Player Deaths

[Kristian]

I'm sometimes critized a bit by some of the players in our group that I don't kill them enough... This might seem a bit odd, but it's propably true. I don't like it when a player character dies. It slows down the story, there's usually some bad roleplaying involved when the player's new character wants to join the group ("You look trustworthy, won't you join us?"), and it just annoys me. But if it never happens the players don't feel like they're ever really in danger, and I think this is what the complaint is really about. Still, I do kill them sometimes. Not unfairly or anything, just in the normal GM ways you know.

But this is a story of players killing themselves.

We were in the middle of a long campaign, and half of the group was attending an important gathering in a huge city on top of the Nexus Mountain. The other half of the group were camping at the foot of the mountain waiting for the others to come down. While at the gathering the players suddenly get a message from the camp through their magic necklaces. They were being attacked (at this time the players camping were absent for various reasons for a couple of sessions) so the group hurried down the mountain only to find the camp empty. Long story short, they followed the trail to an old underground prison, and found out that their friends had been captured by a group  of strange creatures they had had trouble with before. So they enter the prison. They were only two people. They fight through some guards and try to find the cells. As they descend into the prison more and more powerful guards come at them, and in the end they were fighting some pretty hefty stuff. They realize they are in a bit over their heads and start to retreat. Before they're even half-way back they've run out of healing (this is two warriors) and they are still losing hit points fast. Then the tide turns and they somehow manage to keep the monsters at bay so they can escape. But then one player goes: "Quick! Heal me with the wand."

The wand was a magic item they had found earlier in a temple. It was a small staff that was activated when you hit someone with it. There was a 50% chance that it would heal you, a 48% chance that it would hurt you, a 1% chance that it would resurrect a corpse (if you hit a corpse with it) and a 1% chance that it would blow your body to smithereens, really tiny pieces, beyond any hope of ever being resurrected. When the group first found the wand and had it identified they started, to my horror, to play around with it and hit each other with it. I let them make the rolls. After it had come a bit close a few times they pretty much forgot about it and stashed it in a backpack...

...until he mentioned it again. They were safe. They were close to the exit, with healing potions waiting for them outside. The other character pulls out the wand and whacks the other guy with it. Of course he rolls 100 and blows his group member to smithereens, filling the guy's armour with bloody pulp.

Later he managed to get the others out and back to safety on the mountain, but he had to break the bad news to them and tell one of them that his litlle brother was dead.

[Delbareth]

Several years ago I started to play with a new group. After several game sessions, one of my player said me that he did'nt like the character he had, and he wanted to change.
Keeping that in mind, a fight occur during the following adventure. The opponent of his character did a perfect success for his attack (moreover, it was *not* an hidden roll). My friend and I seemed nervous (and of course we were not). Before the attack location was rolled (? -> decided by dice) the two other player were laughting : "The head! The head! The head!".
Roll roll... In the head... Silence...  The two others knew it implied sudden death, and were no more laughting. My friend and I seemed soooooo embarrased . His character died when the spear went through his neck...

So, my friend could make a new character and I had shown that I don't rescue players by saving their character at the last minut.
All was perfect! It was the "coolest" character death! 

[avisarr]

Kristian,

I love your story about the wand with the different functions. Those sorts of magic items are great. One of the most fun things for me is finding a magic item and not knowing what it does. The sense of discovery is great. I love it when my players are trying to figure out how a magic item works or some other device. It's the best. This story goes to show you that things are often more complex than they seem. Good story.

[Mark Price]

We had an offshoot of 'The Wand of Wonder' that caused a brilliant party death in Avisarr '98. Dave, you tell the tale the best. Could you regale our friends?

[avisarr]

Mark is referring to an incident that occurred to my last gaming group when they were adventuring through the Avisarr Campaign. For full details on the Quest of the Avisarr campaign, check out the DM Tools section of the Khoras web site.

Specifically, the players were engaged in the first of the six "skull quests". They were searching for a magical skull and an enchanted map that they were following led them to the south coast of Mercia. There they found a ruined castle sitting on a small rocky island just a hundred yards off the coast. They found out that a witch and her minions were lairing there. They snuck into the castle and stealthily made their way up through the various levels. On one of the upper levels, they came across a large shrine to some dark deity. Unknown to the characters, the chamber was also home to a lesser demon that the witch had summoned. The characters encountered some guards in an adjacent chamber and became embroiled in a fight. During the fight, one of the characters, a young thief/wizard, ran back into the shrine chamber and urinated on the main altar. Most likely to show his disrespect for the dark deity. Infuriated, the demon lunged out of its hiding place and landed on the floor. It roared at the man defiling the altar as if challenging him and made ready to lunge. The young thief/wizard had part of the party treasure on him and in this was a chaos wand.. it was essentially a wand of wonder. It was powerful, but because no one in the party knew how to use it, it generated completely random magical effects. Knowing that he couldn't outrun the beast, he pulled out the wand and aimed it at the demon. Just as it lunged for him, he cried out the command word.

Now, this wand had produced fabulous spell effects before. The young thief/wizard had seen it belch forth fire, lightning and acid. It had summoned storms, teleported objects, punched holes in walls, it had produced amazing results. Sometimes not useful, but always interesting. The young man hoped it would unleash a sizzling bolt of energy that would vaporize the demon in mid-jump.

Alas, no... the young thief was not that lucky.

Instead of fireballs or lightning bolts or ANY kind of useful offensive spell, the Wand instead granted the young thief a glimpse of the future. The young thief's eyes glazed over and he entered a dreamlike stupor. In his vision, he saw his party of adventurers standing on the deck of a ship which was FLYING over a tropical jungle. It was a beautiful sight, with banners fluttering in the wind and the sun beaming down on the deck and the vast green jungle stretching out to the horizon beneath the hull of the ship.

When I finished describing the vision, there was a pause. Then the thief player tentatively asked "Am I IN the vision?"  Pause. "Is my character on the deck?"

DM: "Um... no. You see everyone on the deck EXCEPT you."

Player: "Uh-oh. The demon-"

DM: (nodding) "-is ripping your entrails out at this time. The good news is that you don't feel a thing because you're busy experiencing a "vision"."

All Players: Stunned silence.

DM (begin to shuffle through papers on his desk): "You know... we've got a lot of great NPC's with the party right now that you could play."

And so the party lost its first member. This was hilarious at the time and everyone had a good laugh. Luckily the player was ok with it because he's a laid-back guy. His exact quote was "well, characters are like goldfish, you just shouldn't get too attached to them..."

[Kristian]

That's a great story.

[Spence]

I wish i had an interesting real PC death story to tell...but i do have an amusing story none-the-less.

A player on Dathkandra and I were the only two on at the time (It was late night most people are sleeping around then).  And he's playing one of the chat's badasses, one of the more powerful melee PC's we have.  He tells me he'd like to fight a Khoras Dragon in an out of character style fight.

Well, we havent put stats to Khoras dragons and we never will, they're just too powerful for PC's to manage.  But i agree to it, i tell him i'll let him fight a younger one.  So i dig out Monster Manual 2, flip to page 125 and set the book in front of me.  All the information on a CR 26 Hellfire Wyrm sitting right in front of me.

I tell him i'll give him a fighting chance by allowing it on open ground and the dragon not in the air.  He wins initative and charges, bringing his Ogre Sized greatsword (yeah he takes the -4 penalty for it) around at the dragon, the blade bounces off of it's hide.  The dragon wakes up and looks around.  The PC starts going "Oh shit oh shit, this is a YOUNG dragon?"  I reply "Yes, this is a young dragon, in fact you can see the egg shell it hatched from a few months ago several feet away"

The dragon turns and breathes it's fire on him, i managed to roll 10 14 times for it's breath weapon.  140 damage, he's raging and has 141 hitpoints.  He decides to turn and run giving the Dragon an Attack of Opportunity.  The bite lands and i dont even bother rolling damage.

He replies after a few minutes "So that's what David meant when he said Khoras Dragons were not to be messed with.  And that was a baby!"

I havent had anybody ask to hunt a dragon ever, and no more people asking to fight one in OOC combat either.

For those that dont understand the point of OOC Combat, i'll fill you in.  Alot of people like to see how their melee PC's size up against other Melee PC's, by doing OOC Combat, players teach each other new tricks, give tips and practice combat so in a chat environment, combat ends up running faster, which is a good thing, get the combat done and over with so the RP can continue.  I'm all for people having their OOC duels and mock combat, just because it helps people understand the combat rules better.  When i get new players i try to stage a few OOC duels with them to help them understand combat so they arent holding things up in actual adventures. 

Combat isnt the only part of the game, i know this, but we dont want to spend hours on end of real time just to get through a half a dozen combat rounds either.  The thing i've noticed, those who do mock combat or OOC duels most often, are the ones who, in actual adventures, have their actions typed up, and all their die rolls taken care of so when it comes to their turn, they just hit enter and they're ready for the next round, those that dont are usually asking questions and holding things up because they arent as proficient with it.

So here's another DM tip, at least for online GMing:  When you get new players who dont have a very good grasp of the mechanics of the game, run them through some mock combat to get them familiar with it.  The more familiar they are with it, the faster combat will roll in your adventures and the faster you can get back to the roleplay.

[avisarr]

That's a great story. That's the first time I've actually heard of anyone taking on a Khoras dragon. I look forward to the first time someone in one of my games decides to go toe to toe with a dragon. 

[Spence]

Funny thing is...i used this demon-spawned wyrm as a baby khoras dragon...i think it gave the player the picture of what an adult khoras dragon can do ;-)

[tanis]

     Either way it wouldn't matter, wid dem dar Khoras dragons.