PC Death Ruining Your D&D Game? Fix It Now!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- Ever had a PC die in the middle of your Epic campaign in D&D and have your entire game ruined? Me too! Here are five ways to avoid it happening again! USE WITH CAUTION!
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:58 How did they die?
03:19 Fade to black
04:31 Daydream/nightmare
05:37 Welcome to hell
07:10 Reincarnate
07:59 Divine intervention
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*Thanks for watching!* What advice do you have for dealing with PC death in your TTRPG games? Let us know in the comments below!
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Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
In my latest campaign, when one of the PCs was defeated, he was captured and taken to another world where he went on adventures trying to get home - the player and I played this alongside the campaign through discord messages - we worked together to adapt a previously unresolved thread from an old PC from a previous campaign to fill in - the new character helped save the old one, and left to gather his old party to help in the final showdown - it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in gaming
I agree with you, I am not a fan of resurrection, I feel like it makes life cheap, so I have made it really difficult to do in my campaigns; its an epic quest that the party has to undertake to bring their friend back to the mortal coil, rather than a cleric and a diamond.
I would add that this is something you should bring up with your players in a session 0. Some players are very bothered by the prospect of losing a character, while others like rolling with the punches and letting the chips lie where they may, even if that’s in the grave (and even if the death was a random goblin getting lucky on a crit instead of something epic and thematic).
In many cases, the character dying will ruin the campaign, not because the player is bothered by the prospect of losing the character, but because the random crit arrives in the middle of slog and the GM is not experienced or talented enough to make something engaging out of it.
It doesn't need to be fun, but it does need to be meaningful.
I agree completely. If your group is looking for an epic adventure where each character has a part to play, you can just take death off the table.
There are plenty of ways to have consequences without death.
Everyone looks at it from the dnd mindset. More specifically the marvelesque heroic fantasy where the character stakes are pretty fake and death means nothing more than a fakeout or pulled punch.
If a death occurs, people treat it like it must be this plot critical “blaze of glory”. Not only does this rob games of their stakes and meaning with no fear of death, it makes moment to moment gameplay boring. The players play less carefully, since the world feels less dangerous.
And in the case of different genre/tone games, games which are often more lethal, there shouldn’t be a “blaze of glory” in bleeding out in the back of a car.
Player deaths, if they do happen in a game, have been pidgeonholed into heroic sacrifices that never really feel like what death is supposed to ultimately be mechanically, a punishment. And narratively you’re locked into heroic sacrifices or worse bringing the character back after said sacrifice.
My stupid brain thought this video was about loosing your DM notes and stuffs from your pc..not pc as in player character.I feel so stupid XD
Literally had this happen to my campaign. Computer OS corrupted and i lost the last 2 years of notes for my campaign. Yes it is my fault for not backing up the files, but i had to have a talk with my players about it and they were fine with the campaign just being made up week to week moving forward
I really liked the suggestion about giving the other PCs “alternate” PCs to play to try to escape (alongside the dead PC).
I see a lot if people making the argument that high lethality is important to their games and playstyles but I think they're missing the point of this video to make their own.
As a player, when I make a character it's because I have a story in mind I want to Olay out. I am there because I am interested in exploring the story this character was designed for, and death will almost always mean that I can no longer pursue that story and therefore remove my reason for playing (aside from the obvious social aspect).
Dice roll games are, by their nature, heavily reliant on chance and therefore it Is possible for any single person, pc or otherwise, to die fairly quickly and unexpectedly. Some players are not going to handle this well and it's a matter of gm flexibility to be able to deal with this both at and away from the table.
Not everyone sits down seeking the same experience and it's out job as the gm to facilitate the players fun, not impose our view of fun via verisimilitude on everyone else at the table.
I have a similar view on pc death. I too play to tell a story and you don't let the protagonist die untill that story is told. Otherwise, why would you even tell that story?
In addition, I feel like pc death just adds a lot of anxiety to the game. I like to have a save space where I can experiment without the fear of death looming over my head. I don't need character death to teach me that actions have consequences and that adventuring is dangerous. Real live has done a pretty good job of that already. There is a reason why I don't go adventuring in real live.
I am also a very risk averse person. Lowring the stakes gives me the freedom to take some risks and grow and learn and have fun.
I do get that some people really enjoy the excitment and adrenaline rush of looming character death. But it's not what I want to get out of the game. It just really baffels me that it seems to be a bit of a hot take to say that you don't like pc deaths. The only right way to play the game is the one where you are having fun. And whether that does include pc death or not is up to you.
@@melinnamba A superb example of why I believe discussing player stances on PC death is an important topic for session zero. If everyone is on board with a high lethality game and, in fact, prefer them, then sure. But if even one person is not, then the group needs to consider the old "don't ruin someone else's fun" rule and ask themselves if they're really having less fun by being in such a lethal game.
And, of course, my favorite thing is making my players realize that there are things much, much worse than death for their characters to go through.
@@unamericano Yes, absolutly. It's definitly a topic for session zero. It might even be a good idea to check in with your players every once in a while to make sure they are still ok with it.
And also yes, death isn't the only consequence. However it might actually be the worst possible option if you're playing a combat heavy dungeon crawl type of game where all your pcs care about is when and where to kill the next monster. But with a little rp and emotional investment in the story, death is just one possible consequence for failure. I feel like players who say without death, thier actions don't matter might not have explored the rp side of ttrpgs very much.
Another method - another party, seeking the same mcguffin or villain arrives, saves the party, and either provides the party with other information pointing another direction, or joins forces, because they know the end point of this arc is far tougher than the party knows.
I had a pc die in the middle of a frozen netherese necropolis…totally devoured by a terrible monster due to some bad rolls and failing to leave as quickly as possible from their situation…regardless, now I had to come up with a reason for a level 8-9 adventurer to have been in this city frozen in a glacier. Since ancient wizards used to work in this town, we decided one wizard had a “stasis shop” where he held famous and important people from his time in stasis pods. When the city fell, one of these machines held the new PC.
I really like the 'divine bargain' one, and the idea that came to mind was sort of an extension of that. When the PC dies, I'd consult with the player, but maybe not the character. The character doesn't get a choice, instead some inscrutable and powerful being basically grabs their soul and forcibly sends them back to life. The trade-off here is that, with the divine bargain it's about the character owing something. With this option meanwhile, it's about the character being primed for something they aren't aware of. maybe this god-like being made some sort of subtle or deeply buried change to them as part of reviving them, which will activate at some point. Or maybe the being didn't do anything direct like that, but rather needs the person alive in a certain place and a certain time to achieve some outcome that it wants. It leaves it up to the player characters to figure out exactly what the purpose of bringing the character back was, and that I think can add a lot of tension. Works best, I'd guess, with beings that are ominous but have such a long view of things that they plan far in advance and it's hard to tell if they're really good or evil.
In general I like the idea of bringing a character back but with some kind of cost. The cost can even be largely thematic, just as long as it gets some acknowledgement and narrative significance. One example might be something like, the PC gets revived but a friendly NPC died, was crippled, or burned themselves out of magic bringing said character back. Or maybe the characters had earned a favor with a powerful being or group, and they swoop in to rescue the downed PC but that counts as repaying the debt before the party decides how they'd wanted to spend it. I had one campaign idea that involved the party discovering that several AIs were secretly manipulating much of the setting and competing for dominance. If they went down after discovering this, the AI they're most friendly with might bring them back (finding their presence necessary) but doing so would require extensive cybernetics, so they'd wake up but find their body radically changed.
Regarding the dream scenario, I think that one would be most effective if you suddenly make the BBEG much harder, to the point where it actually kills all of the players. Then they can all wake up, and have the added element of mystery as to how they managed to share a dream.
I like the idea of time being much slower in certain parts of hell, you can sort of explain it as a diabolic edict to prolong suffering, I think that has some cool potential
I’m having some success at Dungeon Crawl Classics simply allowing players to take over non-player characters who are already on hand in the story. When a player character dies, that player may roll up a new character for each level of their dead character-or they can take on a character or two who has been helping the party, like one of their employers (who now wants to go on expedition himself) or somebody the party has rescued from monsters (and now wants to join the party).
Our died PC found himself at the wall of the faithless, waiting for something to happen. No one came for him, as he was not faithful in anything in his lifetime, not being religious. Was scared that he would be stapled into the wall soon. Meanwhile his new character played the next 5 sessions and the group decided that they wanted to revive the old character, but the priest required a dragons horn for that ritual.
So the group decided if they wanted to risk more deaths while taking on a dragon to resurrect one of them or not.
The group had to decide and work for it, turned out ok for them and they were successful.
Playing shadowrun with my group and one of the players loves to test their boundaries. Came up with the idea, that some institution will use their body and heavily modify it, replacing it with a decent amount of expensive gear but force them to work for them as there is also a little bomb in their brain. So kind of a godly intervention :)
Going on an adventure after death to come back to life either with negative consequences (coming back as an undead monster) or positive/wacky outcomes (somehow comes back as a rabbit) could be an interesting experience.
I was thinking something similar, only they’re put into the body of one of the enemies they killed in the past.
Protip: death isn't ruining your game, the DM and players are. If you/they can't handle random outcomes in a game, don't play using dice. It's almost impossible to die on accident in 3.5, let alone the soft version the game is now, so if you're struggling with frequent deaths, either the players are making actually terrible choices, or the DM is throwing you to the wolves every fight and not letting you pick engagements. It barely comes up otherwise.
"You see a dragon."
"we're level 2 so we leave."
"smart."
Ta-da.
You could introduce some sort of non- lethal damage to the character before his death.
I once played in a campaign in which one of my PC companions died when we fought a black dragon. The DM allowed the artificer character to devise a half-science/half-magic way to resurrect our companion. Our newly-revived paladin had a Diamond for a heart - kind of like a medieval fantasy version of Tony Stark.
I've been running a new campaign recently.
Two of my players decided to make their characters twins. One was a rogue and the other was a druid.
The rogue was basically the cheery and eager leader of the group. The group were starting to become pretty good heroes.
The druid didn't really want to make a goal for their character other than assist the rogue.
Little did we know those decisions turned out to be a big mistake when the rogue decided to go on a solo stealth mission in the middle of the dungeon and refused to retreat when they were being spotted by a construct that gave her no option to talk her way out of it.
Once she died the druid basically became lost and the two remaining PCs tried to turn to crime instantly and got arrested as soon as they entered the city. It was very close but I managed to steer them away from becoming full on murder hobos.
They are attempting to find a way to resurrect the rogue, though the player of the rogue has rolled a new main character, so the old rogue will still end up retiring if they ever get resurrected.
I tend to use the Storybook when the Players die to stupid reasons, like really bad diceluck or anything else that creates an unfun enviroment at the table. If they made wrong decisions, its their problem, not mine. Roll up new PCs and we go further. The Storybook goes like this. "And then the Orc struck down the Paladin with his Battleaxe. The Warchief makes sure none of these pesky heros would rise again. "But dad, that is not how the story goes". "Yes I know, but it would make more sense that way. ok, what really happened was..." And then rewind to the beginning of the encounter.
Most of these are quite dependent upon the setting. In some they could work, in others they could feel like cheating.
I prefer to have a pool of characters to draw from. So, while the PC ate the stars of the show, they have friends, family, colleagues who exist only very vaguely in the background. If a character dies, one of their contacts coincidentally steps forward. Yes, it's a bit forced, and there are some settings it won't work (how did you appear on our submarine?) But on balance it offers a good way to allow the PLAYER to continue with so.e knowledge of the plot and a character whose goals are aligned, while allowing CHARACTERS to die.
That's the way I prefer to do things as a Player.
During a fight, my DM asked me if I'm OK with my pc dying, and I answered that I'm fine with it. My pc was then trown into lava, and barely survived, but I do have a replacement ready.
The daydream is a horrible method of "saving" the campaign. It ruined Dallas, don't let it ruin your game.
I tend to run heist type games more than LotR style adventure games, so I tend to just avoid killing them outright and instead have them laid up during prep for the next heist and maybe take some kind of semi-permanent injury that'll hamper them and take some significant consequences to correct. impaired sight or hearing (penalties to perception), lost/limited use of a limb (penalties on strength based tasks that rely on that limb), maybe some kind of unique malady from brain damage or whatever. it's a consequence that's still pretty severe because preparation is very important in those kinds of games but without having to mess up the group dynamics and the nature of a heist makes it much more believable someone would be recovered to a hospital or w/e than it would in a deep dark dungeon.
In years long campaigns where PCs become almost too beloved to go, if it's just from "some random RNG" I'll often have the character just suffer a traumatic injury instead. Survive but lost an eye, a limb etc. Let them keep playing but feel the weight of lethality. Only if the moment feels right would I carry a death through that it won't ruin their game.
Do you apply a debuff with the injury or are they purely cosmetic?
@@koreydewis4255 Definitely a debuff for the vast majority of cases. While it wasn't me doing this one, a friend GMing who uses the same technique as me had one of his players' PCs lose an eye after they got "killed" in rules by a grenade launcher. Cue a few sessions of recovery, and a permanent debuff to 'sight' tests and aiming. That character has since come back in my own game (we both share the same world, pretty cool stuff!) as an older version of himself, and has regained his accuracy, since he's now used to it. It gave such a cool story for him, problems can mean new opportunities!
I feel like saving the PC cheapens the game. I understand that sometimes, it's a bad death and you might want to correct a mistake that you did. Just say "I think I've made a mistake with the numbers, you shouldnt have died that quickly, let me check" and offer a rerun of the last X turns. But i wouldn't do it
Most of the time, go with it. The character is dead. USE IT! If they died to a henchmen, this is no mere henchmen anymore, this is a major antagonist. The story becomes one of vengeance. Use NPCs to remind the character of the loss. Make the antagonist taunt them they "taught them an important lesson" : dont get in their way!
My favourite thing to do : the BBEG resurrected the PC and will use them against the party! Does the torment their soul and the party have a vision of it? Is the PC now an undead thrall of the BBEG? Are they alive again but mind controlled? Does the BBEG go for the relatives of the late-PC to finish the job? MAKE IT PERSONNAL !
"I lose my story"
No, your character's story ends.
IMO People use the "saving a PC cheapens the game / makes death meaningless" complaint too often without thinking about all of the stories that do it. And video games. Death can be good for a game, but tonally, it can also flatten the game immensely, especially if there's too much of it. It's like saying Gandalf's death was cheap or saying that Miracle Max shouldn't exist.
@@hippocampus6514 I disagree, mainly because Gandalf is an NPC more than a PC. Kill the mentor, it's awesome. Make him come back in a meaningful way, sure!
Boromir is a PC though. His death is the catalyst for Aragorn to embrace his legacy.
I don't know who Miracle Max but i'd rather lose a compelling PC rather than the tension and drama at my table :)
@@hippocampus6514 no u
The idea of "divine intervention" with a "debt" to that god or godlike entity can be played with some alteration: How about the party moves on for 1-2 inGame Days and a Necromancer stumbles about the remains of the dead PC, revives it and now the PC has to overcome the bond to the Necromancer. Or - if you as GM anticipate that a PC could die in the next round, bring in a mysterious spirit, lurking around, that takes advantage of the "free" body and revives it to get back to life itself. Interesting opportunities with this one, as there could be two souls in one PC from that on. // In a sci-fi setting it could be that the PC is cloned or revived with nano-tech etc.
Hmm I'm not sure I appreciate any of the answers as a way to actually deal with true death. They all seem like cop-outs to me.
Would appreciate another video concerning true death of a character, plot lines and all foiled, and still keeping the campaign going.
Easy ressurection really can devalue a play. Just two sessions ago? My starfinder character approaching the end of a campaign got a nasty critical hit with a disintegration spell that did 2/3 of my total heal when I was down by half. Turning me into dust.
The result? Player goes, can I just cast this spell? And GM goes okay and suddenly I am perfectly fine? It devalued death for myself and took away my opinion of how I come back or an alternative character to finish, etc.
It is the player's character. What do they want to see happen and consider that.
The dream sequence didn't work for Dallas / Bobby Ewing and seems a terribly contrived stretch. Awakening in Hell, or on some other Plain can work. Divine intervention in deeply engrained in several RPG's. Resurrection spells are not unknown in RPG land. Resurrection as an undead entity, such as a Vampire, can really change up a game.
Another route is to let the body die but retain the soul. That soul might immediately struggle with another soul for possession of a body, possibly that of an opponent. That course makes for some interesting role playing as the apparent opponent attempts to convince old friends of their new existence. Alternately, the soul might be bound/captured and carried along with the party (zero encumbrance I suspect) until a suitable body can be found for it to join (perhaps a soul fight with a sleeping evil doer having otherwise-desirable characteristics). All this presupposes some method of soul vs. soul combat (not available in all RPGs, but a good GM can probably cobble together a sufficient system).
However, another way to deal with the problem is to be proactive rather than reactive. If the GM sees that death is increasingly possible, shading a few die rolls to enfeeble the opponent(s) or introducing an NPC ally (not without its own problems) might buy the necessary grace and avoid the awkwardness of rebirth.
That gives me ideas. Sometimes it's not a good idea to be giving me ideas.
I think that the possibility of pc's death should be well discussed during session zero... I love the escape from hell idea!
Not so sure about the dream one, feels a bit cheap. But that Just my opinion.
Great content as allways, keep It up!
The visitation - in final moments - by an other worldly entity is a great way to shift a player's character and provide them extra challenge. I.E. by forcing them to take a level of - or possibly reawaken entirely as - a paladin, cleric or warlock - as part of a divine blessing or patron boon. Imagine the role playing opportunity as the character now how to scramble to survive whatever encounter dropped them - but they're suddenly an entirely different class, barely aware of how to do anything. Then, from that point forward, they now have to live and operate in accordance with the deal they struck - or keel over stone dead.
How do they cope? How do they adapt? What about all their (probably) specialized magical equipment they picked up to enhance said specific abilities of their previous class? Do they attempt to keep it a secret from their party? Did they have abilities the party was highly reliant on - which they no longer have? if so, how does the party cope and adapt? Does the party even want a members who is not a level of or entirely [class X] ?
The nine hells will ice over when i watch a video of yours where i actually learn something i didn't already know or think of. Your content really isn't out of the box. Rather run of the mill i have noticed.
Thank you for voicing your feelings on the videos. As you find little value in the content, I find little value in your comment. The entire spirit of the channel is to help learn from one another. Give constructive feedback and we can grow. Brag about your own experience and talent, and no one grows.
Kind of really like the Warlock idea.
imho the best resurrection spell is from Shadow of the demonlord.
- first it's high level
- second you can only easily resurrect characters which have a pure soul. Meaning that you do not have to have ANY corruption on your soul. (the game tracks the corruption of the players).
- third: every point of corruption does make it harder to ressurect you ... and if the caster fails your soul goes directly to hell :)
R.I.P. Dead Jim.
or you have resurection spell on cleric but loose lots of Xp/or few level(s), or simply have the otion to wake up in the nearest church with divine intervention and lost some skills/spells/levels/Stats/Memory....
So I've lost a number of characters over the years, with some it felt right and with others it was a crushing disappointment. What made it feel right is player agency. I was ready to let that character go, it was time and I was ready with a new one. Here's how I will be dming it in the future. If a pc fails three death saves they fall critically wounded. The player can choose if they survive, if they do they take a wound of their choice and also adopt an additional personality trait, ideal, bond or flaw related to the defeat they suffered. Its a great way to begin to flesh out the character and what they learned from that defeat and to have a physical reminder that they were bested.
They may develop a phobia of a certain type of monster, distrust tricksy hobbits, or come to realize that what they really care about in a near death situation. So often we just care about the stats side of the character sheet, I think these kinds of defeats can help build the character side. I think it lets players have fuller agency over the story they want to tell about their pc and we should support, and look at "death" as an opportunity to re examine the character.
I will say this method pre supposes that the table is more of a narrative role playing game than a war game where pcs lives are cheap and we're all just open to rolling up a new one. Its on the players to maintain a character's sense of caution and aversion to overtly dangerous situations.
I let players know that I will not actively try to kill them, but I respect their choices and consequences of those choices. There's no coming back from death in my game and I will make sure the players have an out for every situation if they choose to take it. They can also choose to go into battle armed with a spoon, if they want.
A campaign we are about to start is 'isekai' themed (all the PCs are from our world, summoned to the fantasy world) and so we are borrowing the core concept from re:Zero: Subaru's *Return by Death*. This is one of two options; the other is to just let the character die and continue without them. The players will vote on how to proceed.
Here's how I am describing it in our player guide:
*Option 1: Return by Death* - In this option, we will revert the game to a time before the fatal encounter and begin again. The trick here will be that the character who died will remember everything that happened, including their demise; meanwhile, all the other characters will ‘forget’ the proceeding events, because for them, they never happened.
The formerly dead character will magically be prevented from speaking of what happened or alluding to future events in anyway*. They may use this knowledge to prepare themselves for the coming encounter, however the GMs will alter some events, so it won’t be an exact replay of the previous scene. The other players should avoid metagaming and proceed as they did before.
(footnote) *10pts to the player that does the Witch’s Call anytime a revived character tries to reveal something to the party.
My favourite: death means death! Roll another character, quickly!
I have a much different philosophy than you take here for sure. Death should be real a meaningful, or there are no stakes, the group will get complacent, start making poor decisions, which could be why they ran off on their own, or made mistakes that got them killed to start with. They forgot death is real, and became complacent.
I was looking at this video for ways to deal with a dead PC and how to go forward without them. Tips on how to get the new character up to speed, ways to get the rest of the party on board with helping catch up the new character. A death can be so valuable, as it will often reset the party dynamics, change the direction of the story, and give the players more of a feeling that their actions matter, as the story adapts to what happens in the game, and they are not just following some script that never adapts or changes.
The DM's I like, and one I would like to be, are the DMs that can adapt their story to fit the party, they often seem to take the whole theme back to the original plan seemlessly while dealing with the unexpected events that occur in game. If a player goes down, that reinforces the idea that the world is dangerous so be careful, and if the DM can adjust to it, that can make the game so much better, as not only are the stakes raised and reinforced by the death, but the aftermath can be felt, to enhance the story the DM was telling.
Some of your ideas are nice to use in limited areas when you need some way to really save a PC because they are so important to the plot, or your party just really does not want to risk loosing that character, but it would have been nice to see some other fixes that focused on ways to move forward without the PC, as often a good fix moving on without them could be better in the long run, than just finding a way to bring the character back, with no adaptation to the story, nor party make up.
8:21
Well that's just multiclassing into a warlock.
I have high magic campaigns, so it’s easier to revive a dead friend than most
What to do with full party wipeout
To make a resurrect spell work you could demand a life for a life, so either the PCs need to convince an NPC to make the sacrifice or it could go in a darker direction. If it gets too dark they may decide they prefer to just roll a new character.
Assuming the gaming group accepts PC Death, the common error I see and have experienced is the campaign accidentally develops into patterns/tropes that aren't suitable for pc death such as Chosen One(s) or Day-to-Day play. I find keeping campaigns a collection of episodic adventures to be a good way to avoid those traps.
The sooner they accept it, the better. There’s no use complaining over what’s happened unless they can afford to have the player raised.
So the question i must ask is are games of D&D now written or played? So many people on youtube talk about character loss and death like its a option.
Your « c’est la vie » was pinpoint (french guy here)
I quite dislike it when the death of my PC is retconned like what have I created my backup for
Drop dry beans on the party from a sky while
My PCs Are bounded by magickal contract And untill Its fullfilled theirs bodies and souls belongs to purpose specified in contract. Its not like ressurection, more like newish character in unholy undead version
I actually don't have much of an issue with resurrection being available to PCs and NPCs depending on their power and influence, as long as you account for it in your worldbuilding! You'll find that a world adjusting to the idea that death might not stick to people as well as it does in reality can create a lot of interesting points for storytelling.
Maybe you take a page from the ancient greeks and say that the realm of the dead is just a perilous boat ride away, there's an adventure in that! Are the PCs frequently making stops there to pick up their dead party members? Well now they've got the attention of the realm's caretaker, raising the stakes for the next death. Maybe the only thing it takes for someone to come strolling out of their grave is a charitable donation to the right religious figure... Surely there would be methods employed by assassins and powerful figures in place to ensure that someone who is killed can't come back. Maybe when you come back to life you're different somehow, or maybe the process has somehow damaged your character's vital essence and this impacts how they interact with the magic of the world, come back more than once and you might be treated as undead by some spells, for example. Just because you can openly defy death doesn't mean that dying has no consequence, it just means that you as a game master can pull your punches a little less.
I had a player die in my last session by continuing to try and tap into the power of a mad God despite being shown a few times it was a bad plan. I ended up going with the idea that he wiped himself out of existence entirely. To the point that he never existed in the first place. A bitboc luckbthag we already ha e 2 players joining the group so I'll be able to intro all 3 characters at once.
Fade to black is dumb. I used to use it. Players learn quickly that they are immune to death. They all expect the same treatment
what people can die 5e??
My past two games have had the highest body count of any game I've ever run. It's become the high point of the game when a player gets gruesomely killed lol. The simple fix is to play editions/hacks that let your just quickly roll up a character and play rather than the whole five page backstory thing
Nah mate, PC's gonna die, players gonna beef. OSR those whiny punks with a TPK!
éc'est la vie" is no more used in France,
i'd rather use "c'est con ça :D"
It is what is is?
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Another thing you can do is have a NPC in your back pocket who can show up to intervene. The trick is that you need to put enough effort into this character that it seems like this was supposed to happen all along and you didn't just make them up on the spot, but not so much that they're integral to the story. If they show up at the last second to die in the PC's place, put stuff on their body that explains their presence. Make a sidequest of informing their next of kin. This is another out that's only going to work once, but if you need lots of get-out-of-death-free cards you've probably made your campaign too lethal :p
Alternately, have them show up pre-emptively, if the PC is about to do something stupid - if things turn out in the PC's favor, the NPC can always take one for the team later if their ongoing presence is undesirable.
I think you're trying to solve a rules problem with a narrative justification instead of tackling it head-on.
Unless you're playing strict RAW with a lethal game system you can simply agree in advance that there will be no character death except when explicitly requested by that player.
There are plenty of ways to inflict consequences the group will care about without inflicting character death. Things can happen to places or people the group cares about, they can face personal consequences, or their quest suffers a major setback.
Obviously for a gritty or dark game death can absolutely be an option, even a frequent one, as long as that's part of everyone's expectations. If it isn't thought then I think the GM should be honest about it rather than resorting to transparent trickery.
I do not allow resurrection in my games. I allow spells like Revivify to work (because they must be cast in a very short ime-frame after death) but if you're counting on someone to revive a corpse you've been dragging around for several days, it's not gonna happen. Death in my games is permanent for a reason; to show players that actions have consequences and the lifestyle of an adventurer carries risk. I do still allow death saves, but under stricter rules (normal 5e rule is 10+ pass, a nat 1 counts as 2 fails and a crit auto-revives. I require an 11 to pass and a nat 1 means instant death)
PC dies? Make a new one!
Huh? No PC death is the problem. PC death is the salvation. I run a gritty campaign with hard death saves and phryic victories
Death is funny. I look back at all the silly ways ive died and laugh. Theyre great memories of playing dnd. If a player gets mad at their death thats on them