DM Discussion

How do y'all handle player deaths? How much (if at all) do you lean towards sparing them even when the dice and their decisions should've put them back to the mud? I tend to be easier on my new players, but even for my main group of several years I'll usually mutilate them or try to spin the situation to still have consequences, but short of death.

Depends on the character, and the simulation. Personally I don't give a shit how attached players are to their characters because as far as I'm concerned accepting PC death is part of the social contract of RPGs. The GM doesn't Rocks Fall characters to death, and the players accept a death if it's not the product of rulebreaking.

But as a GM I like writing plothooks around player backstories. So a character I like dying throws wrenches in that. So if the player's in a situation where if I were reading it or watching it in some other medium and I could say "yeah I can accept him surviving that" then I'll let em live. Probably not easily, but he won't die.

But fuck that whole "bandit tribe takes PCs prisoners instead of killing them for their stuff" shit pussy GMs pull.

Extremely setting dependent. If I have all new players in something like Only War, players must die.

>How do y'all handle player deaths?
Highly situational. Context is everything with player death.
>sparing them even when the dice and their decisions
If the bones speak of suffering, often I will soften the blow and make it actually hurt rather than kill a character. Having a character lose a hand or eye or a favored item is usually better for the game than letting the bones speak of death. If the player made that bed, though? They can lay in it. Time to roll a new character.

If a game is tonally more about fun and adventure I'm less likely to kill players, too. But I will usually set expectations with games. If I'm running something and I start with the words "high lethality" I usually either tell players to prepare replacements or I'm handing out characters in the first place. Or we're randomly generating the entire character.

But as a DM I hate people who consider the DM/GM as Antagonist and not Facilitator.

This is a good example of a setting providing players with a certain level of expectation. It is appropriate to play to that expectation.

I like this notion of whether you would believe survival in a linear medium or not as a good judgement of things that you can believably skirt around death with in PnP. But yeah. Preparing players for character death is also something I consider important during initial sessions. I hate being the guy who starts a game all fun and then at the first challenge someone causes a party wipe and ruins the game for everyone not expecting consequences to be that severe.

I'll kill them without a second of hesitation and then get mad at the player because now I have a shitload more work to do, what with writing in their new character and adjusting their quest and the rest of the world around them now that their character is dead and all that shit. I never force my players into a situation they can't come out the victor, but I'll sure as hell let them run head first into sudden death, even if it means more work for me to make sure there's a smooth transition in the plot/story.
I also roll in the open so there's no disputes, because fuck babying your players and fudging dice.

I'm fairly lenient overall when I GM, since I primarily just want to have a good time weaving a story together, but I never take back dice or attacks. If and/or when that wraith plunges its cold, dead hand through your weak ass, -1 Constitution heart and rolls nearly max damage, you're fucking dead, Jim.

And that's perfectly fine. You, the OP, are wrong in thinking that you have to "handle" the death of a player character in any way outside of asking their player to think about their next one and maybe start putting them together if the session is still early.

Dice don’t matter to me, I just make sure whatever happens is enjoyable and tense enough, eg. I’ll need a boss mid fight (a lieutenant once one shot his player-allied opposite who was supposed to be an equalizer.)

I can't see not killing a player due to rolls and rules as anything but the DM pussying out.

Not every DM/GM plays /against/ their players.

Not him, but it's not about being against the players, it's about respecting the rules of the game. Fudging dice should be reserved for when the GM screws up(assuming you choose to fudge at all - personally I prefer to roll in the open) and, for instance, makes an encounter that's more difficult than intended. But if the players screw up, or if the dice gods demand blood, you shouldn't shy from killing a PC. If the group wants the kind of game where PC death doesn't happen or only happens rarely and at a dramatically appropriate time, they should pick a system that supports that kind of game(or modify the system used accordingly, such as giving PCs more fatepoints in Dark Heresy), not rely on the GM fudging to save PCs.

if the dice, I let it happen. If decision, I tend to be more lenient, because they might be learning how to play the game.
However for experienced players making bad decisions I don't see any reason to not let them die.

not him, but while rules are important, I won't put the rules above the enjoyment of my players. You shouldn't pussy out, but if a death is not going to be fun, or possibly ruin the campaign, I would fudge.

Death SHOULDN'T be fun(unless you're playing Paranoia). But the possibility of death being present makes the rest of the game more fun. RPGs are a lot of things, but ultimately they're still games, and games where you can't lose are pretty boring.

Also
>You shouldn't pussy out
> if a death is not going to be fun, or possibly ruin the campaign, I would fudge.
Pick one and stop being a faggot.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be any death at all.
My stance is also that the threat of failure should always be there, however I would much rather that the failure come not from dice and rules, but rather the player's bad decisions.

I disagree, but that's fair enough. On the other hand, not taking the probability of bad luck into account(probability, because sooner or later you WILL get unlucky in an encounter) seems like bad planning.

>I can't not sperg
FTFY

I pick both, because they aren't mutually exclusive. Have a good day.

They are mutually exclusive, you fucking pussy.

I would probably pull the first punch if I were playing with a complete normie and they would’ve died in the first ten minutes or something, but otherwise I let the dice fall where they may. In fact, I did let a new player’s character die in the second session of a 5e campaign, and he gladly rolled up a new character with no bitterness. Yes, you can get by with the illusion of danger, but it’s so much less work to just let the danger be real.

I do everything not to kill them, and give them a lot of chances to not die, but if a player wont stop doing stupid things, or if the dice god's give him exploding 1s twice in a tow than he is dead. BUT there are only a select few places where my players have a chance of dieing, like a important mini boss or the final boss fight, other than that i willl just give them crippling effects for this meeting or if they got it twords the end, for the next one as well

Found the sore losers.

As a GM most of the things I do are for dramatic effect. Most of my rolls don't matter but for their use in influencing a player's experience. It's PnP, so the Rules of the Game are guidelines at most, because I am not trying to "win" against the party. If a rule doesn't support enjoyment, then I have no qualms bending or breaking it.

Generally the only fudging I do is damage, because a near death is more dramatic than instant death, regardless of where it occurs during an encounter. And that is not always pulling punches, sometimes it is punching up the damage because the player chose to do something stupid.

Now, if the player actions/rolls, i.e., challenging someone who they are no match for and repeatedly fail saves/equivalent, then I listen to the dice.

This is where I think DM/GM creativity actually becomes even more important than most people give it credit for and why finding good ones are hard and they often get forevered. Death being the only consequence is a poorly managed game. Other types of failure, such as not stopping an evil ritual or having a village get burned down or losing a limb are all great ways to include failure without resorting to removing a player from the game.

I prefer "rational, thinking person" but I guess. Does me no harm to know my players enjoy how I run games. :3c

>This is where I think DM/GM creativity actually becomes even more important than most people give it credit for and why finding good ones are hard and they often get forevered. Death being the only consequence is a poorly managed game. Other types of failure, such as not stopping an evil ritual or having a village get burned down or losing a limb are all great ways to include failure without resorting to removing a player from the game.
And likewise, there are ways to avoid killing PCs other than fudging the dice. Different tactics, wounded enemies retreating, enemies trying to capture PCs... and that's just enemy behavior, to say nothing of the environment or other factors.

I avoid player deaths, primarily through making the gaming environment non-hazardous and not physically attacking them, since that sort of thing leads to long prison terms!
Characters, on the other hand ...

i err on the side of mutilation or permanent injury. makes for some interesting RP

We have a funeral, and their character is symbolically retired. Their character sheet is laminated and framed and hung on the wall.

Or did you mean 'player character deaths'?

This, in dnd it's usually death or you're fine, when I dm if it would be a total bitch way for a character to die like some chaff getting a lucky crit you're getting mutilated as opposed to dying. It's not fun for the player, it's not fun for me working out how to write in a new character most of the time and it's pretty anticlimactic for the other players, if you're up against a big antagonist and you go down you stay down.

I run a system that gives the PCs a limited ability to fudge rolls in their favor, so I do everything in the open and play it straight. Monstrous enemies will kill and eat the PCs while civilized enemies won't usually pass up the chance for a ransom.

No, they really aren't.

Hey!

Being dead takes quite a lot of getting used to, not to mention all the stress from getting buried and/or cremated.

Try to understand your player and not just kick him/her from the table because they happen to be dead currently.

If the smell becomes an issue, try to be polite and supportive.

A little bit of continuity helps the recently deceased a lot!

Thank you.

If the dice say that a character dies, the character dies.
This is the only acceptable approach. Period.
Otherwise, you are using the dice as a self-masturbatory device.
Might as well lube up a whole tub of them and stick your dick into it.

Sometimes i give chances but i try to be impartial because , fi you give chances to only one player they will think you have a favorite, also giving chances every time makes the game feel dull

I have one DM question, how do you handle a lot players wanting to do shit at the same time? do you it by turns? do you limit in character talking