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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5635881" data-attributes="member: 8835">to sum up the lessons from the thread:since the OP was allegedly a better participating player than another player in the group, yet he got a worse penalty for PC death than another player, having a consistent and rational policy on replacement PCs is a good idea.GMs should review their policy and consider the issues raised with various methodsPlayers should ask about the policy and discuss issues before the matter comes up.GMs should devise a policy that doesn't penaliize good behavior (like heroic getting screwed).Players should establish their own in-game team rules that they endeavor to help each other (as Celebrim described it).  They should also establish a practice for handling PC death in game (do we honor a will, do we bring his gear back to his family, do we loot him and screw up the wealth by level budget so the GM can hose us later).Key items for the policy to consider:xp/level penalties should probably be calculated from the dead PC for the replacement PC, and NOT based on the party in any way.  making the penalty equivalent to what raise dead does (-1 level) or a getting a henchment (-2 levels) is probably the fairest.New PCs getting to cherry pick the magic item list should be discouraged.  Dying should not be an upgrade.  If the party runs at a lower wealth level, than replacement PCs should be in that same scale.  Additionally, since most of the items PCs have were DM chosen or randomly rolled as monster treasure, the same should be true for replacement gear.  One method would be to make the player create the PC with mundane gear only.  This reveals what kind of basic gear they would use.  Then upgrade the main weapons and armor to be level appropriate (like what the rest of the party has).  then roll up some random other non-weapon items to use up the remaining "wealth by level" budget.  Starting the PC at lower on the "wealth by level" would also make sense (since he's likely to join a party that just split up the dead guy's gear, and maybe they should give it to the under-equipped new guy).Suiciding PCs is a different problem.  The player could be stupid, reckless, not happy, gaming the wealth by level system.  I think the GM will need to be watchful for it, and have to consider the causes.Rewarding good players vs bad players is another problem.  Taking the OP at face value, it is NOT in the GMs best interest to retain the bad player at the expense of the good player.  His basic decision pattern rewards the loser and discourages the guy he really should keep.  This drives the good player away.  That's just stupid.  Regardless of what practices a GM follows, he should avoid getting into the scenario I just described.  Never reward the bad and punish the good.I think then, that regardless of all the ideas folks have for consequences for dying, realism, fairness, the chief goal should be "how do I get the player back into the game and invested in it and having fun"</blockquote>

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