First time character death

tl;dr - how to handle character death with first-time players

I'm going to be running a campaign this summer with players who are almost all entirely new to the RPGs. Given that they all seem pretty attached to their characters (it's their first character, after all!), I'm worried about what would happen if any of the PCs were to die, especially in a not-particularly-dramatic way. My friends are all really mature, so it's not like I'm worried they're going to flip out on me, or anything, just that I'm trying to make sure their introduction to RPGs is a good time, and I'm worried it would be a downer that might turn them off the hobby if their character gets killed.

Anybody have any experience with this that could offer any tips? Am I just overthinking it, and it won't be a big deal at all? How did you feel the first time one of your characters died?

Give them a souvenir card with [YOU DIED]

Tell them that their characters aren't guaranteed to survive and to have their characters live it up like they could die any minute.

First off: What game are you playing?

Second: Is there such thing as resurrection?

Third: If there is, I suggest you IMMEDIATELY remind them that resurrection is a thing if their character croaks.

Sometimes I find that giving a dead or dying character one last heroic action helps. For example: if a character is carrying an important item and ends up dying I might give them a full run to try and get it to safety. Or a free successful crit attack against a hated enemy. That sort of thing.

Make it cool. Characters dying against goblins is lame. Characters dying against the boss can be cool as fuck.

Give them dying words. Even if they die mid fight, let them have their last say after the carnage.

Steal a page from dungeon world. Give them a chance to live... at a price.

モンハン

Yeah, but what if they DO die to gobbos?

Decide how you want to handle PC lethality before the game. Warn players about it.

For example, I'd tell them: I'm not trying to kill your characters. I'd prefer that they survive to the end of the campaign. But I do want there to be risk in fights and other situations, which means you might get unlucky and have your character die. I will not fudge the dice to prevent the death, because I do not think I can fool you into thinking there is risk that I am fudging away.

If a PC does die, I will remind the party of any options to prevent the death or resurrect the PC. Options they may choose to ignore.

The possibilities are endless. One of the gobbos is an evil Shaman who steals the players sold. Now his friends have to go rescue the players Soul before it's used in an evil ritual.

One of the gabor's becomes the new villain of the campaign. He slew an adventurer. This is an unprecedented act for Goblin Kind. His Prestige has awakened power within him. It has drawn other powerful goblins from the surrounding area to work with him. He is now a recurring villain.

The player now gets to roll a new character. That character is the sibling, friend, or even loved one or spouse of the Dead character. This new character now has additional motivation.

>Decide how you want to handle PC lethality before the game. Warn players about it.
OP thought the thread had died, but I'm back now. Thanks, all, these are all really helpful suggestions. I'd definitely been planning on making it explicit in the first session that character death is part of epic storytelling, and so there's a possibility that their characters could die. And yeah, reminding them of resurrection/reincarnation is also something I'd definitely do.

I actually really like the idea of "a hero rises among the gobbos" as a kind of reverse hero narrative, haha. Another idea that occurs to me is to have something along the lines of the dead character's soul gaining access to some nugget of important information while on the astral plane, so that even if they don't raise the character wholesale, casting speak with dead or something like that could give that character another cool moment to be a hero.

tl;dr at all but cute cat adventurers are a yes

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>Characters dying against goblins is lame.
True. But a fight with no risk is boring.

If the goblins dice say that they should kill and the GM prevents the PC dying, expect the players to eventually notice that the GM is pulling punches.

Then comes the fights that operate under different rules. Namely these fights are ones where PCs can die. If you're lucky, the players will notice that the rules are different. If you're not, they will notice that PC x was not allowed to die then, but PC y died today. Then they might think the GM is playing favorites. Better to keep the rules consistent. Either PCs can die in any fight if the enemies deal enough damage, or they can't be killed in any fight.

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another thing you could do if they are really attached to their character: perhaps a character doesn't die, but suffers a crippling injury that brings the end of their adventuring career.

Make sure not to kill characters in a way that feels unfair. A character suffering a mortal wound in an epic battle is one thing, but running unwary players through tomb of horrors is another. When dealing with traps, especially potentially lethal traps, prod the players to describe their actions in detail rather than interpreting their words literally (avoid: "well you didn't say XYZ therefore you didn't do it, even though any reasonable person would have")

If you want players to stay attached to their characters, when a PC dies (or is otherwise removed from play), do not give any mechanical penalty on the new character. Give it a similar amount of XP/gear to the rest of the party.

A penalty does one or both of the following:
- Makes it harder for the new PC to survive. Leading to that PC dying quicker.
- Makes it harder for the new PC to contribute to the party. Making the player feel useless.

Both contribute to the players caring less the more times they get hit with the penalty. Leaving them seeing PCs as statblocks, not characters. So they put less effort in.

If the players are attached to their characters, all you need to do to is prevent them making the same character with a different name. Having the dead character gone is punishment enough.

If the players aren't attached to their characters in the first place, penalties won't fix that.