Preventing awkward player death?

[Buddha's_Cookie]

In a new game I am writing up the PCs are playing themselves. And it just occurred to me that knowing my group someone will die, probably. Is there any way to prevent this from occurring with out giving cheesy immunity to the PCs? The power level of this game is low enough that resurrection spells are not a clear or easy option. If it helps let me know what info is needed as the game is in the earliest design phases.

[Slipperychicken]

Why do you want to prevent their deaths?

[Buddha's_Cookie]

Well it is awkward for a player to die and have no means (clean or easy to explain) to bring him or her back and they can't simply roll a new character as the characters are themselves.

[Slipperychicken]

Well it is awkward for a player to die and have no means (clean or easy to explain) to bring him or her back and they can't simply roll a new character as the characters are themselves.

Roll up an identical twin?

[Benthesquid]

Put the players in non life-or-death situations. A heavy RP/diplomacy/social maneuvering campaign should be good for this. A player character who screws up might be arrested by the palace guard, or simply banned from the vital councils, but he or she will still be alive, and will have a chance to overcome the difficulties their mistakes have created.

[Jenrock]

I'm not trying to be glib here, but just don't kill them. If you think it would be weird for their character to drop, then make the monster go elsewhere, have the trap hurt the badly enough for a hospital/healer (but not the morgue), "accidentally" dilute the poison intended for them.

[Jacob.Tyr]

Just make combat non-lethal in most cases? I usually run with neg hp means the character (PC or NPC) is either unwilling or incapable of fighting, not dying. Death comes solely from one actor deciding it will happen once a foe is in the negative.

[Buddha's_Cookie]

Put the players in non life-or-death situations. A heavy RP/diplomacy/social maneuvering campaign should be good for this. A player character who screws up might be arrested by the palace guard, or simply banned from the vital councils, but he or she will still be alive, and will have a chance to overcome the difficulties their mistakes have created.

The only problem is that my group is not to big on the RP, but I still want to go through with this campaign. We do some RP and are certainly getting better at it, but it is not at the level that we are happy with a 70+% RP based game.

[Buddha's_Cookie]

Sorry to double post.

I think I can work around it, bit of an odd way, in that the players were already targets of gods (good and evil) before this topic was relevant. The players are the preferred vessel of many of these gods in order to act in the world. I can work in a bit of divine intervention. I trust my players to not make this happen too often.

[Rhynn]

Well it is awkward for a player to die and have no means (clean or easy to explain) to bring him or her back and they can't simply roll a new character as the characters are themselves.

Well, that sort of clearly and easily identifies the main weakness:

the characters are themselves.

Right there.

That said: give them hero/fate/whatever points that let them avoid death (and possibly have other uses).

[kyoryu]

Use a system that doesn't use death as a primary failure mechanism.

[Tengu_temp]

PCs that drop down are not dead but dying and will bleed out if they don't get medical help in, say, 3-5 rounds. Easy enough to prevent, still keeps combat dangerous and exciting.

[Brookshw]

PCs that drop down are not dead but dying and will bleed out if they don't get medical help in, say, 3-5 rounds. Easy enough to prevent, still keeps combat dangerous and exciting.

That's pretty good right there, especially as it put a "timer" into effect, urgency can add to immersion.

Another option perhaps, they die but either fate or some other cosmic force (are you using the standard D&D cosmology?) isn't ready for them to leave and brings them back, but this comes at a corruption cost, if and when this happens player mysteriously returns to life the next day with some form of twist. Small silly things like no longer seeing the color green, to larger things, occasionally the world will send them strange messages (example a news paper that has a headline that only they can read which is normal again when someone else looks). Mess with them a bit if they die and come back.

[tommhans]

dying is such an important part of the game that you shouldn't take that completely away. The most intense moments are when you are just one save dice away from dying, or like 20 hp fighting an beholdr that can disintigrate you with one hit, fights wouldn't be much "fun" if you always found a way to survive, even if you do a "supernatural" style of reviving with the vessels, it might work the first couple of times and that is ok for that matter, but after that you should consider letting them go, as they could always make new characters, eventhough they play as themselves, they could play as themselves as another class / race

You could do it the awesome way, have a necromancer /cleric / healer, live in a hut nearby, he says there is just a 25% chance of him surviving, throw a d100, then like 80-100 and he is ressurected, 30-79 he is an undead, depending on how well you hit he can either be disgusting and braindead, or undead with normal thinking but with minuses on several stuff(could be a lot of cool rpging there) under 30 he isnt ressurected at all and he stays dead.

[prufock]

Some good suggestions here, including having nonlethal-type encounters. My primary suggestion, though, would be to change up the "death and dying" rules (assuming you're playing 3.5 D&D).

1. You have a number of "Wound Points" equal to your Con score.
2. When you run out of HP, you are treated as disabled and further damage subtracts from your WP.
3. When you run out of WP you are unconscious and dying. As long as you receive first aid within 1 minute you will stabilize.

This means that that characters will really only die if there is a TPK. The threat of death is still very real, however, and you're taken out of the action if you get hurt.

[Souju]

could crib the Hero Points system from Pathfinder too. Basically gives them "one free pass". If they die twice in too short a time, they probably deserve it :P

[Slipperychicken]

Have you tried asking your players about this? If they don't do much RP, they might be cool with their self-inserts getting gibbed.

[Segev]

What sort of game is this? What genre, setting, and stylistic conceits are available?

Might they be remote-piloting robo-clones of themselves? Might they be "logged in" to a video game? Might they be some sort of disembodied intelligence that wills a new avatar into existence after a time?

[Jay R]

If you are going to prevent their deaths, and they find out about it, they will immediately take advantage of it to try ridiculous ideas.

[Also, to be clear - despite the thread name, we're talking about preventing character deaths, right?]

[Slipperychicken]

[Also, to be clear - despite the thread name, we're talking about preventing character deaths, right?]

Umm.. You do know what it means when you play as yourself, right?

If you die in the game, you die for real.

[Jay R]

Umm.. You do know what it means when you play as yourself, right?

If you die in the game, you die for real.

Well, that's what I thought. I kept telling my DM he was doing it wrong.

[Rhynn]

Umm.. You do know what it means when you play as yourself, right?

If you die in the game, you die for real.

NO, NOT BLACK LEAF!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The sacrifice must continue.

(I always want to make this joke whenever someone talks about "killing players", but this time it's rather apt. )

In seriousness--there's a number of problems with having players play themselves, and you've discovered one of them.

[Buddha's_Cookie]

What sort of game is this? What genre, setting, and stylistic conceits are available?

The idea is that the players start in the real world and are brought into a fantasy world. Part of the goal is to get home, obviously involving a few hoops.

If you are going to prevent their deaths, and they find out about it, they will immediately take advantage of it to try ridiculous ideas.

[Also, to be clear - despite the thread name, we're talking about preventing character deaths, right?]

I don't plan on making it clear that I am doing this and it will come with the warning that I (DM) won't pull that card often or ever again. And yes we are talking about character deaths.

NO, NOT BLACK LEAF!

Haha I only learned about this the other day. I am the newest member of my group and they have only been playing for a few years.

[Tengu_temp]

If you are going to prevent their deaths, and they find out about it, they will immediately take advantage of it to try ridiculous ideas.

Not true. In pretty much all the games I'm running the PCs are guaranteed not to die, ever, unless they do something that's just asking for it. The only ridiculous ideas they have are ridiculous in a good way.

[J-H]

Why not just go ahead and plan for one? Have a player "decide" (to the rest of the group) to play his/her older brother/absent friend, etc.... and then kill that character.

Ie, put the fear of chardeath in them by killing a character that you planned to kill from the start. Just be subtle about it.

[Buddha's_Cookie]

Why not just go ahead and plan for one? Have a player "decide" (to the rest of the group) to play his/her older brother/absent friend, etc.... and then kill that character.

Ie, put the fear of chardeath in them by killing a character that you planned to kill from the start. Just be subtle about it.

That is actually not a bad idea, I have something like that I could do that is a bit less obvious.

[Kane0]

I read the threat title and my first thought was my DM saying:
"You die in a compromising position. Pray that a necromancer does not find you like that."

[Kelb_Panthera]

I read the threat title and my first thought was my DM saying:
"You die in a compromising position. Pray that a necromancer does not find you like that."

So in not the only one who thought about a pc's corpse being found with its pants around its ankles.

If you're okay with silly you can just do it Kenny style; if someone dies they're just inexplicably alive again at the beginning of the next session and noone acknowledges that they did die in-character. Having to sit out the rest of the session can be enough of a deterrent for some players to avoid excessive silliness.

[Oracle_Hunter]

I read the threat title and my first thought was my DM saying:
"You die in a compromising position. Pray that a necromancer does not find you like that."

Why is this not a Have A Nice Death line in a Sierra Game already?

* * *

So, the best solution is to play a game where PC death is not the primary failure mechanism (as kyoryu said) -- and there are plenty that exist -- but I imagine you already have a system in mind for this campaign.

Judging by your notes, you have two main options:

(1) Divine Intervention
(2) Sacrifice Others

#1 has that some powerful force keeps resurrecting the fallen PCs. This is the most direct solution, fits your scenario, and avoids the inevitable "PC Death = Massive Loot" problem that most "Identical Twin" mechanisms produce. The primary problem, of course, is that without mortality to worry about your Players are more likely to subject their PCs to suicidal actions, confident that they will be revived.

#2 is trickier, but has all the benefits of #1 without the problems. Here the PC is getting resurrected by some outside force but must sacrifice someone else / something valuable to do so. This can range from "my favorite NPC" to "more of the world succumbs to evil" depending on your flavor. Even if your Players are as RP-adverse as you state, tainting their game-world every time they resurrect is likely to keep them from causally offing themselves.

How do those sound?