I was thinking about the subject of lethality in the game and then it suddenly dawned on me that I have not seen one of my 1st level characters die in years. I HAVE seen some 1st level characters die recently, though they are in the minority. I do run a lethal game by my own reckoning but I haven't seen stupid players in quite some time. Also, we just cleared 1st level in Ernie Gygax's Hobby Shop Dungeon game (I'm a cleric, a support character as it were) and no player character died so far.
What about you? How long has it been since a 1st level character of yours died?
21st July 2013, Labyrinth Lord - my 3 hp Cleric-1 Melissa Tyrell was hit by a zombie. She died, but she got better. Praise be to the Holy Fire. :cool:
This is a 'die at 0 hp' campaign, so new PCs die a lot. We played yesterday and didn't lose a PC, but sadly the Holy Fire failed to Raise the guy who'd died the previous session who we'd painfully dragged back from the dungeon. Melissa is 4th level now and hasn't died since.
I mostly play AD&D and Next, and have only seen one level 1 PC die in the past several months? Not mine at any rate. Several close calls though.
QuoteHow long has it been since a 1st level D&D character of yours died?
About 3 weeks. It was C&C not D&D but, close enough.
I actually lost a 4e character once, which shocked me. But that was only due to the fact the DM did the application of poison and ongoing damage incorrectly... But I don't blame him, as 4e is stupid...
I loved Cradik Brightkiln, Paladin of Moradin. He will be missed.
Quote from: Arduin;705112About 3 weeks. It was C&C not D&D but, close enough.
Yeah close enough, absolutely.
January playing in a PF E6 game, first level party, random encounter was a CR8 swarm of ants. TPK.
Quote from: Benoist;705116Yeah close enough, absolutely.
They did include one house rule that was around in 1st Ed. Max HP at 1st level.
No first levels but I had a 4th level Pathfinder character go out with a TPK a couple weeks back... and a 10th level last week in Tomb of Horrors but that doesn't really count because being a ToH pre-gen meant he was born to hang (or be torn apart by a gargoyle).
That I was playing? Decades.
I've had a few 1st level PCs die in my recent D&D games. The NYC one had probably five or six deaths over the campaign, partly because they tended to go in what I considered an under-strength party, and partly because we knew we had limited time because I'd be leaving, so they pushed harder than was prudent, but they knew the danger.
I don't remember the last time I played a D&D game that didn't start higher than 1st level. The current 4e game we're about to reprise for the last time started at 7th level.
The ACKS game I'm running started the PCs at 5th level.
Quote from: Kiero;705260I don't remember the last time I played a D&D game that didn't start higher than 1st level. The current 4e game we're about to reprise for the last time started at 7th level.
The ACKS game I'm running started the PCs at 5th level.
And I'd hate a game that didn't start at first level. Gee, different people like different things!
(But ARE we different people? QUICK -- Has anybody ever seen Kiero and Old Geezer in the same place at the same time? Maybe they're the SAME PERSON!)
Also... I'm very, very sorry, Tavis, but "ACKS" is always and forever going to be "What Bill the Cat says multiple times."
Last time I played as a player. Luckily the rest of the group got the body to a temple. Eventually...
That was about a year ago. 3rd ed D&D.
Only happened once, as a teenager. AD&D 2nd edition. Was murdered by another PC. Only because the player was being a dick.
Otherwise, I tend to play things pretty cautious and strategize a lot. Because at 1st level, I picture my guy as the equivalent of the protagonist from Dragonslayer or Taran from The Prydain Chronicles.
my PCs went through a streak when they lost a lot of lower level characters. Especially my online Steel Isle Game. That crew had quite the kill ratio. It was kind of the opposite of my current online Collegium game, in that I took a system built for social stuff and slow growth and low HP and ran a 160 session dungeon crawl game.
all I can say is, "ow".
About a year ago. 1st session of a Stars Without Number campaign. We were trying to board an enemy ship and one of the PCs tried to toss a grenade at two pirates guarding the entry corridor. Player rolled a 1 and the random roll had the grenade drop at his feet. TPK. We couldn't stop laughing and it set the tone for the rest of the campaign (we started again playing the pirates whose ship we had tried to board).
This just reminds me that I have not been a Player in a while. I've GM'd the past four years only.
I lost a couple of 0 level characters a few months back. Before that? Blimey, about 2006 probably when a 3e Cleric bought the farm in the first session we played. In a pique of daring and stroppiness, i made another Cleric and this one got to 13th level. Hurrah!
A couple weeks ago. Ran a BTB Basic game a while back, and the pcs were dropping like flies. One guy must have lost about 20 characters. Easy to die when you have 1 or 2 hit points.
Just remembered that I ran DCC RPG Sailors of the Starless Sea about a month ago. About 7 0th levels bought it that night but I'm not sure if that counts.
I guess 0 levels would count, technically.
I don't get to play anymore, just DM, but I have had a number of low-level characters die (I guess you could say I killed them off). Memorable ones:
in an Original D&D game I had a guy die three times, we did the whole "Find you in a dungeon" shtick, just kept moving his prisoner's cell far enough from where he died so that he'd have time to roll up YET ANOTHER character.
Same guy, in an AD&D game, got his gnome magic-user trampled to death by Zuggmetoy's polyp form in T1-4, in her Interdicted Prison.
My nephew's first-level ranger died by FUS-RO-*boom* when he fired an arrow at a Gas Spore at close range.
Quote from: jeff37923;705502This just reminds me that I have not been a Player in a while. I've GM'd the past four years only.
Welcome to the club. I've gotten to play twice in the last 14 years.
But I do enjoy being a DM and I have various solo adventures I can work through.
25 years, probably. But I don't play D&D much. I DM it once in a while. (The last D&D campaign I played in was with 4e, and it sucked. We started at 8th level per the DM's decree. Years prior, I played in an Arcana Evolved campaign - but the party reached 4th level before we had a near TPK).
I ran The Lost City a couple years ago using Moldvay Basic. A Fire Beetle chewed up one of the 1st level PCs.
Months later, I ran a sandbox that pilfered liberally from Castles & Crusades modules. The party first had decision-paralysis trying to determine which adventure lead to pursue. Then, they decided to go waaaaay off the beaten path and explore spider-haunted woods. One 1st leveller got mangled by a Wereboar; another entered a moss-overgrown tomb and got hacked up by a skeleton.
maybe 15 years ago. Was asked to play with some peeps from school in a Forgotten Realms campaign set in The Time of Troubles (what a lame fucking name for anything).
Asked to borrow the Player's Guide from the DM, was refused. Asked to make a half-orc fighter, was refused. Was herded into making a human fighter-mage. Meh. My guy was first level, the rest of the party was 5th-7th, maybe higher.
Started in some city, in the midst of a crowd watching two gods physically fight. They hit each other and the city was consumed in a fiery holocaust. My character died within 5 minutes of me playing. I told the DM to go fuck himself and left.
That was the last first level D&D character I had that died.
About a year ago:
After a skirmish with a dozen or so brigands, my cleric was trying to ride back to town with a badly wounded thief (my PC was down to 2hp) as quickly as possible. Two of the surviving brigands shot the horse out from under him and the fall killed my cleric. The brigands killed the thief.
Quote from: everloss;705647maybe 15 years ago. Was asked to play with some peeps from school in a Forgotten Realms campaign set in The Time of Troubles (what a lame fucking name for anything).
Asked to borrow the Player's Guide from the DM, was refused. Asked to make a half-orc fighter, was refused. Was herded into making a human fighter-mage. Meh. My guy was first level, the rest of the party was 5th-7th, maybe higher.
Started in some city, in the midst of a crowd watching two gods physically fight. They hit each other and the city was consumed in a fiery holocaust. My character died within 5 minutes of me playing. I told the DM to go fuck himself and left.
That was the last first level D&D character I had that died.
And you were not in awe of that dm's sheer awesomeness?
But seriously, WTF!?!
Quote from: everloss;705647maybe 15 years ago. Was asked to play with some peeps from school in a Forgotten Realms campaign set in The Time of Troubles (what a lame fucking name for anything).
Asked to borrow the Player's Guide from the DM, was refused. Asked to make a half-orc fighter, was refused. Was herded into making a human fighter-mage. Meh. My guy was first level, the rest of the party was 5th-7th, maybe higher.
Started in some city, in the midst of a crowd watching two gods physically fight. They hit each other and the city was consumed in a fiery holocaust. My character died within 5 minutes of me playing. I told the DM to go fuck himself and left.
That was the last first level D&D character I had that died.
It's dickheads like that who stuck us with 3rd and 4th edition.
Just over a year ago. Lance to the throat while jousting.
Quote from: thedungeondelver;706182It's dickheads like that who stuck us with 3rd and 4th edition.
4th edition GMs don't have truck with stupid bullshit like denying a player information, restricting choices for no reason, or starting a new character at 1st level in a group of experienced PCs.
And that retarded god-fighting plot could have come straight out of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms, so I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.
Quote from: Kiero;706347And that retarded god-fighting plot could have come straight out of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms, so I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.
Um... that retarded god-fighting plot DID come straight out of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms...15 years ago would have put the session around 1998-99.
About 30 years.
Around the last time I played D&D in a campaign. :)
Guys, I can recall 30 years ago meeting a dnd gamer that told me about his 80th level wizard that battled another pc wizard of roughly that level...and they used stars as weapons.
Not seeing the version of dnd having all that much to do with a dm putting crazy stuff in a campaign.
Quote from: Bill;706356Guys, I can recall 30 years ago meeting a dnd gamer that told me about his 80th level wizard that battled another pc wizard of roughly that level...and they used stars as weapons.
Not seeing the version of dnd having all that much to do with a dm putting crazy stuff in a campaign.
Well this is a thread about the last time a character shuffled off the mortal coil.
Personally it is kinda nice to see what system was being used. Ive heard people claim 3-4 ed were less lethal. But to me it seemed as deadly as any previous version.
Quote from: Omega;706352Um... that retarded god-fighting plot DID come straight out of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms...15 years ago would have put the session around 1998-99.
No reason they couldn't have been playing 1st edition or something older.
I remember two from many decades ago:
- A human fighter charges a wizard, and gets incinerated.
- A minotaur fighter charges a black dragon, and gets turned into a brownish puddle with horns.
I must have wised up after that because I don't remember any other PC deaths :D
Quote from: Omega;706374Personally it is kinda nice to see what system was being used. Ive heard people claim 3-4 ed were less lethal. But to me it seemed as deadly as any previous version.
1st Edition you rolled for your hit point at 1st level. Not so in 3.5, for instance. You start with max. So, right off the bat 1st was more deadly to low level characters. ;)
If my memory serves me right the last time I played an AD&D character from first level onwards and it died it was 1985 or 1986:
My half-orc fighter/thief was bitten by a black smurf (yes you read right a black smurf, we were in a dungeonland type of adventure), crazed by the poisonous bite my half-orc attacked my brother's fighter, whom promptly killed him.
Ah brotherly love!
Quote from: Omega;706352Um... that retarded god-fighting plot DID come straight out of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms...15 years ago would have put the session around 1998-99.
It was 2nd edition. I still hate it to this day. Most of my DnD experiences were with 2nd edition. I was into sci-fi games, not fantasy, so DnD was never anything special for me.
Quote from: Kiero;706376No reason they couldn't have been playing 1st edition or something older.
Time of Troubles was a 2nd ed thing. Hence it originated in 2nd ed.
Yes you could play it with any other edition or even T&T, B&B, V&V etc.
As far as my players are concerned, if DCC 0-level guys count, then last Sunday. If not, then two weeks before that.
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