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| Notorious killer DM Tim Kask in 2009 |
There's actually a couple of ideas that I'm throwing in this short post. One is about hit points, and another one is about an important idea to make things fun more generally.
I'm playing in a game where you die at -10 hit points. It seems like an awful lot of extra hit points in actual play. Truth be told, I would like to have seen my characters die more often because I feel like they deserved to die based on my play. I feel like, and this is a general comment and not directed toward Steve: The Referee should feel guilt for robbing the player of the agency of killing his own character through some blunder.
A more heroic mechanism
than negative hit points: Maybe if the several characters hurriedly bring he who has been laid low back to the town, he can get a save versus death as he convalesces. Only if
they do not tarry! It is likely this is the end. You don't count negatives; anything below 0 means you are on the clock and you have to get him to a stable situation.
On the other hand, there are situations that are not fun. F’rinstance: A player
isn't feeling well. He shows up and you play. He makes unusually poor game
choices that get characters killed or otherwise disadvantage the party.
That's when the Ref and players have to stop and say "this isn't fun.
Let's try it again and make it more fun."
That's different than a -10 HP rule or whatever. That's stepping outside the
game to fix a table issue.
In the game, characters should be allowed to die.
My club typically plays to -10 to, but it has more to do with character generation, and how we like to play. We enjoy the modern story-like approach and having a connection with our characters is important. If the character isn't interesting, then what is the point? We seek to find the character within the numbers, and watch them grow. We do play the old game from time to time, but we prefer the more character based one.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't about winning or losing, and I have always felt that by just adding the to -10 mechanic improves the game on both sides of the screen. At low levels (my favorite) it brings a sense of team work to the table. The fighter drops, how do you get him out of there? Heroism happens! It isn't a guarantee of survival, it is a chance. Once the team starts fighting really dangerous creatures, that extra 10 hp doesn't really mean much anymore. Once in a while you'll get lucky, but not too often.
Do I feel guilt over using it? Never. It helps define the game that we are playing, and it keeps players from having to fill in those huge AD&D character sheets. We still have death, but it doesn't hold us back. I personally strive to remove all traces of "GAME" out of it during play. Death loses meaning after awhile.
That's a good point: it depends on the style of game. I am going on the complete opposite direction with my ethic, namely making the game completely gamey!
DeleteBut I don't eschew role playing and character connections. Those happen without rules. We RP a lot too. Maybe 60% of the time.