Sqwonk, Heroes are made by role playing, not by mechanics. Heroes do die from lucky hits, and a good GM makes that death worth it. Death can inspire or impassion the other players to make the loss not in vain. Player’s death can build into a powerful story defining influence. Heroes do die over the stupidest things or in the dumbest situations: check out history, fantasy books, mythology or whatever you want. I think you will find it is true. Its an excellent role paying opportunity that should be delved into and explored before dismissing it.
Now, no one hates a straw death more than I. Dying for no reason, without explanation or story, is just irritating. Taking a death and building it into something that is worthwhile is what keeps players from puffing up and getting pissed off about it. Some of the greatest stories in my 23 years of gaming have been from the most unexpected or accidental deaths.
However, coming to the subject at hand, I start characters at level one outside of a few, very special short lived games. Starting at higher levels tends to stunt character development and retard the gaming experience for extended games.
Wombat, I'm sorry to hear that. The very fragile state of life is what makes heroes into, well, heroes! Its not that they can survive the arrows from the Orc archers hanging out around the bend. Its that they chose to attempt to recover their dying comrade by charging into the face of a flurry of arrows, or that they outsmart the bow-bearing irritants and save their fallen fellow that makes them heroes. Conquering things that do not test us, or that is not out of our reach (whether truly so or not...) is not really the stuff of heroes. Do we cheer for the guy to whom which everything is easy? The brain who can do esoteric functions in his head without a glance when we can’t even figure out how to balance a checkbook? No, we cheer on the underdog, the guy who has to go through hell to reach the same heights or overcome the same challenges. Were you cheering on the bad guys in Die Hard or bruce willis and his one man ass-kicking parade?
Jwatt, then don't. Don't gun for your players necessary, but if they don't know when to run then maybe they should find out the hard way what happens when they don't! Death, as I pointed out above, is just another avenue for a bunch of plot hooks all on its own. I have had characters come back as spirits, ghosts, revenants, voices from the beyond for another character, reincarnated, etc. Some even built up families, complete with kin and a child of ready age to take on the world and with a burning reason to take it on (e.g. the death of their previous character). It’s a marvelous opportunity for players to really strut their stuff. One player, taking advantage in a break in gaming where we had put down the characters shortly after his death, built a magnificent plot harkening back to an old movie. When we started playing again, he played a reincarnation of his first character, who found a way to send back dreams to warn himself of dying. He did it in such a novel way that the other players chose to give up their current ones and player the previous set after he took the plot to its fruition and role played successfully warning him of impending death. The stuff of great games has come from the deaths of players…
Talmun, now you have the spirit of it. I usually put the burden of survivability on the players. After all, if they are not interested in their character's survivability then why should I be? Now, don't read that wrong. I cut them lots of breaks and will gladly consider just about anything to build on the atmosphere, role-playing and story as long as it doesn't bend the believability level too much.
This probably belongs to another thread but a comment I am seeing appear over and over is about "players being sick of [insert favorite little critter for low-levels]". You can be rid of this malady by a) building an ecology, and b) letting players find whatever that ecology dictates is around. If they are mucking about outside of town, and all that is about is robbers, bandits, fuzzy kittens, and rats, then that's all that is about. If they are exploring the local graveyard and find that not everyone is dead, and your local high level pug ugly happens to be around, they better make for the hills! If they chose to screw with your [insert your favorite tough nasty] then they should reap the reward for such a silly idea. Of course, lots of foreshadowing tends to deter stupid decisions like this. Not to mention dying a few times over bad decisions.
If you are afraid to kill your players, you are doing them a disservice. Risk is an integral part of the world, the real one or in gaming. Don't cheat your players by wrapping up everything in gauze. Surviving is as much or more their responsibility as it is yours.
