When PCs Die When the Player's Not There

[ptolemy18]

Eh, you've already made a decision. That's cool. I will point out that you're making a rule to fudge if this happens in the future, so I find it hard to see why you wouldn't apply that decision retroactively to the reason for the rule in the first place.

...except that if I implement an ironclad "You can't die when you're not playing your character" rule from now on, without raising the dead character (which ain't happening), then the player whose character died will have reason to be pissed off. :/

So, I guess I'm stuck with "There is always the possibility you might die when you're not playing!" in my campaign from now on.

Resurrection is sorta rare in my campaign, BTW.

Jason

 

[frankthedm]

As a DM with a fairly high kill count, my players know that death lurks in every turn. Many adventurers perish.

If a player doesn't show, thier PC leaves the party as soon as it is believable, possibly running off at a combat's start. Raising is a touch rare and i require 25% of the body for Ressurection, so Not getting killed is a high priority.

The player also has betrayed the group by not showing, the missing of xp and treasure is punishment . It is best he not be killed for it, sentenced by the other players, executed by the charging orc.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

What would you have done in this situation?

(1) Would you have done pretty much as I did?
(2) Would you have assured that the troglodytes *always* preferentially attacked *anyone but* that character, instead of leaving it even partly up to chance, like I did?
(3) Would you have rolled the dice secretly and fudged it? (Instead of rolling out in the open in front of everyone for extra drama, like I did?) (This would be my last choice, since I hate fudging the dice.)

None of the above, an archer character should not be toeing it in the frontline. In blunt terms the character was killed because it was played as something it was not, which points to the player playing the character being inexperienced in tactical archery and the dm not wisely wielding the veto:

Temporary Player - "I 5 foot back and..."
DM - "No you don't, you withdraw behind the safety of you allies & look for a high vantage point to launch withering full attacks."

The absent player had their character die under illogical circumstances; I think it would be best to 'wipe' the previous session on the grounds that the play was unbelievable & that the absent player was the unintended victim of this. Given that the player is going to be as upset as you've indicated I am sure that your friends won't mind ret-conning & chalking it up to experience.

 

[lonesoldier]

He gets to make a new character. We have a rule at our table:

If your character dies because of your immense stupidity, your new character has an ECL that is one less the party's currently aberage ECL. If this occurs at level one, the DM and host may take turns pointing and laughing.

This rules doesn't apply. If you have not told him yet, don't forget to tell him all the cool things that happened, the amazing adventure and nefarious BBEG and the spectacular ending, and then tell him a large smelly Troglodyte weilding a large smelly greataxe cleaved him into two peices.

 

[frankthedm]

Temporary Player - "I 5 foot back and..."
DM - "No you don't, you withdraw behind the safety of you allies & look for a high vantage point to launch withering full attacks."

The absent player had their character die under illogical circumstances; I think it would be best to 'wipe' the previous session on the grounds that the play was unbelievable & that the absent player was the unintended victim of this. Given that the player is going to be as upset as you've indicated I am sure that your friends won't mind ret-conning & chalking it up to experience.

Sorry, PC archers do do just that. Seen it before. Plus there is not a lot to go on for the battlefield, so there is no evidence of the superior vantage point even being there for the archer to flee to. The archer moving away coud have left an even more fragile charcter open to a great axe charge.

The Player, in GREED for XP, wanted his PC ran when he was not there. He got his just desserts.

of course i would offer the PC to play an undead headless archer until he can find a way back to life. [carries the head around with him, move equivalent action to place the head down to see who he is shooting at.]

 

[the Jester]

Eh, you've already made a decision. That's cool. I will point out that you're making a rule to fudge if this happens in the future, so I find it hard to see why you wouldn't apply that decision retroactively to the reason for the rule in the first place.

No do-overs.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I guess I get the whole "no do-overs" thing. It's just that there's literally no PC death in my games unless it's the player's idea. There's still a ton of bad things that can happen, don't get me wrong, but it's like Jack Bauer in 24 -- you may end up with a truckload of mental issues, have family and friends forsake you (or know that they died to keep you from dying), and get left lying in a ditch, but you don't die unless you say "I'm done with this character; let's have him go out with a bang."

Just different playing styles.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Sorry, PC archers do do just that. Seen it before. Plus there is not a lot to go on for the battlefield, so there is no evidence of the superior vantage point even being there for the archer to flee to. The archer moving away coud have left an even more fragile charcter open to a great axe charge.

Why then is this battle occurring if there is no tactical advantage to be had by the pc's? When the 2nd rankers take a frontline duty to save the 3rd rankers you've got to seriously be making concrete steps for the life-saving withdrawal, this thread gives empirical evidence to the consequences of doing otherwise.

Retreat & regroup is the logical step because foolhardy tactics that regularly bleed losses does not give anyone much longterm hope.

 

[ptolemy18]

Why then is this battle occurring if there is no tactical advantage to be had by the pc's? When the 2nd rankers take a frontline duty to save the 3rd rankers you've got to seriously be making concrete steps for the life-saving withdrawal, this thread gives empirical evidence to the consequences of doing otherwise.

Here's the situation:

* Player characters are upstairs; troglodytes are downstairs. There is one flight of stairs, and a couple of windows looking down on the ground floor.
* All the other player characters are over by the top of the stairs, hacking at troglodytes at they come up.
* The archer (the absent PC) is hanging out by the windows, sniping at troglodytes. Which would seem to be a safe place for an absent PC to be, out of the front lines... until...
* Suddenly, HELLA troglodytes start climbing up the wall to get to the windows! They start jumping through! The archer backpedals away, shouting "Agghh!! Come over here everybody!"
* Unfortunately, the person playing the archer chose to backpedal 5 feet at a time instead of, say, 30 feet at a time. Right before rest of the party gets there, the archer is killed by the Dreaded Critical Hit.

So, yeah, the guy who was playing the character wasn't being quite as cautious as the actual player might have been. But nobody expects a 27-point hit from a greataxe. (Well, maybe SOMEBODY does...)

Jason

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Here's the situation:

* Player characters are upstairs; troglodytes are downstairs. There is one flight of stairs, and a couple of windows looking down on the ground floor.
* All the other player characters are over by the top of the stairs, hacking at troglodytes at they come up.
* The archer (the absent PC) is hanging out by the windows, sniping at troglodytes. Which would seem to be a safe place for an absent PC to be, out of the front lines... until...
* Suddenly, HELLA troglodytes start climbing up the wall to get to the windows! They start jumping through! The archer backpedals away, shouting "Agghh!! Come over here everybody!"
* Unfortunately, the person playing the archer chose to backpedal 5 feet at a time instead of, say, 30 feet at a time. Right before rest of the party gets there, the archer is killed by the Dreaded Critical Hit.

So, yeah, the guy who was playing the character wasn't being quite as cautious as the actual player might have been. But nobody expects a 27-point hit from a greataxe. (Well, maybe SOMEBODY does...)

Jason

I do, and the standard damage was enough to do him in in a few more rounds. And by your description you are the one who decided to specifically target the missing player's character with quote 'HELLA troglodytes'! My sympathy for whatever happens to your campaign just vanished, you set it up your own self.

The Auld Grump