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Quxelopqr
2008-08-03, 02:05 PM
Okay, so it's my turn to DM in my group, and I've come up with the (hopefully) fun sounding idea of having my players play as themselves. Opening story has me calling them to my place to play this new edition of d&d I bought, and when they get there I'm not there, but the book is open and it seems to be glowing. I'm predicting they'll look into it, at which point they'll pass out for a few moments, then come to in a small room (which is in the basement of the town I have yet to name's local thieves guild).

The players think it's a cool idea, and after I told them my idea for the final encounter (which I was pumped enough for that I really wanted to tell them about and considering it's a looooong way away it'll get edited a bit) they're pretty excited to play. We're all taking the same ability test which also gives out class alignment and level. I'm letting them retake it a few times, to get the average scores and classes they get, so they can still play what they want to play. Character building hasn't started yet but we've decided that we'll take feats, flaws and skills that we think would have to make it more realistic.

Sadly, I've hit some snags. First and foremost, character death is going to be a problem. It'll be inevitable that someone's going to end up dead. Once they get to mid/high levels it won't be too much of a problem, but we're starting at level 3 and they'll know if I'm cheating to ensure they stay alive or making stuff too easy. I'm thinking of having a action/fate point to insta-stabilize at -1 or under, but I'm not sure if that'll be enough. Also, and this might not be an issue at all, but I hope none of them complain about 'so and so having higher scores then me' because I'm not quite sure how I'd address that.

Any ideas for the problems/anything else I should add that I'm forgetting? I hope this sounds like fun to you guys too.

shadow_archmagi
2008-08-03, 03:40 PM
Let them die and stay dead. Thats epic, right there.

"Shawn sacrificed himself to save us!"

Otherwise, it sounds neat.

RTGoodman
2008-08-03, 03:44 PM
Also, and this might not be an issue at all, but I hope none of them complain about 'so and so having higher scores then me' because I'm not quite sure how I'd address that.

I've thought about doing a campaign like this before, and the solution I came up with for the problem you're worried about was to not let the players play as themselves," but instead as how they'd LIKE to be in an idealized form. Smart guy thinks he'd want to be a Wizard, one guy (even if he's out of shape and completely uncoordinated) might want to be a Rogue or Ninja, and stuff like that.

To keep stats balanced, just used the Point Buy system instead of trying to have people come up with real stats for themselves.

holywhippet
2008-08-03, 04:35 PM
Joel Rosenburg (sp) did some novels along these lines - players who were thrown into a fantasy world by their GM as their characters.

For handling death, I'd have the characters vanish into some kind of wierd plane when they die - give the dead player some vague clues about how they got there then drop them back near the other players after some time has passed. Give them the impression that some being of power has sent them there for some reason - maybe good, maybe bad.

Kyeudo
2008-08-03, 05:55 PM
One backup plan I always save in case of early PC death is the idea of the Fiend's Bargain.

The PC probably has a good reason to want to be alive. Any particular fiend always needs more servants on the Material Plane to help him with his schemes. I simply introduce the two to each other.

Basically, the PC gets an immediate resurrection/true resurrection (whichever you need/prefer) if he agrees to perform one favor for the fiend. Once the fiend chooses to call that favor in, he is under an unbreakable geas (since he agreed to the terms) to complete the task. If he fails to perform the task, his soul becomes the fiend's to play with for all eternity. Fairly standard deal with a devil.

Gives you a ready made plot hook later and solves your dead PC problem right now. Also encourages your players to not die.

Quxelopqr
2008-08-03, 10:51 PM
Kyeudo wins. That's perfect. Especially since the BBEG is a demon/devil. Thanks a lot for that.

The_Werebear
2008-08-03, 11:13 PM
A way to do it that doesn't involve fiends is to stick with foes who might want them alive, and would go for a knockout and capture rather than death. This works well if the PC's have information the foe wants, or if they are being attacked by guards after violating laws.