Re: [DL] keeping players alive

["Grand Master Nilus of the Dark Angel Chapter" <grandmasternilus@hotmail.com>]

>I have to agree... cheating to keep player alive is likely to lead to
>them feeling immortal, and eventually getting bored. I've had a lot of
>that, and plan on cranking up the danger the next few sessions by adding
>more true abominations and similar beasts that require more than a quick
>gun to take out.
>
It all depends on how its handle.  I've found Extremely Deadly campaigns 
just lead to players making Munchkin Combat monsters just to stay alive. If 
its really bad you get the Twin Brother/Sister Syndrome.  Where players die 
so often they don't want to make new guys so they just recopy there 
character sheets and say its there twin brother/sister/cousin/soul 
mate/whatever.

There is a fine line that needs to be walked.  Players should be 
threatened..and should die(I suggest 1 a session is a good norm, with at 
least a second being maimed...At least until some of them build up to be 
tough characters).  Make sure your not just killing one player all the time. 
  We are all human(at least partially) and we all have our favorite 
people/characters, but if you keep killing everyone else but let one person 
live because you like his story, you'll soon find he/she is the only one who 
wants to play.  I find this especially bad when Guy bring their girlfriends 
to the table, Ironically when Woman tend to run,  the first one to die 
always seems to be their boyfriends.

Overall my rule(unless someone does something really stupid), is to try not 
to kill a PC by accident.  General Random thugs shouldn't kill them(they can 
weaken them up for a big baddy though).  Try to let your players guide the 
way their character will die.   Nothing makes a PC happier then getting to 
do a big Self Sacrifice act before dying.

Finally as a side note.  If someone has a really cool character and he/she 
dies.  Unless they want to, don't make them start a brand new guy.  Give 
them some bounty or some other form of boost.  To put this in D&D terms,  
Nobody wants to play a first level mage who just joined a group of 10th 
level fighters.  They will not really get to take part in anything and if 
they do, they probably will die

Dan

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