Worst Session Ever!

[Gizzard]

"oh you screwed us! We should have been able to beat that troll easy!

Yeah, and thats why I'd tread very carefully here with changing rules (like saying no more ressurect or -2 CON or -1 level etc).

The players do not realize that they were being idiots and therefore feel that you were being mean to them. As long as they think having half the party fight a disadvantaged monster (Evil Wizard: "yes, he's charmed. so walk up behind him and let him have it! I'm going to go get a snack." LG Paladin: "Okay.") is a good way to min-max XP or that running away and letting a Troll eat a family of villagers is heroic ("Women and children first? What kind of rule is that!? Let me in the damn lifeboat!"), they're not going to understand why you are penalizing them for their stupidity.

And, after all, that is what you are talking about. The current penalties for stupidity in your game are not great enough; you would like to ratchet them up. Changing important rules in the campaign is always a touchy issue.

Tangent: I remember doing this exact same stupid thing in the campaign I played in when I was in high school. I fought an orc solo for the XP and got killed while the others watched. I remember being mad about it too, even though I was doing something really dumb. "I'm so unlucky, you hit twice and rolled two 8s! How unfair!" Ah, the folly of youth.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

They are well aware of thier own stupidity.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

The way we handle the effects of raise dead is the player keeps his level but his experience points drop to the mid-level point of one level below where his/she is at. Example a 6th level character's experience points would drop to 8000 exp. after being raised. People dont want to die in this game because of the lost experience points.

This is what we do. We were sick of the math associated with level loss. Erasing character sheets is a pain.

 

[Gizzard]

They are well aware of thier own stupidity

Nope, They were bitching at me the whole time. "oh you screwed us!

Hmmm, I seriously dont see how these two things fit together. If they are aware how dumb their actions were then why do they think you screwed them? Sure, you got lucky with the dice (I assume you rolled in the open?) but thats why you play out the combat instead of just going, "its a troll and you generally beat trolls. so you win. do you want to search him for treasure?"

Since I obviously dont have a handle on the situation, I'll try and explain a bit more what I was thinking:

If some rule in the campaign is messed up (Reincarnation, Tumble, Harm etc) *and* the players understand this fact then its pretty easy to go to them and say "I'm Rule Zero'ing this from now on. Any objections?" And they say, "No objections." But if they dont understand what went wrong and you say "I am increasing the CON penalty to -2 instead of -1 so you'll fear death a bit more," then they say "Nooo! You are trying to screw us!" And thats a problem; now the players are unhappy with their DM.

So, basically, unless the players understand that what happened is their fault then you dont have much room to manuever. Pretty much any of the suggestions people have given (as good as they are) are going to upset your players.

 

[Numion]

They are well aware of thier own stupidity.

My mental dialogue (if I even have one ) reads this sentence to me in the Emperors voice from SW!

 

[darklight]

Regarding in-game difficulties of raising dead pc's:

My campaign takes place on Mystara in the Republic of Darokin. The church of Darokin (which is a collaboration of all of the major gods worshipped in Darokin) refuses to raise anyone, not wishing to disturb the happy afterlife of the deceased. This means that when a pc dies, the party has to search for a high level cleric who doesn't belong to the church, and have to keep quiet about it, or risk the wrath of the church! Or they could try to bribe a church cleric, which could lead to interesting roleplaying

This kinda reminds me of Buffy. She wasn't too happy when she was raised by the Willow and the gang, having been pulled out of what she felt was heaven. Stuff like that could be roleplayed.


Come to think of it, there isn't really any point to this post, just wanted to share some info.

darklight

 

[Kesh]

In my homebrew world I'm working on, an agreement was forged between the creator god and the god of destruction.

Essentially, whenever the creator god brought a mortal back from the dead, the destroyer god was allowed to create an undead monstrosity of equal power.

So, if you bring that 15th level Paladin back with a resurrection, you're also creating a CR 15 undead somewhere in the world... which is why the tombs of certain legendary heroes are sealed tight, guarded and warded. It's not only sacrilige to bring them back, it's outlawed for the public good.

It also keeps pesky adventurers from trying to loot that +5 holy avenger from the burial chamber.

 

[Numion]

Re: Regarding in-game difficulties of raising dead pc's:

My campaign takes place on Mystara in the Republic of Darokin. The church of Darokin (which is a collaboration of all of the major gods worshipped in Darokin) refuses to raise anyone, not wishing to disturb the happy afterlife of the deceased. This means that when a pc dies, the party has to search for a high level cleric who doesn't belong to the church, and have to keep quiet about it, or risk the wrath of the church! Or they could try to bribe a church cleric, which could lead to interesting roleplaying

Disturbing the afterlife is pretty much a non-issue in 3e, since the to be resurrected character can choose wether he comes back or not. So if someone is raised and then is pissed about it, it's on him, really. The resurrectee also get's to know the resurrecters alignment and somesuch before he has to decide if he wants to be raised or not.

 

[Zappo]

Disturbing the afterlife is pretty much a non-issue in 3e, since the to be resurrected character can choose wether he comes back or not. So if someone is raised and then is pissed about it, it's on him, really. The resurrectee also get's to know the resurrecters alignment and somesuch before he has to decide if he wants to be raised or not.

I wonder... the dead character should be on the appropriate Outer Plane and have forgotten all about his previous life, right? So what use is the caster's name to him?

 

[Numion]

I wonder... the dead character should be on the appropriate Outer Plane and have forgotten all about his previous life, right? So what use is the caster's name to him?

I don't know. Where do you get this? And if this is true, there isn't any point in resurrecting anyone in the first place, since they've forgotten everything. Like how to cast spells. Or use a sword. etc...