NPC deaths

Wow! I wish I was as cool as you are!
Tell me how you do it!
I'll be your best friend!

>I don't read

why is the warband defeat screen always a women

>Why are you even playing RPGs when they aren't real either, troglodyte?
I'm in for the social aspect and the chance to bang the occasional female who joins the group

It isn't. That is the female player. Character defeat screen

Nothing wrong with turning emotional abuse around on a DM.

it looks oddly sexual, doesn't it?

You can't get mad at the dude who straps you into the rollercoaster when you were the one to get in line for it,

In one campaign I had a simple, kind-hearted Goliath knight that the party took a liking to because he was very straightforward and handy in a fight. He usually watched over the village that the party had made their base. He became fast friends with the druid, who was a naive and innocent girl that meshed well with his personality. There became a running joke that they would play tic-tac-toe in the sand and the druid would just win dozens of matches with the exact same moves because the knight never learned any better.

They took him along on the final attack on a fortress a bunch of orcs were occupying. They had several NPCs helping off-screen, but he was the only one that set foot in the fortress proper with them. He wound up running into range of an absolutely enormous boar that charged and gored him to 0 HP. Since he was an NPC I had never really had any plans for besides being a hint to a puzzle and maybe a helper that they called on in the fight, but didn't actually bring into the fortress, I didn't give him any death saving throws, because he wasn't 'important' enough to have them.

This turned out to be a mistake because the party was absolutely horrified and aghast that their big knight pal had been torn apart and they were unable to do anything. They were so adamant about him getting death saves that I decided he was probably important enough to deserve them. They wound up saving him and immediately told him to quit the field and return to the backlines to recover. The brave knight lived to fight another day because the players were so distraught about his would-be death.

The druid's player still drew up a little piece of art for her character reacting to his death in the moment, though, and it was really sad. I felt good that they had grown so attached to the fellow.

>get in line for it
>monsters unavoidably killing NPCs you're supposed to care about in what is presumably D&D

No, unavoidable emotional abuse is really not a default norm in D&D. If the DM is being a tryhard its entirely appropriate to dissuade him.

In a horror-ish RPG, sure.

They took off, then nuked the place from orbit...

Probably because you just straight up killed the NPCs with the players having no input or ability to affect the situation. No wonder they'd stop caring.

No, they were lying on the ground bleeding and prone and got finished off by one of the players' fireballs.

Well of course

I was running two consecutive Delta Green campaigns with the same people. One was a few years earlier and they had a handler named sanchez. In one game he got sucked into Carcosa. I left it on a cliffhanger for a few weeks as we played the fast forward one where sanchez sometimes showed up for briefings. We finally had the players go to carcosa and they couldn't save sanchez. The twist being that like half of their missions in the future one were being given to them by The Yellow King. They enjoyed it at least, but I haven't finished the ending yet.

Good shit user.
I was once a wizard in a campaign that was being derailed by a shithead who couldn't stop himself from acting randumb. We were infiltrating a massive Temple library for some ancient knowledge for the purposes of sealing away the BBEG. I was using disguise self and getting help from the party to convince the Temple Guards I was the setting equivalent of the Pope, Gallent Loringstrom. By shear coincidence, the Pope guy was there that same day. It was a one in one hundred chance roll I later found out after the end of the campaign. So, I duck away and try not to be seen alongside the real deal. The shithead I was talking about was a rogue at the time, and decided to go full fedora. He was tasked with protecting me if I couldn't get in. He decided "If I kill the real Pope, the wizard will be the only one!" So as the Pope's guard detail chases after a possible intrusion (me), he is left with one guard. The rogue stabs the Pope in the back, and due to the frailty of old age, he dies instantly.

Everyone in the party, myself included, flipped their shit. The DM of that campaign still shakes his head at the mention of the player of the rogue for a multitude of reasons, assassinating a good leader of religion bring one of them.

>Implying women play rpgs

>play a heroic good guy barbarian/ranger type character
>promise to protect an npc with my life
>npc is killed by a werewolf during the night
>rp very emotional and try to get some good drama going
>dig a grave for the npc
>the other players just doesnt care about the npc they just want to kill monsters and find treasure

Fucking hate my group sometimes.

>play your character
>playgroup gets upset
This has always triggered tf out of me.

>have one male player and four female players
it's not that they don't play, they just avoid you

Maybe have something dear to the dead NPC be carried around by your character. Take time to say how your character cares for the item.

But yeah, bunch of assholes for not giving a bit of a shit.

no

They never care. No matter how much work I put into an NPC to make them interesting and/or likable, they can rarely even remember their names. Even if these NPCs are constantly in their party and backing themup. Then again, this is the same group that has trouble remembering EACHOTHER'S character names. Let alone important location names and whatnot. Only one of them takes notes. It's fucking annoying.

I know that feel user

user, my previous players were dumbasses who saw D&D as a combat + dungeon crawling and not much else, you know what I did to make them care? Whenever they stepped into a village for resupply, peasants would swarm them for autographs and would only go away if you were nice to them. Not even a fireball could scorch the glee in their hearts.

Surprisingly effective. Good on ya.

>No matter how much work I put into an NPC to make them interesting and/or likable

There's your problem right there. Players don't like it when the GM makes them feel they're supposed to like an NPC. Your point about making them "interesting" stands out to me. I'm not at your table so I don't know what you're doing, but 9 times out of 10 when a GM talks about his "interesting" character he means some rando who blurts out her (it's usually female) life story. At best this shit bores players because it's never as interesting as you think. At worse it makes them suspicious because it starts feeling like the GM views them as a captive audience.

Players will engage your NPCs on their own terms. This goes for all GM, not just you. You all may not like this, but that's just how it is. You have zero control over how they perceive your NPCs.
>But those damn murderhobos won't engage with my NPCs and plot
Consider the idea the player's job is getting engaged with the game, not getting engaged with your specific plan for how the game should progress. You can't guilt trip players into caring. The best you can do is shotgun blast a whole bunch of different NPCs. The players will eventually find ones they like and they will start seeking them out.

I really like this advice. I think a lot of DMs have a major issue with 'presenting' important NPCs. Like, sure. A crappy party can be crappy, but even a good party isn't just going to latch onto a character because you deem that they should.

So much bait

I hear what you're saying, but I think you're assuming a lot of things about me. I never force my NPCs or their backstories on the players. Only if they ask the character, or it comes up in a relevant conversation/mission.

Did you miss the part where I said they can't even remember the other PC's names? Honestly, my problem is more of a player issue than how I'm handling my NPCs.
Literally the only "NPC" they ever got attached to was an inanimate object, a fucking metal door someone used as a weapon once and wanted to keep for some reason.

I should also add that this doesn't just happen when I'm the DM, we all take turns DMing and they do the same shit during other games. I feel like the only person who gets attached to certain NPCs and tries to get really involved in the RP/world.

To be fair, in every game I've played, most players don't remember party names, npc names, or town names right off the bat. In some cases in takes several sessions because maybe these names are hardly ever spoken. Its passing information that may get passed over in favor of more critical information. Here's a little tip that might help. Assuming you're doing this in person, have each person put their character's name on a little name stand so everyone knows whose names are what. Likewise, with npcs and towns, maybe make lists that they can check? Eventually, those names will probably become memory to them. Just a thought.

The game in question I've been running for 5+ years. And they STILL forget eachother's names.

Honestly, I should really look for a new group.

>have 4 female players and 1 male player
>3 of the female players like the elf shit and thus have elf names ic
>nobody remembers their names
>the other two people play slavs and germs with slightly more memorable names
>nobody remembers any names
>finally come into a game as a player with a very joe smith name
>everybody knows his name and (I think) likes him

>+5 years
Oh dear. Forget I said anything.

>I'm in for the social aspect and the chance to bang the occasional female who joins the group

Didn't know Dennis Reynolds browsed Veeky Forums

from a 5e game
>Players were very weak initiates of a mercenary company, attached to their half-orc handler, Edward
>barely did anything without him, unless he gave them specific orders
>mostly don't deal with frontline combat, doing small scouting missions, delivering messages, or guarding some place that's under minor threat
>the country they're fighting for is losing pretty badly
>The company is getting beat up pretty badly, has lost a lot of members to an ambush
>Company is set up on the eastern fringe of a city that's supposed to be attacked
>The party gets assigned to medic duties and later frontline combat
>meet a bard/ranger, O'Hare, and his unnamed warforged "son"
>make quick friends, and try to enjoy themselves before the upcoming battle
>right before the big battle, they're running from dugout to dugout rendering all the medical help they can
>Then the horn blares
>sprint like fuck back to their trench/bunker
>Each of them readies a crossbow, they're only the second line, and expect to get trampled
>Because their group is well appointed, and because of O'Hare and the warforged's addition to the team, Edward gets cycled to the front trench because of his experience, and leads a team of elite men
>The battle begins
>The enemy arrives, humans, greatly outnumbering them
>they brought Orc mercenaries, cavalry mounted on wargs
>after a few failed probes into the defense of the camp, they finally break through the first line
>Edward starts hauling back toward the squad, but he's injured, bad
>Stops halfway between the two trenches, with the Warg-mounted orcs in hot pursuit, draws his claymore
>takes out a couple of the Orcs, and injures a couple more before he catches a lance through the body
>party is heartbroken, Edward's brother, George rallies the party, and they charge over the breach, and clash with a group of enemies
>George pushes past the enemies in a rage to get to his brother, and gets captured by the now retreating enemy.

Kill KYS Urself.

Consider that some people just want to explore dungeons and kill goblins. Maybe your NPCs would be appreciated by a group that wants to roleplay, but a lot of the time they just want to fight monsters and get XP. And that's fine.

There's no wrong way to have fun as long as you are having fun. It's absolutely vital to correctly assertain what kind of fun your players want and keep everyone on the same page.

Consider putting more effort into fun and varied dungeons and combat encounters, rather than NPCs and storylines, if you think your players would have more fun that way.

That's a good story user, you have a cool GM.

Yup, Kyle posting is always a blast.

There were a lot of worried looks when they saw what their employer did to a guy they brought in from a bounty hunt. It's odd, because this guy was a real pain for them to get a hold of, powerful telekinetic with a monstrous mount and a cult following him. When they saw their employer take his head off with an ax and burn the flesh off his skull, they paused for a moment, and looked a little bit worried that they were working for the wrong man.
It doesn't sound like much, but this was a group that didn't react very strongly to much of anything that happened to NPCs. They're the sort who hold a pilot at gunpoint to take them to the next planet, dump money on him to keep him silent, and then wait until he's out of sight to murder him for their money back. The fact that all of them winced and made sounds of discomfort was enough of a reaction.

Oh, I don't just put effort into my story and characters. I give them plenty of good combat encounters and dungeons/missions/whatever. They enjoy it, and have complimented me on sessions many times before.
I'm honestly just venting because I personally am the only person in the group who WANTS roleplay and story.
I'm not blind to their needs... I just wish they weren't so blind to mine. Dig?

What happened with the door?

Their next campaign, after the murder Ser Horst, an abrasive, loyal knights with very large boots and an even bigger warhammer, was to bring him back by petitioning HIS divine creator for another chance.

Granted, this is a game in which resurrecting people is both costly to your stats and to your wealth. They agreed that if it was possible that they would each take a -1 to every base stat if it meant bringing their favorite NPC who fought with them on over a dozen occasions, and eventually died for the sake of honor and duty to their cause. The campaign was brutally difficult in that they had no access to temples that they could call on Horst's god from and had to travel across the world to his homeland to pray at such a place.
Horst was res'd at the end of the campaign after a grueling fight with a ghost knight with a hippogryph mount. Note, the setting does not have magical items, only divine blessings. They spent every favor and holy item to bring this guy and his beast down, all for their NPC from another campaign.
Needless to say, Ser Horst was well-received when his embalmed corpse rose from its makeshift casket and was given back his sword.
Next campaign, they want to overthrow a kingdom and put Ser Horst in charge.

user, you can't say that one of your players drew a picture to honor a character and not share it.

She doesn't post her art online so I'm not sure if she'd be fine with me sharing it on a Tibetan Underwater Basket Weaving chat server.

In Deutsch bitte!

Players' mutiny on the GM after he tastelessly killed one of the PCs family the second session.

For the social aspect and banging you can go to night clubs or parties.

Read what Edgar Poe said about the most tragic thing, and you will understand why.

>female
You're a robot who never banged anyone in his life.

Fair enough.

How does that even work?