Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6531349" data-attributes="member: 42582">Such strong normative and empirical claims!What is the evidence that &quot;only by having taken that risk and survived are high level PCs truly appreciated.&quot; I mean, there are lots of things in life that I truly love and appreciate (I think of my family first of all) and I do my best to avoid exposing them to risks because of that. In my experience as a GM and player, what makes a character be truly appreciated and thought of fondly by a player is that the PC participated in a memorable campaign. What makes a campaign memorable can be a range of things - the story of the campaign is an important element but not the only factor - but I've never felt that degree of risk of PC death was a part of that.In the real world, there are many memorable events, and challenges, and confrontations, where the principle stake is not the death of one of the protagonists. In fiction the same is true. The risk of death doesn't seem to me to have any special importance as a stake in an RPG. And if it is the sole thing at stake, or the only thing that matters to the participants, that suggests to me that the other possible sorts of stakes aren't really being brought into focus in play.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6531349, member: 42582"] Such strong normative and empirical claims! What is the evidence that "only by having taken that risk and survived are high level PCs truly appreciated." I mean, there are lots of things in life that I truly love and appreciate (I think of my family first of all) and I do my best to avoid exposing them to risks because of that. In my experience as a GM and player, what makes a character be truly appreciated and thought of fondly by a player is that the PC participated in a memorable campaign. What makes a campaign memorable can be a range of things - the story of the campaign is an important element but not the only factor - but I've never felt that degree of risk of PC death was a part of that. In the real world, there are many memorable events, and challenges, and confrontations, where the principle stake is not the death of one of the protagonists. In fiction the same is true. The risk of death doesn't seem to me to have any special importance as a stake in an RPG. And if it is the sole thing at stake, or the only thing that matters to the participants, that suggests to me that the other possible sorts of stakes aren't really being brought into focus in play. [/QUOTE]

Verification