DnD Hot Take:
If you tell me to bring back-up characters to your session because you run high-stakes DnD and characters will die, the stakes are actually quite low.
High stakes means I care deeply about my character’s story and will be devastated if they lose a finger.
If you tell me to bring back-up characters to your session because you run high-stakes DnD and characters will die, the stakes are actually quite low.
High stakes means I care deeply about my character’s story and will be devastated if they lose a finger.
Comments
It's a lot easier to just kill you, but I really want players to have characters shaped by scars.
Energy - Head: Broiling plasma envelopes your head, burning off all your hair and facial features. Your Fellowship is reduced to 15. If your Fellowship was already 15 or below, no one notices a difference.
Like you said, I can roll up a bunch of cookie cutter characters and not be invested in any of them. How is that fun for the players?
Those types of rpg's are very reminiscent of 1st person shooter video games to me. A very short background then thrown into a life or death scenario instantly.
you are just bad at scaling combat.
(not YOU you, bad DM "you")
Also bold of you to assume I don't have multiple characters built out at any given time just for fun, with complete backstory, Spotify playlist, and Pinterest board....
the system is bad at scaling combat, and for a dm preparing it to be fun and engaging for players, threating but not party wiping but still a challenge, takes a long time
If the DM says "bring backup sheets", I'm expecting tomb of horrors level bullshit.
I want to get attached to my character, but if you've implied that she's going to get killed by the first failed perception check, that makes it a bit difficult.
"Tactical, challenging combat" is fine, even if it's not the primary reason why I play TTRPGs. But meatgrinders are a different story, and "Make sure you have plenty of backup characters" tends to indicate that the game will be a meatgrinder.
I wanted to play that character and so I will.
"Oy mate, shame about my brother Bruce. My name is Bruce."
Our campaigns tend to be 3-4 years long, 1-20 epics, and the only time a character is permanently lost is when a player wants that.
There are plenty of other stakes that get played for, that we care about, and so we're always incredibly satisfied at the end of a long campaign.
I’m that DM.
Different people play different games different ways for different reasons.
It’s not about character death though, it’s about running a clean game.
And who’s to say I as the DM am not equally as attached to Goblin #3!
So many goblins have been needlessly slain.. so many…
And in some dark recess, new D&D rulebooks seem to remember this time
Why should a player care about their PC if they're made to be replaceable?
If I create a character that I invest in and care a lot about, their death can be devastating.
Thank you for the explanation!
I always have 3-5 back-up characters at the ready, because I know how easy things can go wrong in-game.