Your character died. Big deal.

[Fifth Element]

No you are creating dilemma where there isn't any. Death is death, plain and simple. Trying to categorize it is silly.

You really see no difference between:

(A) Your character perishing after a pitched toe-to-toe battle with a vile opponent, and

(B) "I open the door."
"Make a Fort save."
"I got a 1."
"You're dead."

So you can stop the condescension any time now and try to understand the point that's being made.

 

[Fifth Element]

At any rate, I said I wasn't going to get into this discussion again. So that's all I'll be saying on the topic.

 

[justanobody]

You really see no difference between:

(A) Your character perishing after a pitched toe-to-toe battle with a vile opponent, and

(B) "I open the door."
"Make a Fort save."
"I got a 1."
"You're dead."

Nope. No difference. The character is dead. Get a rez, or roll a new one.

 

[rgard]

Suck it up and make the new character and stop crying about how you died.

Yes.

Kill people and take their stuff while they try to kill you and take your stuff.

Somebody is going to die.

 

[Psion]

You really see no difference between:

(A) Your character perishing after a pitched toe-to-toe battle with a vile opponent, and

(B) "I open the door."
"Make a Fort save."
"I got a 1."
"You're dead."

So you can stop the condescension any time now and try to understand the point that's being made.

For the record, I see the difference. Yet you were the one that implied I was pushing a false dichotomy. So re: condescension, practice what you preach.

 

[Psion]

And, of course, there are many variations to the divide which don't fall into the categories above.

For clarity, I never said there wasn't. But those seem to be the core ideologies around which the sparks fly.

 

[CleverNickName]

(B) "I open the door."
"Make a Fort save."
"I got a 1."
"You're dead."

LOL, this exact situation happened in my 3.5E game. Long story short: the party was exploring an abandoned duergar mine. The fighter did not heed the warning that was written on the door in Dwarven ("Eye Proteciton Required Beyond This Point,") and walked right into a bodak lair. I asked the player for a Fort save, and he rolled a natural 1.

Now, years later, his cries of frustration have become a catch-phrase at our game table for whenever something goes horribly, horribly wrong: "I didn't say my eyes were going to be open!!!"

What was originally intended to be just another boobytrap, turned into a battle/rescue mission for the party's leader and derailed the story for the rest of the evening. That said, the "Bodak In A Box" lives on in infamy as one of the funnest (and funniest) encounters I have ever ran. We still laugh about it, almost five years later.

We like save-or-die situations at our table. But ever since that ill-fated bodak encounter, I tend to use them very sparingly. It's not because I want to coddle the players; we are all a bit too old for "you killed my elf and hurt my feelings" drama. We don't get to game together very often and I don't want to derail the story, that's all.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

So you throw a tantrum when it is another player's turn and not your own?

If another player is taking an inordinately long amount of time.

I said waste of time. Someone else's turn isn't a waste because they are adding to the story. But when I can't add anything to the story other than a freshly cooling corpse?

 

[justanobody]

If another player is taking an inordinately long amount of time.

I said waste of time. Someone else's turn isn't a waste because they are adding to the story. But when I can't add anything to the story other than a freshly cooling corpse?

It may not add to the story for you, but does for the other players. You get a whole new story to start. The other players need to decide if they are going to loot you, or try to bring you back to life. Some race may want to use you for food.

Do they need to discard your body to prevent attracting nearby carnivores?

Your corpse can often add more to the story that if you were to have swung your weapon a second faster and killed your foe.

So if you make a new character, then they others have to find his replacement for the party or just may decide to write you out of their story.

That corpse has loads of story potential. Literal meat-shield comes to mind for a good use, as does decoy.

So many things you could do with a fallen comrades corpse, I wish I had them more often.

 

[Umbran]

Suck it up and make the new character and stop crying about how you died.

You probably want to go review The Rules.

We expect you to show respect for your fellow posters, and their opinions, no matter how much you might disagree with them. Your are not going to get anyone to see things your way by bludgeoning and insulting them, so please don't continue with that tactic. Thank you.