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A GM's liberty and PC Killing

   
Jammers has just summed up all of my feelings on dice fudging by DMs in one handy-dandy paragraph: "No, it's your story. Because you think the story you planned in your head is better than anything else that could happen.
You are imposing your will on the dice because you want to tell a story, rather than watch a story tell itself at the confluence of random chance and player agency."

Well said.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gnomechompski View Post
I always took it as - this is a dangerous world, death is a real consequence, especially for stupid mistakes. That being said, when I DM a game, if it's clear the party is doing their damnedest in combat, pull all the right moves but the rolls just aren't in their favor, I will still give a small window of opportunity for a PC not to die, especially if they are like the people I tend to play with and work hard on their character with excellent rp.
Death isn't really much of a consequence in a game with Raise Dead, which was put there for a reason.

If people don't really want their characters to die, then death shouldn't be the result of failure. If people don't really want their characters to fail, then I'm not sure why they're playing a game. If people don't want the game to be boring, they need to talk to everyone involved about what makes the game non-boring for them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gnomechompski View Post
On top of that, we just reached 5th level overall as a party and there's been 7 PC deaths. I'd say one of the deaths was an idiotic mistake on the players part but aside from that, doesn't that seem a little excessive?
No, not necessarily.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gnomechompski View Post
Whenever a PC does down, guy likes to coup de grace immediately. My argument is how can good rp and group synergy prevail with regular changes in the groups line up?
With Raise Dead or similar spells. That's what they're there for.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gnomechompski View Post
So I've yet to roll up another character and do yet another detailed background and character traits, numbers, ect. Strongly considering quitting but it's a tough decision because the guys in the group are really cool and are all excellent at rp and despite what I said about the DM, he puts a lot of work into the world and the maps and the little details. Please let me know what do you guys think.
Talk to the GM. If you can't get on the same page with him about what makes the game fun, then you're better off leaving. Other people might try to just optimize to make their character impossible to kill, but the GM can always find a way. If you can't talk to this GM and come to an agreement, nothing is likely to change.

Good luck.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlinmc View Post
Jammers has just summed up all of my feelings on dice fudging by DMs in one handy-dandy paragraph: "No, it's your story. Because you think the story you planned in your head is better than anything else that could happen.
You are imposing your will on the dice because you want to tell a story, rather than watch a story tell itself at the confluence of random chance and player agency."

Well said.
If you want to tell a story, why bother rolling the dice? Just tell the story and be honest about it.

That's a question I've wondered many times with certain GMs. If you're going to roll dice, you might as well stick with their result and let the story morph and change as you go. Otherwise, as you pointed out, Beta, why bother rolling the dice?

Raise Dead is a massive expenditure of resources for a group at (or below) 5th level. And bumps the raised individual back a level, which only makes it more likely that they'll die again, and be slapped with another 1450gp 'mortality fine'.

Of course, they could roll the dice with Reincarnate for a slight discount on the casting services fee, but that's only a savings of 170gp, for a potentially punitive disconnect between race and class/feats/etc

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tedronai View Post
Raise Dead is a massive expenditure of resources for a group at (or below) 5th level. And bumps the raised individual back a level, which only makes it more likely that they'll die again, and be slapped with another 1450gp 'mortality fine'.
It's still an option, if continuity is important to a player. And it clearly is for some, which is why the option became much more useable in 4th Edition.

That's probably beside the point, though, since the first thing a GM is going to do if they have it out for the players is make sure that death stings. Conversation (possibly followed by a parting of the ways) is really the only option.

Merely twins? Not quintuplets? Nonuplets? Duodecaplets? Think big!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bjornaer View Post
All characters are monzygotic twins.
A classic approach to the problem, and one that reveals that the players aren't bought into the stakes the GM thinks they're bought into.




 

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