Becoming a DM/GM (Part 6)

Today on Becoming a DM/GM, we're going to talk player character death.

Let me get this out of the way quickly... YOUR PCs WILL DIE

Unless you take drastic steps otherwise, your PCs will find ways to get themselves killed...

I know I've used this quote on the blog before and it still rings true here...
“The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own.”
-Gary Gygax

You will never have to try to kill your PCs, they will do a great job of finding creative and exciting ways to get themselves killed all on their own.

There are a few options when it comes to dealing with PC death...

1.) Don't allow PCs to die...

This is... BY FAR... the worst option. I would highly recommend against this option ever being used.

This option will completely suck the fun and excitement out of your game faster than you can say "god mode".

There's nothing more boring than trying to play a game where your character can't possibly die. Think about the last time you played a game with "god mode" on... how fast did you get bored? It's fun being invincible for a short time, but eventually you run out of things to do and get bored and move on.

I will say, there are times I will give the PCs an "extra chance" to save themselves, or will adjust an encounter on the fly if I made it too difficult. I will not however, save the PCs from dying to a bad choice, or even to crappy die rolls. If those happen, they happen, there are other ways to deal with PC death that are much better...


2.) Allow the player to reroll a new character (if they don't want to play the old one anymore)

If I am faced with this situation, I will usually allow them to reroll at the same level as the party is currently, and give them magic items and gold roughly equivalent to what the rest of the party has. Some DMs will start new characters a level or so behind to make sure people aren't just constantly dying/rerolling. Personally, I don't mind if people decide they want to reroll to a different character (I don't ever like "forcing" my players to play a character they don't enjoy, it's no fun for anyone...)

This solution works well, but you will notice that players will tend to become attached to their characters, meaning they may not want to start over... in which case, there is another option...


3.) Bring the character back in some story related fashion

I feel this is really the best option if your player doesn't want to roll a new character. There are multiple ways this can be done, one is to have the party go about getting the character resurrected, including having one of the PCs do it (if they have one that can do so).

Some other options are to have the PCs go on a quest to "save" their friend.

A great example of this is the PAX 2010 Game - the group goes to Hell to rescue Wil Wheaton's character who died.



Not much else to say on this topic...

Comment below with your ideas/ways of handling PC death!

Also, comment below or email thedmsjourney452@gmail.com with questions - we'll be doing "Ask the DM" tomorrow!

Until Next Time,

Your Humble DM,

-Zach