Comments on: Should Players Suffer When PCs Die?

By: Greatest Hits 2011: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D — Dungeon's Master

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:30:28 +0000

[...] would chip in and get this character brought back to life as quickly as possible. This way the player wouldn’t have to suffer because the character died. The cost was only 600 gp and as fortune would have it the deceased PC had more than this on [...]

By: Prove Your D&D Superiority — Dungeon's Master

Prove Your D&D Superiority — Dungeon's Master — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:28:09 +0000

[...] to decide on how best to handle things. No one wants a player to watch from the sidelines because he got killed during the first encounter. I leave it to the DM to decide how best to proceed in this situation, but I’m thinking the dead [...]

By: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D — Dungeon's Master

The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D — Dungeon's Master — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:03:39 +0000

By: Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master

Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:34:07 +0000

[...] Should Players Suffer When PCs Die? [...]

By: Ameron

Ameron — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:13:27 +0000

@Torcano
The guys that play at that FLGS are pretty hard-core when it comes to the role-playing. They really wanted to do what they felt their characters would do, even though it was a pretty bad call for the real life gamers at the table. As noted in the article, by taking the time in-game to revive the fallen party member some of the captives were executed before we could rescue them. In the end we (the players) all agreed that the real life decisions had to trump the in-game decision. After all we were there to play and have fun, not be a bunch of hard-nosed jerks.

By: Torcano

Torcano — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:43:06 +0000

GM made the obviously correct decision, end of story.

Any other solution is laughable in comparison. The only question here is how could the living PCs actually be so selfish as to consider going on without the dead guy.

By: Change, Change, and More Change to RPGA Play — Dungeon's Master

Change, Change, and More Change to RPGA Play — Dungeon's Master — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:31:41 +0000

[...] an ally’s attack to drop your PC? It doesn’t happen often, but it happens (as we discussed in Should Players Suffer When PCs Die?). The RPGA has introduced a new rule to ensure that players can’t attack other [...]

By: Ameron

Ameron — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:51:35 +0000

@Bryant
I’ve certainly learned from this situation. I’ve purchased a Raise Dead scroll for all LFR PCs I have who can afford it and are of suitable level. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

@Simon Newman
Let me clarify, I called this a one-shot game since I don’t play a lot of LFR at this venue. However, for some of the players this is their weekly game. I’ve since learned that the RPGA does have some pretty strict guidelines, so the DM actually had his hands tied (somewhat). Had this been a home game I would have done exactly what you suggested and handed the player a new PC to run until his main guy could be brought back to life.

By: Simon Newman

Simon Newman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:03:26 +0000

Joshua:
“at the very least given that it was the first combat he could have had the player just change the name on the dead character’s sheet and introduced him by having him be a survivor of the initial attack just regaining consciousness”

Agreed – I’ve done this when a player had his PC killed very early, before the character was really established. For a continuing game they will normally lose out of some XP, that’s adequate penalty.

By: Simon Newman

Simon Newman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:55:45 +0000

For a one-shot like this I’d think the best thing would be for the GM to hand the player another pregen PC, maybe 1 level lower if you want a slight penalty. That might even work for a continuing game.

The GM is aiming to both maintain versimilitude, and maximise table fun. Normally the two are complementary, but it can take a bit of thought.