character death frequency

[Condottiere]

It's his own fault if he insists on wearing a red shirt.

 

[vargr1]

where player character survival would constitute a violation of game rules, game setting, or game logic. where a non-player character would die with no second thought.

That's awfully broad a standard. After all, there are many people in real life who 'should' be dead, but through a combination of luck and circumstances, are still alive.

More specific 'should' is a group-by-group and game-by-game decision. There is no universal standard of 'should'.

 

[BytePro]

PCs die in my games during chargen, where the rule is let the die (pun) determine...

During adventures when we - the group - agree they should. By pre-arrangement that they will - where Players often play multiple PCs so death does not disrupt play. Or, in-game, when a situation seems appropriate and Player is cool with the notion.

Otherwise, there are plenty of creative alternatives (mostly dead...).

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

How many players in your current game and how large is your stack of 'NPC' sheets?

Seriously, I am just kidding. Whatever y'all enjoy. It should just make Players either cautous or fatalistic in their outlook.

I only game with four at a table. No more, no less. I usually have 8 pre-gens in my folder for the 3 players to pick from. It's rare for a player to reduce their three Characteristics to 0. But when it happens, they're dead. I do one-shots, so players tend to wait until the end of the game if they are going to make a sacrifice move with their character to save the others.

I don't do "Beings of Light make Apollo alive again" stuff.

It's his own fault if he insists on wearing a red shirt.

Crew members wearing red have a better chance of survival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIRRDO7_SZI

But, you knew that.

 

[flykiller]

Players often play multiple PCs so death does not disrupt play.

that seems like a great compromise between rule integrity and game continuity.

 

[ffilz]

I voted always. Would I never ever let a PC live who the dice and situation killed? There might be some circumstances, but they would be so rare as to be about zero chance.

Like creativehum and others have mentioned, having additional characters (whether NPCs or second PCs or henchmen) around makes it easy for a player to just pick up a new character, or they can wait until it's logical to bring a new PC in (maybe running an NPC in the interim).

There have been times I went out of my way to save PCs, but with my preference for systems that are pretty easy to generate a new character, my thoughts have changed. Now sometimes I play Burning Wheel and in that game it's pretty hard to get your character killed, but that's a game with specific mechanics, it's not the GM saying, "Oh, Bob is going to be so crushed to lose his PC, so I'll do something to save him."

Of course it's also worth noting that Book 1 Traveller combat (especially with just Book 1 weapons) is actually hard to actually get PCs killed with one shot. Sure, if they go down, they might not be rescued, but there's still a chance of the rest of the PCs doing something (or maybe the antagonist doesn't actually want them dead).

For OD&D, I have a negative hit point rule that gives at least a chance of surviving, most PCs who have gone below 0 have died. I've lost some players as a result of these deaths. Oh well, go find a game that is more to your liking, there's plenty of people wanting to play my game.

 

[AsenRG]

the player has attempted some daring feat of heroism, but has failed a task roll. the logical outcome is death. or an opposing non-player-character has rolled a killing shot against a player character. the logical outcome is death.

how often does the character receive the full consequence of such a result? how often does the character die?

If they don't, what's the damn point of using the dice?

 

[flykiller]

If they don't, what's the damn point of using the dice?

if the dice are what is in control of the game, none.

 

[aramis]

If they don't, what's the damn point of using the dice?

I'm of the mind that, once you go to the dice, you accept the input they give at face value. If you want to rig, rig the table before the roll, not after.

I also often like to point out the potential failure results before they commit to the rolling.