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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy18" data-source="post: 2352838" data-attributes="member: 24970">Hello everyone,I guess every campaign has a different rate of player-character death, from "practically never" to "new characters all the time." But the ultimate slap in the face to a player has to be when their character dies when they're not at the gaming session. :/This just happened last night in the game I'm DMing, and I dread the player's response when he finds out.In brief: his best friend was playing his character while he was away. It was a big melee, and the absent guy's PC was under attack by a troglodyte wielding a greataxe. The PC took a 5-foot step away and fired an arrow. The troglodyte advanced and hit for 12 points. The PC took another 5-foot step away and fired another arrow. I then picked up a die and announced to the players "Okay, odd the troglodyte attacks the PC, even he goes after the NPC a little farther away." I rolled a die in front of everyone. It came up odd. The troglodyte advanced, rolled a 20, confirmed the crit, and did 27 hit points of damage, bringing the PC to -17, killing them instantly.All of which would be fair and good (as 'fair' as possible considering I had armed troglodytes with greataxes, of course), except that... THE GUY WASN'T THERE!!!I don't think he's gonna take it very well, since THE VERY SAME DAY he e-mailed me asking me asking how long it would be before he levelled up, and asking to take care of his PC while he was away, and I e-mailed back saying "I'll do my best!" or something like that. :/ *sob*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.)The guy's friend feels a little bad for controlling his friend's PC while he died (he could've run screaming on the previous round, or at least taken more than a 5-foot step), but since I'm the DM I am obviously ultimately to blame. Should I feel guilty? I dunno. I wouldn't feel guilty at all if the PC had been there, but now I feel extremely bad. I guess it depends on my campaign and on my knowledge that I am about to have one extremely pissed-off, and possibly soon-to-be-former, player.Jason</blockquote>

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