Do you remember your first time, I do.
It was the middle of the night and i was very nervous, being a 3rd level ranger on night watch by yourself can be very dangerous and i was about to find out why. The ground beneath me began to move, roiling and rumbling, quickly jumping aside I narrowly avoided the jaws of doom, those jaws belonged to the dreaded ankheg. I did dodge the first attempts at bites and answered in kind with a few well placed arrows, but then it happened.....a 1, and with that my rangers face burned away in a pile of acidic spit and his body was dragged underground to become dinner for a big bug.
Well that was my first time dying with my very first character, do you guys remember yours?
September, possibly October, 1977.
Eechy, 1st level Gnome Illusionist.
Random encounter with a red dragon flying overhead. Might even have been his first encounter.
An ill-advised attempt to attack it with an illusion gave away my location and I became scavenger food, well-done.
I immediately rolled a new character, also named Eechy, but this time a fighter. Str 17 Int 10 Wis 10 Con 11 Dex 12 Cha 10
I was six.
When I first started playing basic D&D in the very early 80s I use to play one-on-one with a buddy who would DM for my single character. I'd go through easily a dozen characters a session. My 2Hp wizard would fire his single Magic Missile, then the other 4 Kobolds would perforate him with arrows. Although back then making the characters was and actually still is a large part of the fun. Since then I've probably gone through literally hundreds of characters. There is probably not a way of expiring that a character of mine hasn't experienced over 25+/- years of playing.
I would like to see more adventures focused on bring back a character from death’s icy grip. I think Necromancer Games has a module out that provides 4 adventures to bring a dead character back to life. More things like that would be nice. It would allow the campaign to continue with the original characters. Nothing sucks more than having a great campaign trashed by a d20 that someone failed to properly “charge” to roll high.
Additionally, I hate having players start a character at anything but 1st level. This is because they always forget some of the character's abilities or spells, or magical items if playing a new higher level character. Because of this, a character dying can really hurt my game. Bringing in new PCs can also be a game ender.
While running “A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords” years back, I eventually lost all the original party members, and thus the adventure died, because none of the remaining PCs who had joined the party throughout their adventures had any reason to continue with the original quest.
What I do to remedy a player loosing a 4th level character is run several parties in one campaign world. This allows the players to switch their characters out between adventures and have suitably leveled replacements around in the event that a character bites it. In my current campaign, which has run for over a year, there are around 30 PCs which have collectively completed "the Gryphon's Legacy", "Sunless Citadel", "Depths of Rage", "GW1 Legion of Gold Sub-Aquatic Laboratory", "Forge of Fury", "Raiders of the Black Ice", "The Village of Oester", "The Mad Alchemist’s Lab" (which I heavily modified) and "The Forgotten Forge" game day adventures, as well as a to be released Adventure which we play tested for a notable adventure author.
The highest characters are 6th level with most ranging from 3-5. There have been 6 character deaths, one huge TPK which I turned into a dream sequence because it was solely caused by a new character being introduced at a level above first and the player not being familiar the character's abilities. A second TPK was spawned by a character's experimentation with alien technology in the GW1 adventure. That one was a bit expected and the characters were brought back to life through the local androids use of healing science...although one of the character is in for a surprise should he get hit with 'Heat Metal', the androids installed an artificial heart in him as part of his resuscitation.
Of the other 6 characters who bought the farm, 4 were dead and buried. One was mauled by an Owlbear, one slain by a Drow, one eaten by a pack of ghouls, and one reduced to bones by the beetle swarm in "The Forgotten Forge". The other 2, one was randomly reincarnated as a Gnoll thanks to a local Druid of sufficient power that the party had aided, and the other I cut some slack when the character missed a low DC reflex check and fell off the bridge in the "Forge of Fury". I let the character catch a ledge on the way down (because it was an interesting character who had promise for future entertainment in the game, and fell purely based on a noncombat bad roll). That character, a Kobold scout/Ranger now has acrophobia and must make a Wil Save DC 10+1/10feet drop, when ever near a drop. Failure means PC is shaken, failure by more than 5 subjects the PC to Fear as per the spell. That has proves additionally entertaining, and the PC occasionally is rendered unconscious by his party members when they must navigate heights.
I do have one more instance that could have been a PC ender. I had a PC lose his right leg at the hip due to a house rule "Sometimes critical hits are even worse chart". I introduced a magical item that allowed the PC to reattach the leg, but the leg continued to rot away leaving the PC with a skeletal yet functioning undead leg. The party had to deal with the stench of the rotting flesh which got worse each day, and the PC will have to be careful around the party cleric who loves to turn undead...
I think that PC death has to be a constant possibility in the game because it adds that much more excitement. In my game, after first level, I make all creature attack and damage rolls out in the open. That way there is some tension for the players, “he hit me, but how bad is it going to be?...Please, please don’t roll above 5!” Nothing lets me as a DM know that I’ve drawn the players into a game than watching them stand or pace as a die is rolled.
Still there should be suitable options for a player whose character takes a dirt nap. Either the resurrection/reincarnation/raise dead option (which should not become to common place, and thus may require an entire adventure to accomplish. The revolving door at the local temple should not constantly take dead characters in and pump live ones back out) or the introduction of another of the player’s PCs. In my current campaign the Players have multiple PCs who are all over the area. Some are adventuring, and some are resting in the local town. What is to say that one of these other PCs didn’t go off on their own, and end up as the prisoner in the next room the players enter. Sure this is a bit contrived, and I usually try to wait a couple of rooms for the new PC to arrive. In the meantime, I let the player help me with the party’s foes. You really want to strike fear into your players…offer the one running the monsters experience for one of his other characters for defeating the PCs.
Hmmmm. This turned out longer than I had expected…
Let’s consider this my monthly What Wil Save could have been post.
ASEO out
From ASEO's post:
"I think Necromancer Games has a module out that provides 4 adventures to bring a dead character back to life."
Does anyone know the name of this? And if it is still in print?
Sounds like something I could definately use.
Loricatus Pugnus Seco Dextera,
Darkrist
I forgot to stick to the thread. My first Character lost was a 2nd level Fighter/Magic User killed in a bar fight when the bartender's vorpal sword went snicker-snack. That was back in the Monty Haul days of 1981. Those were the days!
Loricatus Pugnus Seco Dextera,
Darkrist
From ASEO's post:
"I think Necromancer Games has a module out that provides 4 adventures to bring a dead character back to life."
Does anyone know the name of this? And if it is still in print?
It was called "Raise the Dead". I'd suspect that it is still available.
ASEO out
I had the fortune of having a bigger allowance than my friends when I started playing, so I bought all the modules, and I'd be damned if any of my friends was going to read them before me. So I always was, and continue to be (23 years later), the DM.
BUT ... when I was 11, the very first time I played, the first time my friend Brit brought all these dice and books and paper to my house and we rolled up a character (Theseus, Ranger, 18/72 strength), was my first and only player death. There was no battle mat, no figurines, no sketched maps ... just his descriptions and my wide eyes as I pictured all of it.
I survived a crashing gate trap a-la Raiders of the Lost Ark and a stream that turned anything submerged into it to stone. Then Theseus opened a chest.
Brit: "The hand that is touching the chest starts to burn."
Huh?
Brit: "It starts to turn blue, and the color starts to spread up your arm."
Up my arm?!? Not good! "I drink some of my potion of healing!"
Brit: "The potion doesn't seem to do anything. Your hand starts to swell, and blue liquid starts oozing through the skin. Your whole arm is dark."
No! "I pour the rest of the potion on my arm!"
Brit: "Your chest starts to burn. You drop the empty vial and it shatters on the ground. You drop to one knee, and then crumple to the ground. Everything goes black."
And that was it. Theseus was dead. I fell in love with D&D right then and there. 2 weeks later, I bought a suitcase of D&D books, sheets, magazines and modules from a friend of a friend for 20 bucks, and have been killing my friends' characters ever since.
To get me hooked back in 2nd edition, my DM hooked me up with a lvl 20 1/2 elf Fighter/Mage/Cleric. We played two long sessions, then I made a 1st level elven ranger/druid. I died fifteen minutes off the press. Eaten by a bear I tried to bully around no less.
My future husband was the first man to kill me, I believe it was in our first year of university. My female fighter got killed by some goblins. I'd been playing for years before that but had never had a character die on me.
-Amber
My future husband was the first man to kill me, I believe it was in our first year of university. My female fighter got killed by some goblins. I'd been playing for years before that but had never had a character die on me.
-Amber
I made that mistake once. Allowed a character that my new-to-gaming wife had spent hours creating and naming (a gnome named Gnibish) to suffer a fatal heart attack as a result of a house rule fumble chart back in 2ed. She rolled it, but I'm the one who really suffered. She hasn't really played much since, and the topic always comes up when she does play.
Note, this is not the way to get a kitchen pass for extra gaming.
We did amend that 1 in 100 chance of suffering a fatal heart attack to now allow a good chance on saving, but i don't think she will ever forgive me.
So, the moral of the story people, is DON'T KILL OFF YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER'S FIRST CHARACTER IN THEIR FIRST SESSION.
"Um you rolled a 1...ah....you hit the orc and...killed it...yea..."
ASEO out
So, the moral of the story people, is DON'T KILL OFF YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER'S FIRST CHARACTER IN THEIR FIRST SESSION.
"Um you rolled a 1...ah....you hit the orc...
ASEO, I sympathize... fortunately my husband had been playing D&D for years when I met him, so I don't have to worry. Though he keeps asking for a Staff of the Magi with unlimited charges, as though I would permit him to have such a thing. At least not at 4th level!
- Ashavan
My husband routinely kills of my characters - that first char death sort of set the precedent for our roleplaying relationship. ;-) He's a "let the dice fall where they may" DM and I'm a "charge in and let the gods sort it out" type player. Once he killed me on Valentine's Day! And yet, we're still together after almost ten years. It must be love.
-Amber
My first demise. Now that's a fond memory. No really, I was a Cavalier (one of the best classes in my opinion, and I miss it so as Core Class), but anyways I was ambushed by a female Vampire on the road in the dead of night, I was 3rd Level and she was hungry, need I say more?
It's a laugh that My DM still has that PC turned Vampire, so it's a reunion every now and then for my new guys to meet the first PC I ever made.
My husband routinely kills of my characters - that first char death sort of set the precedent for our roleplaying relationship. ;-) He's a "let the dice fall where they may" DM and I'm a "charge in and let the gods sort it out" type player. Once he killed me on Valentine's Day! And yet, we're still together after almost ten years. It must be love.
-Amber
You're lucky... my husband constantly swears that he would never be able to DM for me. I get very possessive about my characters, and I hate to admit it, but I can be a bit of a rules lawyer (though less so since 3e came out). On the other hand, I also still haven't killed his character... he's the party cleric, so he usually manages to heal himself before he's in any significant danger.
- Ashavan
Well, look at it this way. It's a chance to see what you made in an undead and eternally rotting way, it's almost refreshing. (ha.)
True love in D&D, yes my first time my signifigant other killed my charcter was through friendly fire with an arrow in my back, the next time was being a halfling rouge getting shoved into the hallway to see if it was filled with traps.
Sadly.... It was.
No really, I was a Cavalier (one of the best classes in my opinion, and I miss it so as Core Class
I don't know if you're into non wizards supplements, but Green Ronin, I believe, did a Cavalier Master Class supplement, that presents the Cavalier as a core class.
- Ashavan
Actually yes I fequently use Green Ronin stuff if it enhances the game by adding a new flair where needed, my fiancee often plays a witch from one of thier master class series, it works well enough and doesn't upset the game mechanics or flow of an adventure. So thank you for the info, i'll look and see if they do have one on the Cavalier.
One nice thing about 3.5 is it has that 1st edition feel.
That alone has me comming back for more all the time.
When I first started playing basic D&D in the very early 80s I use to play one-on-one with a buddy who would DM for my single character. I'd go through easily a dozen characters a session. My 2Hp wizard would fire his single Magic Missile, then the other 4 Kobolds would perforate him with arrows. Although back then making the characters was and actually still is a large part of the fun. Since then I've probably gone through literally hundreds of characters. There is probably not a way of expiring that a character of mine hasn't experienced over 25+/- years of playing.
Hey this IS a great post! I saw the refernce over on the Wil Save post. I'm glad someone drew attention to it.
I used to be the same way, AESO.
In my old school days, we never did "campagins". . . we had "adventures." Each of my buddies made a new character at first level, and the DM had an idea for about 8-12 sessions. Then it was over. We said nice job, and a different DM rotated into position. . .we all made characters, etc, and so on.
I, too, have made 100s of charcters back in 1st and second edition. I've been every standard race and class, and in all my experience, I've found that the basic elements of Character and Conflict are the only things that mattered.
Now, it's different, but still good. The long term campaign has a lot less pressure to get things done each session, and the players can just relax and do whatever they want in your world.
On the other hand, it's hard not to tie everything together into a massive plot, and it can take a year or more of weekly games before you are able to reveal certain creative aspects to the PCs. That can be frustrating.
As for my first time: I was 9 years old, and I played a Mage named Van-Too. He wore blue jeans, and I remember visualizing the Maggic Missle spell as a black dagger that started above his forehead, rather than from his fingertips.
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It was November of 1980, I don't remember the exact day...I had just turned 8. A few weeks after my birthday, a had a friend stay the night at my house and he brought his red box with a dragon on the front of it (his older brother's, he had just pilfered it). I flipped through the Game book and the Keep on the Borderland module and immediately the art spoke to my budding geekdom. In particular the pic of the fighter dancing spasmotically in front of the Tarantara and the Minotaur in the back of 'Keep'. Eventually after all the fun of being isolated in the country provides (playing War with dirt clod gernades, trolling the pond shore for frogs and bugs, doing acrobatics in the hay loft of the barn which should have, by all rights, left us quadrapalegics, etc.), my mind returned to the odd box. I asked if we could play his game.
I loved the character generation process (and still do, all that nebulous potentiallity waiting to be crafted into form), and soon, my 1st level chaotic Elf was ready to play. This being the Basic set, Elf was a class, not just a race. Us being 8 year olds, there was nothing that could really be termed as finess...I started in the first room of the dungeon my friend's brother had made for whatever adventure he was running, no backstory or anything, hell, no story for that matter... Here you are, in a dungeon room, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, Grinder (my elf) soon found a secret door that took him to a prison room with a goblin jailor. Grinder killed the goblin (Yay!) and took his keys from him. Then he heard a woman screaming from one of the cells. Rushing over, he unlocked the door and was promptly petrified as he let out the medusa that was inside.
All in all, Grinder had a 50% success rate, 66% if you count finding the secret door... But anyway, my first foray into D&D lasted a sum of about 15 minutes, but somehow it hooked me hard. I was facinated by the game and have been ever since.
The first time was years after taking up the game. I had always been the DM up to that point. Just started with a new "adult" group and had a really cool elven rogue named Elquiyn. We were exploring the dungeons beneath the ruins of Greyhawk Castle and found a cave lair full of trolls. They had not seen us yet and I decided to douse with oil the tunnel they had to enter to get to my party . Well, it took a little longer than I expected and while he was doing it the rest of the party retreated back behind Elquiyn leaving him out in front and suddenly the trolls were there. He never had a chance to ignite the oil... I beleive "wishboned" was how his death was later described.
I think my first character died in 1984 (red box basic set) and i have no idea how. I usually DM our group and the only time i get to play is after a TPK - i usually pick the person most angry at my insensitive "the dice did it" answer to why they are all dead be the new DM. I then spend a week creeating the perfect unique character, back story, hand drawn art to go with the character sheet, a freshly painted miniature featuring the armour and weapon on the equipment list... This character never out lives the first session - certainly does not make it to 2nd level and i end up in the chair of shame making a generic fighter to last the rest of the night. I find letting the new DM take out their frustration from dying the week before on 15 hours of my hard work a good way to stay friends.
I just TPK'd the party on saturday and am resolved to bring two characters to the next session - the first is a commoner with max cooking skill called Hotpie. Once he is dead i'm gonna take out the artwork and the freshly painted miniature. The new Dm is so mad no sarifice i make is gonna make him feel any better. Sorry hotpie...
I usually ended up playing with small groups (~2 players and a DM), so we played multiple characters. Thus, my first character death was THREE characters.
RIP - Green Dragon Breath - December 22, 1984
Jorgoney Took - Halfling Thief
Brian Warbow - Human Fighter
Matthew Korack - Elven Fighter/Magic User
My first campaign was my brother running "The Keep on The Borderlands" in 1980, or thereabouts... I was 13.
I ran a single human fighter, first level, who went through so many hirelings that I began to scare the locals; the sad routine:
- Get hirelings, pay and equip them, travel to the Caves of Chaos, get into battle, watch hirelings die, be last survivor of battle, return to Keep with loot, repeat.
I played that game until I finally reached level 2...then, the character did something that has yet to be repeated in over 25 years of playing since:
He courted a local peasant girl, got married, retired from adventuring and purchased a modest cabin in the small hamlet that began to form in the shadow of the Keep...
M
I think my first character died in 1984 (red box basic set) and i have no idea how. I usually DM our group and the only time i get to play is after a TPK - i usually pick the person most angry at my insensitive "the dice did it" answer to why they are all dead be the new DM. I then spend a week creeating the perfect unique character, back story, hand drawn art to go with the character sheet, a freshly painted miniature featuring the armour and weapon on the equipment list... This character never out lives the first session - certainly does not make it to 2nd level and i end up in the chair of shame making a generic fighter to last the rest of the night. I find letting the new DM take out their frustration from dying the week before on 15 hours of my hard work a good way to stay friends.
I just TPK'd the party on saturday and am resolved to bring two characters to the next session - the first is a commoner with max cooking skill called Hotpie. Once he is dead i'm gonna take out the artwork and the freshly painted miniature. The new Dm is so mad no sarifice i make is gonna make him feel any better. Sorry hotpie...
Now this is a funny post.
ROTFL.