Young, first time player

>young, first time player
>a few bad rolls, and their character meets an untimely death
>"Can I make a survival check to see if I survive?"

What do you say to this player?

I've never experienced anything that pathetic, but it is pretty frustrating to see a new player with a shitty luck streak

sure, go ahead, BUT that nay cause other problems.

A friend of mine died in his second game and when he was dead he asked his goddes for another chance and she said yes, but still took his body, from that point forward he was a ghost.

I put my hand on his shoulder and say "That ain't how it works. I'm really sorry. Frolik the Fanatic of Glossomir gets impaled into the gem-encrusted spikes and dies."

"No."

>first time player
All is quiet and still. You feel a warm white light all around you.
You hear the words echo through your mind: "It is not yet your time. Go back".
You feel a sensation of falling slowly as if through water.
Your eyes open. You have one hit point.

>first timer
I'd for sure go easy, and offer them a way out that you can have them pay back later, like some trickster god/patron that sends them on inane and nonsensical quest later

Depends on the setting. Might let him come back as a servant under a lesser spirit around the area, on the condition he crusades and does good things in the spirits name. Bam, ok plot hook

"You manage to forage enough food to feed six people."

...

Fucking saddest shit I've heard all month.

to be honest, now i know that my gm gave me a slack and made game center aound me during my first game ever. He was quite sneaky about it and rest of the party was ok with that, so it was great experience for me.
Still playing with all of them.

It even fits the situation. I hope you guys don't mind long pork.

You roll a death saving throw.

Survival checks are used for finding food, tracking and orientation in the wilds.

>Fantasy setting with gods and demons.
A divine or demonic entity offers their character a pact in exchange for survival, there may be consequences of a dire sort later, or they may be asked to undertake something they'd rather not do.
>Scifi/Cyberpunk setting
A military, company, or other wealthy entity managed to salvage what's left of them and they're now more machine than living thing, but they may demand work in compensation since the player is now in significant debt. They didn't ask for this.

For experienced players dying is sometimes just an inevitable result of bad decisions and they move on with the game, but I can understand how demoralizing it would be for a new player to just have a shit run of luck and then have their character die. It's not the kind of thing I'd do multiple times though and I'd let them know that. Something like:
>The God/Demon is bound by pretty specific supernatural laws/rules and can't revive you more than once.
Or
>Your soul can only handle the shock of dying and being forced back into the world of the living only once.
Or
>What's left of your organic body can't put up with any more life saving surgeries.
etc.

I'd have them roll to see what kind of permanent injury they receive, rather than risking character death. If they roll good they get a cool scar and a bonus to future intimidation checks, if they roll bad then they might lose a limb, but I'd give them an opportunity to get a cool replacement by the end of the next session.

Burn a fate point

>ITT: faggots advocate teaching new players bad habits and unrealistic expectations
Stop that shit. Let his character die. If he can't deal with it, tough.

Or do you want this hobby filled with even more overentitled little snowflakes who can't suffer a single setback?

First impressions can mean a lot. I wouldn't pull my punches with an experienced player, but I don't want to watch the fire in a youngen' eyes go out as he sits there quietly for the rest of the session.

I miss spoony

>What do you say to this player?
"No. However, don't call quits just yet."
Then 5 minutes later I DM-fiat him to be revived as an undead character with marginally reduced stats and heavy roleplay penalty (meaning he has to roleplay being undead).
"And that's not how survival checks work."

Depends on the type of campaign you want.

Depends if it's a very lethal system, a long campaign or a little one shot
I'm usually a nice gm and if a pc died only due to bad roll I'll allow myself to save their ass
But only once

>First time player
Wouldn't be a problem since for first time players I always go for systems where they have a resource to save their character (Fate points or the like)
Basically use a 'yes but...' type system
Sure you survive the fall if you pay me one of your important, previous hero points, but your arm is pretty fucked up and your damaged ass was picked up by slave traders: they call you GLADIATOR
That sort of thing.

No you're fucking dead kiddo. That's not what survival does. Welcome to the real world, it ain't no fucking fantasy. Maybe you should have listened to someone wiser and more experience and not tried to play a fucking low intelligence dwarf wizard. You can spend the rest of the session writing up a fucking new character and you'll play again, and again, until you can get it right. You came here to have fun? This isn't fucking fun, it's tabletop gaming, it's serious fucking business bucko. Don't you dare get up to leave, pick up the fucking player's handbook and get reading or I swear to god I'll beat you over the head with it

Old or new, I never kill players. Death is final, getting captured after being defeated leads to so much potential.

If I've actually let it get to that point, I'd introduce a plot point as to why he's instantly resurrected.

Perhaps in death, he meets one of the Gods, who confides in him that the party is the best hope for the future or something, and then raises him from the dead.

Basically make it out to be a big deal, but also that this kind of thing doesn't always happen.

I mean, this is kinda why I fudge rolls for people who I know can't take PC death.

>defeat in my game has less consequences than in pokemon

Death has fewer consequences than being taken captive or made into a slave to a dark wizard.

This. Death is merely the end of the narrative for that particular character. It's not really a consequence unless the player is personally invested in said narrative.

>Death is a consequence
You kill characters, they make new ones.
The only thing that really suffers is the player's investment in the game and their characters, and the rationality of how all these new PCs keep getting introduced to the group.

Death can be a good ending for a character, but I'd prefer that to occur in a way that improves the game, rather than out of nowhere from a couple of unlucky rolle.

I might upgrade from dead-dead to just mostly-dead.

But someone's gonna need to get this one back up to positive HP real fast.

DM revived us all last night after a TPK on, like, the first encounter of the campaign. Investigating a spooky house, paladin opens a door and there's a Spectre in it. Paladin gets one shorted by a godly roll. Ranger goes to poke his head in the doorway to see what the thump of falling pots and pans was, sees the ghost and nopes away. Warlock tries to help, to no avail. Cleric pulls her out of the doorway, triggering an AoO and one shorting her. My druid's oversized ass is stuck in the hallway, and can't do shit. Ghost comes through the walls, and one by one one shots all of us, as we scream and ineffectivrly flail at it. Warlock I guess has a pact with the Raven Queen, so we come to wherever she is. For being such utter disappointments, we get brought back with 1 HP each, and one last shot to kill the ghost.

It depends on why he's dying.

If it really is just bad luck on the dice rolls, I'd probably contrive some way for him to survive.

But if he died because of bad player choices like rushing in and carelessly attacking a superior foe, then he dies.

Rip up her character sheet.

I want this hobby filled with my friends. Nobody sits at my table if he wasn't my friend before. So I really, really, really don't give a fuck about "snowflakes", "da hobby" or whatever the fuck happens at tables that are not mine.

>teaching new players bad habits and unrealistic expectations
I straight up tell players that they're only getting mercy for their first session while they figure out how to play the game. After that, the training wheels come off.

>spoony
F

sensible as fuck

>not also making friends through tabletop

>playing with people who are not invested in the narrative

>>a few bad rolls, and their character meets an untimely death
Disgusting.

I laugh, then politely inform him that it's a death-saving throw. (And then roll it for him, doing it behind the screen so nobody notices that I rolled a 1.)

Damn this caught me off guard

>a few bad rolls
>untimely death

Ugh

By my experience, getting someone you don't know at your table is like playing Russian roulette, only that 5 out of 6 shots are ThatGuys and autists. Now if it was a way to make friends with people I'm already acquainted with, like new coworkers, that's another thing.

>Ugh
BBEG.

>untimely
I think it was exactly on time.

Depends on the system. If we talk about systems I like then he'll either have Fate Points or clones so hr won't lose character or death will come after several ignored warnings that combat is deadly.

If it really was bad rolls only, I'd explain survival doesn't work like that, but give them a second chance, something like a permanent injury or the like. Heck, if it's really only bad luck, that applies to other players as well, as long as they haven't seen my roll (sue me - they'll still die when their strategy is moronic).

However, I've killed first-timers before. Like the time the paladin thought charging a group of bandits with crossbows in a corridor was a good idea, well.

Explain to him that such things happen and survival doesn't work like that.
Most importantly tell him that's not his fault his character died, and sometimes losing is part of the game

Is it an all new party or is it one new player in an experienced party?

All new party, he's dead. It's a teaching campaign.

Experienced party, figure out a reason for him to live this time.

>me, a young first time d&d 2nd ed. player
>try my best to roleplay my character
>just a fighter that wants to see the world
>one fight goes wrong
>no clerics nearby
>"here lies level 4 fighter, he never scored"
My first DM was so strict, but it was still good. He was the type that would punish you hard for neglecting RP, the stats you rolled were the stats you live with, no good stat? You're a shit fighter then, deal with it, you're not special.
It sucked, but it forced me to learn to accept those things and improve my character instead of whining and expecting an easy time, and because death was always close my decisions mattered.

tl;dr
kill the little shit

I probably wouldn't kill a new player like that, but if I did I'd say "Survival is for any outdoorsmanship activities, not actually surviving wounds and so on. So no... Alas! This is not the end. For x... happens!"

>Punish you hard for neglecting RP
>Explicitly punishing based on mechanics

wut?

>What do you say to this player?

Marcie, get out of here.
YOU'RE DEAD!
You don't exist any more.

Shut up Jack

I don't understand the question here, are you saying those are mutually exclusive?

>died
>pray to goddess
>given a chance to revive with one hp
>wake up, open eyes
>see body being defiled by gobs
>rather dying blissfully ignorant, being kept alive as gob breeding whore

why live, user?

Normally details are provided to support a statement. It seems like the poster is giving an example that doesn't match what he says his DM does.

I rarely tell my players this but they rarely face things that would actually kill them if they lost.

Traps might kill them, but they're more valuable as prisoners most of the time and wildlife that doesn't act like proper wildlife is a hint that something is wrong there, not the typical encounter.

Also I'd probably use this as an adventure hook of some kind.

I think you're just a bit too stuck on whatever thought you have, otherwise try to be clear about what you're saying.

>The only thing that really suffers is the player's investment in the game and their characters, and the rationality of how all these new PCs keep getting introduced to the group.

They met in a tavern

shitty meme desu

Let's be honest here: if some girl went to a McDojo for three years, thought she could kick your ass and entered your cabin in the middle of the woods to kill you and steal your shit, wouldn't you tie her up in your basement and rape her?

The answer is no, no you wouldn't. Being raped is too good for such an arrogant whore. She's not getting my dick, she's instead going to enjoy some sexy times with SeƱor Branding Iron.

> "I'm sorry, but your guy is dead."

Death comes to all. You can't sugar-coat it.

>Death comes to all
For some strange reason, that sounds really comforting.

Depends how much they are invested in their character and how much they enjoy writing up new characters.

When I started playing when I was 13, I really hated making characters even though I liked playing D&D, so I pretty much played not to die to avoid going through character creation again.

I had an experience similar to this happen at my table. I was running a 5e game for some new players and one of them, a rogue, was so excited with his character's stealth and sleight of hand abilities that he tried, naively, to swipe some inappropriate items from a powerful NPC.

As the DM, I shrugged it off. His rolls were good and I decided the NG archmage he was stealing from would be more amused than angry at having random beakers and five gold stolen from his research lab.

However, the fellow players, having heard horror stories of killer DMs, got so nervous about his repeated larcenies and the karmic comeuppance I would bring down on them in response that they eventually ganged up killed the rogue.

I'll never forget the look of hurt on his face when the party sorceress slung a fire bolt at him.

It may sound like his party was clearly in the wrong for killing him (or vice versa, he was wrong for indiscriminately swiping anything he wanted. After all, they had asked him to stop multiple times) but in the end I felt like everyone was innocent and, somehow, everyone was also guilty.

And I, most of all.

>I'm sorry, that's not how it works. But hey, we'll make a new one, yeah?
That being said, I am not one to give a first-time player lethal challenges, particularly ones dependant on luck. You're supposed to ease them in.

I wouldn't do either.
Either kill, arrest, or forgive. Torturing people for your own twisted satisfaction is not a morally viable option.

My pleasure is morally viable so long as it's sustainable.

"How are you using your survival skills to survive this situation?"

Then evaluate the answer they give.

Is this really that hard?

everybody gets one

If your players can end up dying in just "a few bad rolls" and its not directly because of their stupid choices, its a gm problem, not a player one.

>Going easy on a first time player
Nice job for contributing to player entitlement, retards.

Chaotic Evil, or Chaotic Economic?

Three bandits attack an 18HP player with d6 damage weapons with no bonuses:

Hit, max damage
Hit, max damage
Hit, max damage
Player is now dying
3 failed death saves later he's dead.

It can happen.

Depends one what you mean by, "meets an untimely death". There's, "rocks fall, everyone dies", and, "I've just been stabbed unconscious by what appears to be bandits". The latter, next session he comes back as a very wounded but treated just enough to live hostage so that they may trap the rest of the party.

Rule 0

even easier because it seems like every animal and its mother has a 1d4 attack and multiattack, for effectively 2d4 damage per attack