XP for Missing Players

[Holy Bovine]

the players i've gamed with over the years haven't had any problems role-playing their characters being afraid of death even though as players they knew my DMing style.

Hey if that's cool with all your players then that is the perfect sytem for you.

I don't think it would fly in my group but everyone has their own preferences.

As to the awarding of XP (why is it still called that anyway. I know in 1E they used XP instead of EP because of electrum pieces (ep) why is still here?) if I use the PC as a NPC then they 1/2 XP award. I would never kill a PC who was being played this way unless the story demanded it (ie - the entire party is wiped out). Fortunately PC deaths are pretty rare in my games when the PCs are played smartly and use thier brains and brawn to overcome challenges. I like to pride myself on offering challenging games that are well within th means of the party to overcome with a little thought.

My only suggestion is to get this agreed upon up front - don't spring this on the players who were absent last game just as they sit down to start the next session. I made that mistake once and it did generate hard feelings - fortunately I realized my mistake and said that it would be in effect (the 1/2 XP rule) from that moment on.

 

[bekkilyn_rpg]

I can't speak for the rest of the players in my gaming groups, but I am able to get into roleplaying my characters a whole lot more *without* the fear of death. It often takes me days to come up with a character concept and background and such and if I get to feeling that all that work is just going to go down the tubes at any given moment without any way of getting resurrected, then I just don't bother to do it and will thus create throwaway characters. It's not as fun, but at least I wouldn't feel as if I were just wasting my time.

Now I haven't actually had this issue happen to me and those who have DM'd the games I've been in since I've started playing again (when 3.0 came out) have been really good about the whole issue even though I don't think it's been really discussed. Some characters have died, but they've as of so far always been given some way or another to come back if the player wanted to keep playing that character (though I think most times the players chose new characters since they had a chance to try something new.)

In any case, I can certainly understand where d4 is coming from here.

 

[Veander]

I guess I understand that people can play how they like but I can't imagine playing the game being able to stay alive no matter what.

Do people who play DnD this way also use the Godmode cheats? Only reason I ask is because it's similar and I have never been able to use those kinds of cheats on games.

Hey to each their own. The most important thing is to have fun with those people who sit around the table with you every week (or whatever).

Sincerely,

V

 

[d4]

Do people who play DnD this way also use the Godmode cheats? Only reason I ask is because it's similar and I have never been able to use those kinds of cheats on games.

to tell you the truth, yes, when i play video games (which is rarely any more) i usually do make use of whatever cheats are available. i'm much more interested in exploring all the game has to offer than trying to beat it in a competitive sense.

i'm not sure that stems from the same impulse that makes me do death-lite campaigns, though. as i said before, i'm much more interested in simulating something like an action movie than real life when i role-play. in most action movies, as well as things like Star Wars and comic books, the mortality of the heroes just isn't an issue. people around them (NPCs) may die (quite often, sometimes), but the heroes themselves always make it to the final reel.

i guess this attitude comes from GMing too many Star Wars and supers campaigns.

 

[bekkilyn_rpg]

I was about to ask what Godmode was when I finally realized you were talking about video games...

I don't use godmode in any game and the first time through I always play legitimately without even the hint book. Further times through if I play it again, I might play around with some of the cheats but I've always done it legit the first time.

My reasons for playing games is for the story, the character interaction, the roleplaying, exploring everything, and in the case of tabletop or mmorpgs, even just being social and having fun with other people. I am not very fond of competitive games so competition is practically the last reason I ever play. If I compete with anyone, it's usually myself as I strive for greater goals and greater challenges.

Besides, just because I as a player am not constantly terrified that the character I've worked so hard on is going to be irrevocably taken from me in games where I don't need to worry about such things, it doesn't mean my *character* doesn't fear such things.

 

[Wraithdrit]

I guess I can understand how or why people could play this way, but it just does not seem something I would enjoy. There must be consequences for your actions, and the most serious of those would be death. There is NOTHING better than a very, very heroic death in one of my campaigns (though most deaths are the results of not knowing when to run and the heroism part is a minor issue).

I enjoy challenging my players. They put a lot of effort into their characters and I do not just willy nilly kill them off, but in a game where high level spells are the equivalent to save or die, how can you possibly rule out death? Oh sorry, the evil vile cleric of the death god decided not to prep that death spell, after all he figured the raids on his temple were nothing.

Anyways. To each their own.

 

[diaglo]

our DM hands out too many xps.

i prefer to have my character not in play when i'm out of play.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

actually, it's more like being in an action movie. you know the main heroes aren't going to die, but that doesn't make the movie any less enjoyable.

for myself and most of my players, PCs dying would make the game less enjoyable. we don't need "the fear of character death" in order to have fun.

hear, hear! If I need fear of death and the reward of xp to be primary factors, I'll break out the X Box and do team gauntlet... I'm telling a story here! XP is there to let the characters grow and give some funky item creation options, the specter of death is for dramatic tension.

Obviously a lot of people have a different play style, which is why I interview new players for compatability, but to me, "level up and don't die" is a video game, not an rpg.

oh, and I don't think anyopne has said that PC absolutely cannot die. I let my players know that there are going to be adventures where they triumph and those where they survive. There are big bad things out there that if they go out agaisnt all warnings and face them too soon may kill them. They can sacrifice themselves, they can committ suicide by ogre. But they aren't going to be wandering along and get ambushed by a wanderng monster which kills one of them for no good story reason...

Kahuna burger

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I guess I understand that people can play how they like but I can't imagine playing the game being able to stay alive no matter what.

Do people who play DnD this way also use the Godmode cheats? Only reason I ask is because it's similar and I have never been able to use those kinds of cheats on games.

ehem. If you can't imagine playing that way, you really don't have a good standard to say what its silimar to, nicht wahr? Personally, I don't play video games.

A equivelent question could be, did you not bother to go see the LotR films because you knew which characters were and weren't going to die? Did you walk out of Attack of the Clones once you knew all the major players in the film would survive because they all have to for the future plot? If you catch an older episode of a sci fi series that you missed the first time, do you not watch it since you know from later episodes that none of the major characters die? Can you even watch tv serieses? This could be seen as "similar" to not wanting to play a game where you don't fear death on a random die roll.

But really, we just have different play styles.

Kahuna burger

 

[Buttercup]

I have one couple in my game who have a 1 year old. If the child is sick, only one of them can come. The one that shows up runs both characters, and I award experience to the missing player's character at the same rate as for those who are present. And right now, one of my players is in Guatemala for a month. We'll be playing once or twice while she's gone. Someone else will run her character, and I'll award her full xp. Now, if I had a player who was just blowing off game sessions, that would be different. But I'm not going to penalize someone just because their infant has tonsilitis, or they're going on the (real) adventure of a lifetime.