[D&D 4e] Character Death and TPKs

[Callan S.]

I think in terms of gamist design, not talking about player choices actually got some cotton wool out of the issue (or atleast for me). You don't choose whether you win, you don't choose whether you lose - so gamism is necessarily, to some degree, not about player choice. A whole thread exclusively about player choice wont be about gamism at all. Indeed I think I'm starting to see how the cotton wool got into my head to begin with on gamism and the subject being swung around to player choice all the time. You can talk player choice, but by itself it'll be absent any gamism.

[Natespank]

Anyway- that's all orientation.  It sounds like you're looking at how to make D&D4E death work for what you need, right?   Are you worried in particular about any of those three problems above? 

4E makes death pretty hard - there's 3 rounds of saving throws if a character is left unconscious.  Each roll has a 55% chance of stabilizing as well - all said an done, you're looking at 90% chance of survival, even without any healing or first aid.  So, death shouldn't be too common anyway

My monsters don't hesitate to coup de grace the PCs, and they're willing to let drakes eat a friend rather than also die at their claws. Swarms are WAY overpowered for their level btw.

I think my goal is to include a "failure" mechanic in the game, so the PC's can "fail," especially in combat, but one which doesn't disable gameplay or destroy a loved character. Character death is pretty harsh, and TPKs especially- I want a better way, but one that still has sting.

As per Ron's suggestion, I suppose this thread is temporarily closed- but this one I want to revisit later :D

[spindoc]

I have to say that in one of my games, that I had one character survive a TPK, and it was interesting to present him as the alcoholic survivor of the massacre that finally recruited a group to help him defeat the evil that took his friends. It wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for the roleplaying by the players, however.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi, and welcome,

Let's permit this thread to rest for a while as we discussed above. Back to it later.

Best, Ron