While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2009. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.
The was probably one of our most controversial articles. My intent was to discuss how you handle player death in 4e D&D. Do you do what’s best for the PCs, in-character, or do you do what’s best for the players, out-of-character. In the situation I describe below there was good reasons on both sides of this argument, but in the end we as players decided that we had to do what was best for the players out-of-game even though it was probably not what the PCs would do in-game.
I think part of what made this article so controversial was that the player death happened during an LFR (Living Forgotten Realms) game at my FLGS. The RPGA has very defined boundaries regarding what a DM can and cannot do. So in my article I might seem like I’m really giving the DM the gears, but that was certainly not my intent. I merely tried to point out that a creative party may come up with options that were unexpected by the author of the adventure or the DM. But in the end it comes down to the DM’s call.
I think most of the people who commented on the original article, including the DM from the actual table where all of this happened, agreed that if this situation happened at a home game it would be easier to show some latitude. But because it was an RGPA-sanctioned game the DM’s hands were pretty much tied.