starting at the same number of background factors that the original PCs started at. But in the case of a long-running campaign in which most of the PCs have spent over a thousand experience points (roughly speaking, the fruit of about 100 hours of play) I throw in an extra background factor.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Kahuna Burger]

KahunaBurger, JimAde,

It only really works if you use status quo encounters. My example was the Morume brood. So lets say you had a party that was all seventh level when a member finally died that could not be raised. Then the when the other characters reached 14th the first character was 7th. They decide to strike against the Morume brood and thier hobgoblin allies. So lets think about this. the hobgoblins have a fortress. So there are a number of hobgoblin warriors led by mightier hobgoblins. There is a power heirarchy. So it stands to reason that when the players get into a fight, they will be fighting a mix of normal warriors, elite units and "hero" hobgoblins. Variety enough for everyone. If you plan the encounters around the character's levels, then yes, having a mixed party becomes very difficult.

Don't take this as an attack, because I'm honestly just trying to get to the apeal of this idea, but what you are describing seems as much planned around the party level as any other encounter, its just planned for a mixed level party. It would also be very convinient if within this mix the variety was conviniently arranged enough not to kill off the half leveler while still having folks to challange the main party. I'm not saying the idea is bad because of this, but it sounds just as customized as making sure that the adventure has something for the rogue, something for the tank, something for the magic guy. The difference is, in this example, while each party member may have 'something to do' they don't neccassarily have something to contribute... "Thanks for saving me the last guy off that great cleave, now stay here and mop up while we get to the real fight."

Sure, you can say that this 'encounter' is always there and the group has to judge when they are ready to take it, but that doesn't change anything from the way I run things for my equal level parties except that a few members won't count as much towards deciding when they are ready. So what I'm saying is, I don't even see any added value in realism over other ways of gaming...

You're kidding me. Is this a serious post?

I have certainly played (been a player) under that model (in all 4 editions), and it was/is fun.

well, if you'd like to expand, I'll assure you I'm completely serious. I've never enjoyed games I've played in with mixed power parties, and see nothing to look forward to in being the mook (or protecting the mook). If you've been a player in this sort of game and have experienced (for instance) starting over at first level in a 6th or higher level party, perhaps you could attempt to answer my question... What was the expereince like? How was your character introduced, what role did he/she play in the party, why continue rather than going home or wandering off to find more age appropriate monsters to fight on your own, and did you eventually acheive parity or was there a problem of the same people dying over and over because they came back more likely to die?

Much as I apriciate the DM insights on the issue, players sometimes hang around because its the best game in town, not the best game they could be playing. Thats why I've been asking for the expeireince of a player who actually did it and enjoyed it.

Kahuna Burger

 

[cildarith]

Hey, KB. I'm not the player you're looking for, but we do it this way in our group because that's what the player's want. All of them pretty much refuse to use any character that they haven't played up from level one.

The new characters tend to catch up fairly quickly, though.

 

[dren]

3rd level if the other characters are between 3 - 6. 5th level if the others are from 7-10, etc... This way they are at the same power level but are still able to contribute.

 

[Mercule]

We used to do it at current level minus one or lowest party level, whichever was better. Since no one got killed intensionally, it only seemed to penalize those who either were already out of luck or role-played well enough to sacrifice themselves rather than break character. So, we said, bring in character of the same level.

Now, if someone gets bored and just wants to switch, that's a whole different ball of wax.

 

[Kastil]

I usually let the player keep the xps they have earned from the previous characters and create another one. Being rezzed is not an option in my homebrew.

My old rule was to also have them use the starting gold for whatever level their last character was at. Although we have had close calls in this campaign with dead deaths, I'm thinking about tweaking my rules on death. Perhaps not having them lose an entire level but a certain percentage of their current cps level. Of course it would depend if they commited character suicide.

Oh...must be bedtime. I'm rambling!

 

[Gronin]

I'm curious to hear the expereince of any players who really played under this model. (I'm not certain I take it seriously when people bring it up) I can't see any advantage to it except for the group feeling leet, but if someone could describe an actual expereince where it worked, I wouldn't hurt myself so much rolling my eyes whenever it comes up.

Kahuna Burger

I don't know if you have ever gone hiking in bear country with a dog or not, but one of the things you aren't supposed to do is let your dog to run free. The reason for this is that if a dog finds a bear there is a very real possibility that the dog will come high tailin' it back to you with an angry bear in tow..... sometimes it's fun to be the dog. (And yeah maybe the higher level characters shoulda put a leash on me, or at least a gag.)

Seriously though, I don't think I ever had as much fun as I did when I had all my big mean friends to protect me.

 

[jester47]

KB,

I really did not make myself clear and the way I described it. I am a sucker for modules so lets look at one of the ones I am using now. IMC (FR) the Moathouse from RttToEE has a location and a rumor leading to it and Homlett. Lareth is set up as the leader of the cultists there and they are all Cyric worshipers. However the mod is presented as is. So, if at first level, the party decides to go there, none of the encounters change. They still face the dragon and the cyricists (and everything else) inside. I am not catering the situation to anyone. If I were to wind up using the citadel and the Morume brood, I would take the time to find out what the population breakdown of the Citadel was and figure out what sorts of hobgoblins went where. Thus when the PCs show up there, the positions of the rank and file make sense. I don't think there would ever be a Pythonesque charge against the main gate. It would be a more subterfuge operation. But then again what the players encounter all depends on how they approach that location in the setting. If they teleport into the main courtyard at night in plain view, then they will probably encounter the rank and file, but if they infiltrate the keep and go for the leaders, well they will encounter the leaders and thier body gaurds. If they really screw up, they could just encounter the whole darned citadel and maybe even one of the Morume Blue Dragons. However, this is not fast and true, somtimes I might do somthing for effect (like the githyanki decide they need the citadel and invade while the PCs are trying to infiltrate!) But rarely do I ever plan an encounter around my players, but rather who the villans or antivillans are and what they are doing.

Hope that clears things up...

Aaron.