Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
I feel like PCs being unkillable takes something away from the gameplay. If it's game ruining for a PC to die, then there aren't any stakes for the PCs. Just for the established narrative.
I've only had 3 player deaths, and two of them were direct results of players taking risks they knew might result in their death. One of them was me being overzealous, but the context of it made it the best outcome anyway, and the player was immediately excited about making a new character. If they weren't, I would have given the players a way to pursue reviving the dead player.
+3
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.
+2
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Wheee, sitting around in ff14 waiting for FATEs to pop up so I can attempt to get event weapons I will most likely never use but they are there so I must collect them.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
but I do hate the unpredictability of the dice in games like these, you could just have the absolute shittest luck or the greatest luck and I think that's just as stupid as plot armor PCs
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
0
MrMisterJesus dying on the cross in pain? Morally better than us. One has to go "all in".Registered Userregular
Also, I don't actually like fudging dice and I'm fine with wiping encounters. Just have the party wake up in prison, or a morgue, having been resuscitated by a mysterious but maybe nefarious benefactor. Idk, you literally chose what happens. Just pick one of the things that doesn't involve tanking the character that I like and giving me homework to come up with a new one.
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
There are some really common situations that will cause the majority of players in a fantasy roleplaying game to do suicidally stupid (for their character) things. I think part of it may be learned behavior from video games where it's usually not possible for your choices to put you into a no-win situation. In a video game if there is an option, no matter how stupid it would be for the character, some people will take it cause it's there. And god damn do they pitch a fit if that results in their "run" being failure-locked (and rightly).
One thing that is really really common in new players (and a surprisingly number of old players) is just not being able to handle the idea that a foe cannot be beaten right now. Some players will never run away / hide / surrender but will fight to the last no matter what. In a fight they started in the first place! "Well the DM obviously wouldn't have put that there if we aren't supposed to fight it".
Something that more DMs need to learn (cause writing this kind of scenario is such a newb DM mistake) is that a lot, I think a majority, of players will get their characters killed rather than be captured or - should they be captured while unconscious - do anything but attack the guards or prison walls with their teeth until killed with no thought for any other option.
There are other cases but really what it comes down to is that a lot of players will do things in fantasy RPGs that will get their players killed. Obviously so. And not because of lack of communication from the DM. But just because certain actions are incompatible with the power fantasy.
but I do hate the unpredictability of the dice in games like these, you could just have the absolute shittest luck or the greatest luck and I think that's just as stupid as plot armor PCs
but I do hate the unpredictability of the dice in games like these, you could just have the absolute shittest luck or the greatest luck and I think that's just as stupid as plot armor PCs
it's not the one with your name on it
it's the one addressed to whom it may concern
...what?
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
Or it's bad playing, if the rest of the party runs from the ancient red dragon and you decide to poke it in the eye.
I like when a sandbox type game has things where you can say "oh, I'm gonna come back later and deal with that and it'll be awesome"
In that situation I'd think it'd be prudent to at least have a brief OOC convo "you realize it's very likely your character could die if you do this, right?"
If they wanna do it anyway, but also don't want to die, and also the DM cannot or does not want to create bespoke hijinx for them... some people might not belong in the same playgroup
One thing that should be absolutely clear is that if you are picking up the dice in combat your character could die. Every time. Especially for low level characters that lone orc is still going to roll a crit 5% of the time. The failure to understand that is a real failure on the part of the player. Otherwise it is totally stupid to play a game with rules / dice in the first place.
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
Or it's bad playing, if the rest of the party runs from the ancient red dragon and you decide to poke it in the eye.
I like when a sandbox type game has things where you can say "oh, I'm gonna come back later and deal with that and it'll be awesome"
In that situation I'd think it'd be prudent to at least have a brief OOC convo "you realize it's very likely your character could die if you do this, right?"
If they wanna do it anyway, but also don't want to die, and also the DM cannot or does not want to create bespoke hijinx for them... some people might not belong in the same playgroup
One thing that should be absolutely clear is that if you are picking up the dice in combat your character could die. Every time. Especially for low level characters that lone orc is still going to roll a crit 5% of the time. The failure to understand that is a real failure on the part of the player. Otherwise it is totally stupid to play a game with rules / dice in the first place.
I don't agree with this at all
It's much more finely tuned than "you could die in any fight" vs "no rules or dice"
Almost all such failures of understanding by players are preventable by a DM, and preventing them isn't even very effortful!
the rule I gave was "I won't purposefully kill you, but if you do stuff that's outlandish I'm not going to give you plot armor either"
well the important point is still: are you going to fudge the dice in their favor? If you need to then for fucks sake play a different game or something. And if not, then being a 1st level mage with 4 hitpoints and no armor mixing it up with monsters that do 1d6 damage on a single hit must be considered "outlandish".
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
Or it's bad playing, if the rest of the party runs from the ancient red dragon and you decide to poke it in the eye.
I like when a sandbox type game has things where you can say "oh, I'm gonna come back later and deal with that and it'll be awesome"
In that situation I'd think it'd be prudent to at least have a brief OOC convo "you realize it's very likely your character could die if you do this, right?"
If they wanna do it anyway, but also don't want to die, and also the DM cannot or does not want to create bespoke hijinx for them... some people might not belong in the same playgroup
One thing that should be absolutely clear is that if you are picking up the dice in combat your character could die. Every time. Especially for low level characters that lone orc is still going to roll a crit 5% of the time. The failure to understand that is a real failure on the part of the player. Otherwise it is totally stupid to play a game with rules / dice in the first place.
I think this hard-line stance is really weird! Or at the very least, absolutely not universal outside of you/your games!
Kid Presentable on
+4
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
i once tried playing fudge dice for my party because as the DM i literally just kept rolling crits and they kept missing but after a while i just gave in to the fates and destroyed them
Allegedly a voice of reason.
0
MrMisterJesus dying on the cross in pain? Morally better than us. One has to go "all in".Registered Userregular
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
There are some really common situations that will cause the majority of players in a fantasy roleplaying game to do suicidally stupid (for their character) things. I think part of it may be learned behavior from video games where it's usually not possible for your choices to put you into a no-win situation. In a video game if there is an option, no matter how stupid it would be for the character, some people will take it cause it's there. And god damn do they pitch a fit if that results in their "run" being failure-locked (and rightly).
One thing that is really really common in new players (and a surprisingly number of old players) is just not being able to handle the idea that a foe cannot be beaten right now. Some players will never run away / hide / surrender but will fight to the last no matter what. In a fight they started in the first place! "Well the DM obviously wouldn't have put that there if we aren't supposed to fight it".
Something that more DMs need to learn (cause writing this kind of scenario is such a newb DM mistake) is that a lot, I think a majority, of players will get their characters killed rather than be captured or - should they be captured while unconscious - do anything but attack the guards or prison walls with their teeth until killed with no thought for any other option.
There are other cases but really what it comes down to is that a lot of players will do things in fantasy RPGs that will get their players killed. Obviously so. And not because of lack of communication from the DM. But just because certain actions are incompatible with the power fantasy.
But, I mean, this does seem like something that's solvable with communication?
"I don't run my tabletop games like video games. I use different genre conventions. Here are ways you can get killed." etc?
+2
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
I used to crit my party's tank all the fucking time.
It was amusing every time it happened because it just kept happening.
the rule I gave was "I won't purposefully kill you, but if you do stuff that's outlandish I'm not going to give you plot armor either"
well the important point is still: are you going to fudge the dice in their favor? If you need to then for fucks sake play a different game or something. And if not, then being a 1st level mage with 4 hitpoints and no armor mixing it up with monsters that do 1d6 damage on a single hit must be considered "outlandish".
Why fudge the dice when I can fudge the story? A lost dice roll is only a death if the character chooses it, you can incapacitate instead. This applies to NPCs as well.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
0
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
but I do hate the unpredictability of the dice in games like these, you could just have the absolute shittest luck or the greatest luck and I think that's just as stupid as plot armor PCs
it's not the one with your name on it
it's the one addressed to whom it may concern
...what?
oh, I misread your post and thought you were pro-random chance deaths for PCs
Also in vanguards game our dwarf has been reduced to zero and started bleeding out like half a dozen times and each time my cleric of Dayira brought him back
It’s like resurrection in game of thrones, dying chips a little bit away from you even with magic healing
So he’s a husk of his former self, brought back again and again and again. Dayira is not finished with you friend. You have more Work to do for our goddess.
I would be mad as hell if a DM killed my character for laffs, or to build tension, or whatever
ok cool story, see you never again
What I am suggesting is a bit more subtle: It's refraining from fudging die rolls to keep a player alive. Or otherwise fudging things behind the screen to make sure the most narratively or dramatically appropriate / satisfying thing always happen.
That's fair. At the same time, I'm also just not that interested in playing campaign settings where true random dice will eventually kill your character. If I spend hours and hours concepting, playing, and developing a character, I'm pretty much only okay with it being killed if that's part of a story development I explicitly helped plan and agreed to.
Like, only 1% of the playerbase ever actually wanted to play Diablo on hardcore. Power to the people who do want that, but I would feel like it was a huge violation of my time and extremely disrespectful if that got sprung on me without a whole ton of explicit metadiscussion and mutual greenlighting about how permadeath is a normal part of the campaign.
Are you ok with your character being killed if you try to tackle something you're clearly not meant to tackle?
No!
That sounds like a breakdown of communication, and imo it's bad DMing to take a communication breakdown and then punish the player because it's 'their fault' for not getting what the DM was 'obviously' putting down
There are some really common situations that will cause the majority of players in a fantasy roleplaying game to do suicidally stupid (for their character) things. I think part of it may be learned behavior from video games where it's usually not possible for your choices to put you into a no-win situation. In a video game if there is an option, no matter how stupid it would be for the character, some people will take it cause it's there. And god damn do they pitch a fit if that results in their "run" being failure-locked (and rightly).
One thing that is really really common in new players (and a surprisingly number of old players) is just not being able to handle the idea that a foe cannot be beaten right now. Some players will never run away / hide / surrender but will fight to the last no matter what. In a fight they started in the first place! "Well the DM obviously wouldn't have put that there if we aren't supposed to fight it".
Something that more DMs need to learn (cause writing this kind of scenario is such a newb DM mistake) is that a lot, I think a majority, of players will get their characters killed rather than be captured or - should they be captured while unconscious - do anything but attack the guards or prison walls with their teeth until killed with no thought for any other option.
There are other cases but really what it comes down to is that a lot of players will do things in fantasy RPGs that will get their players killed. Obviously so. And not because of lack of communication from the DM. But just because certain actions are incompatible with the power fantasy.
But, I mean, this does seem like something that's solvable with communication?
"I don't run my tabletop games like video games. I use different genre conventions. Here are ways you can get killed." etc?
I run my games with different conventions
IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE HAHAHAHA
Imagine killing one of your characters and not sending everyone else on a quest to the underworld to win back their soul.
0
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Man, every time I go to upgrade a docker container I feel like I'm missing something fundamental.
It's not good enough to stop/start the container. Apparently you have to remove the old one and use run to create a new one? Which means if you have configured everything by startup command line, you need to remember said command line.. which sucks.
He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
0
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Dayira sounds like something you can tolerate if you pop a Lactaid first
i once tried playing fudge dice for my party because as the DM i literally just kept rolling crits and they kept missing but after a while i just gave in to the fates and destroyed them
One of my friends the first time he played went full Leroy Jenkins against a dragon very early on.
But threw a poisoned dagger and rolled two natural 20s back to back (or a 20 and the dragon rolled a 1 on the saving throw? Can't remember exactly) and got an insta-kill.
Apparently the DM was pissed because it completely threw off his whole campaign.
i once tried playing fudge dice for my party because as the DM i literally just kept rolling crits and they kept missing but after a while i just gave in to the fates and destroyed them
One of my friends the first time he played went full Leroy Jenkins against a dragon very early on.
But threw a poisoned dagger and rolled two natural 20s back to back (or a 20 and the dragon rolled a 1 on the saving throw? Can't remember exactly) and got an insta-kill.
Apparently the DM was pissed because it completely threw off his whole campaign.
See, that's just a perfect opportunity to discover that there was a previously unnoticed clutch of much older, clearly hatched dragon eggs.
Death is not the only consequence! And often it's not even the most motivating.
A player who is severely injured and has to spend a few sessions dealing with a major penalty or limitation will be much, much more cautious in later encounters.
Death is not the only consequence! And often it's not even the most motivating.
A player who is severely injured and has to spend a few sessions dealing with a major penalty or limitation will be much, much more cautious in later encounters.
Yes, maim their characters, maybe kill their families, etc.
0
Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
the rule I gave was "I won't purposefully kill you, but if you do stuff that's outlandish I'm not going to give you plot armor either"
well the important point is still: are you going to fudge the dice in their favor? If you need to then for fucks sake play a different game or something. And if not, then being a 1st level mage with 4 hitpoints and no armor mixing it up with monsters that do 1d6 damage on a single hit must be considered "outlandish".
Why fudge the dice when I can fudge the story? A lost dice roll is only a death if the character chooses it, you can incapacitate instead. This applies to NPCs as well.
Yeah, I've had lots of cases of players losing in combat, but death is very specific in D&D, and not all that easy to come to accidentally. The players have a ton of options to avoid death.
The one that I couldn't fudge my way out of was the purple worm thing, though. The worm, with the poison damage, did something like 60 points of damage to a character that was already heavily wounded and had a max hp of, like, 55. The rules are p clear in that case.
+1
Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Man, every time I go to upgrade a docker container I feel like I'm missing something fundamental.
It's not good enough to stop/start the container. Apparently you have to remove the old one and use run to create a new one? Which means if you have configured everything by startup command line, you need to remember said command line.. which sucks.
What! Make an alias or bash script for the command line!
If it's a command inside the image use etc/init.d or (shudder) cron!
Also consider docker-compose / mvn package docker:build
Part of my perspective on this is that my D&D games lately have been run as a stream on my twitch channel. So while I'm primarily doing this because it's fun, I also want it to be fun to watch. Viewers getting really excited for a character only to have them die in the very first combat can be fun, but probably less fun than getting to know that character. And then killing them ten episodes in when it's a lot more emotionally wrenching.
Not to say there can't be lethal damage that early. But especially for newer players I would lean towards "guards show up and help fight the bandits!" kind of stuff if things are going particularly poorly early on.
+1
Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Posts
I've only had 3 player deaths, and two of them were direct results of players taking risks they knew might result in their death. One of them was me being overzealous, but the context of it made it the best outcome anyway, and the player was immediately excited about making a new character. If they weren't, I would have given the players a way to pursue reviving the dead player.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
but I do hate the unpredictability of the dice in games like these, you could just have the absolute shittest luck or the greatest luck and I think that's just as stupid as plot armor PCs
There are some really common situations that will cause the majority of players in a fantasy roleplaying game to do suicidally stupid (for their character) things. I think part of it may be learned behavior from video games where it's usually not possible for your choices to put you into a no-win situation. In a video game if there is an option, no matter how stupid it would be for the character, some people will take it cause it's there. And god damn do they pitch a fit if that results in their "run" being failure-locked (and rightly).
One thing that is really really common in new players (and a surprisingly number of old players) is just not being able to handle the idea that a foe cannot be beaten right now. Some players will never run away / hide / surrender but will fight to the last no matter what. In a fight they started in the first place! "Well the DM obviously wouldn't have put that there if we aren't supposed to fight it".
Something that more DMs need to learn (cause writing this kind of scenario is such a newb DM mistake) is that a lot, I think a majority, of players will get their characters killed rather than be captured or - should they be captured while unconscious - do anything but attack the guards or prison walls with their teeth until killed with no thought for any other option.
There are other cases but really what it comes down to is that a lot of players will do things in fantasy RPGs that will get their players killed. Obviously so. And not because of lack of communication from the DM. But just because certain actions are incompatible with the power fantasy.
Strider 2 is kinda eh. I think it is the art style.
it's not the one with your name on it
it's the one addressed to whom it may concern
...what?
One thing that should be absolutely clear is that if you are picking up the dice in combat your character could die. Every time. Especially for low level characters that lone orc is still going to roll a crit 5% of the time. The failure to understand that is a real failure on the part of the player. Otherwise it is totally stupid to play a game with rules / dice in the first place.
Make your players wish they were dead
Make them beg for death
I don't agree with this at all
It's much more finely tuned than "you could die in any fight" vs "no rules or dice"
Almost all such failures of understanding by players are preventable by a DM, and preventing them isn't even very effortful!
well the important point is still: are you going to fudge the dice in their favor? If you need to then for fucks sake play a different game or something. And if not, then being a 1st level mage with 4 hitpoints and no armor mixing it up with monsters that do 1d6 damage on a single hit must be considered "outlandish".
I think this hard-line stance is really weird! Or at the very least, absolutely not universal outside of you/your games!
But, I mean, this does seem like something that's solvable with communication?
"I don't run my tabletop games like video games. I use different genre conventions. Here are ways you can get killed." etc?
It was amusing every time it happened because it just kept happening.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Why fudge the dice when I can fudge the story? A lost dice roll is only a death if the character chooses it, you can incapacitate instead. This applies to NPCs as well.
oh, I misread your post and thought you were pro-random chance deaths for PCs
It’s like resurrection in game of thrones, dying chips a little bit away from you even with magic healing
So he’s a husk of his former self, brought back again and again and again. Dayira is not finished with you friend. You have more Work to do for our goddess.
I run my games with different conventions
IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE HAHAHAHA
It's not good enough to stop/start the container. Apparently you have to remove the old one and use run to create a new one? Which means if you have configured everything by startup command line, you need to remember said command line.. which sucks.
Are you a supervillain
What shitty luck.
That would be like making a working Star Trek replicator that only produces curdled milk or something.
It's been pretty shitty so far.
One of my friends the first time he played went full Leroy Jenkins against a dragon very early on.
But threw a poisoned dagger and rolled two natural 20s back to back (or a 20 and the dragon rolled a 1 on the saving throw? Can't remember exactly) and got an insta-kill.
Apparently the DM was pissed because it completely threw off his whole campaign.
B R E A C H
R
E
A
C
H
You're not in breach if you're negotiating a new agreement with different terms and it's not like either party is compelled to accept
edit: turns out they announced it ahead of time and that excerpt is shit
See, that's just a perfect opportunity to discover that there was a previously unnoticed clutch of much older, clearly hatched dragon eggs.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
A player who is severely injured and has to spend a few sessions dealing with a major penalty or limitation will be much, much more cautious in later encounters.
Yes, maim their characters, maybe kill their families, etc.
Yeah, I've had lots of cases of players losing in combat, but death is very specific in D&D, and not all that easy to come to accidentally. The players have a ton of options to avoid death.
The one that I couldn't fudge my way out of was the purple worm thing, though. The worm, with the poison damage, did something like 60 points of damage to a character that was already heavily wounded and had a max hp of, like, 55. The rules are p clear in that case.
What! Make an alias or bash script for the command line!
If it's a command inside the image use etc/init.d or (shudder) cron!
Also consider docker-compose / mvn package docker:build
After a dozen more deaths, they solve the mystery: every time they die, a completely random other person dies with no apparent cause, in their stead.
Not to say there can't be lethal damage that early. But especially for newer players I would lean towards "guards show up and help fight the bandits!" kind of stuff if things are going particularly poorly early on.
They go on to do many suicidal good deeds, saving more than one life each time