Jason's Latest Design Musing video gives good insight into what they want out of death and dying

[Vorsk, Follower or Erastil]

Jason Bulmahn does a fantastic video series on how he approaches game design and offers insight into what goes through his mind and advice on those looking to design games themselvea. His latest video today gives a great view into what they are trying to achieve out of death rules. Is the wounded condition 4 levels of dying the answer? Not sure but we shall see with playtesting. Here is a link to the video to any who care to listen.

https://youtu.be/64PpL2i1qJo

[necromental]

TL;DV?

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Linked

[Father Nihilist]

TL;DV:

“As a game designer you’re going to want to spend some time thinking about death.”

I must be a great game designer, I’m thinking about death all the time!

[Jason Bulmahn]

Aww.. cmon now. I think about plenty of other things...

Like poisons, and traps, and the inevitable heat death of the universe.

Wait.. those all involve death. Nevermind.

[Mekkis]

Jason Bulmahn wrote:

the inevitable heat death of the universe.

The Pathfinder universe is "open" or "flat", and continues expanding without form. And what provides its energy will eventually die out?

I thought there were enough anomalies in the cosmology of the setting that would indicate a different long-term outlook.

Either that, or Rovagug - which still isn't the heat death.

Tell us more!

[The Sideromancer]

To my knowledge, the PF cosmology would be undergoing heat death pretty quickly if somebody hadn't hooked a pipe up to the parts with maximum entropy and decided to tell thermodynamics to sit in a corner until called for.

[David knott 242]

In both the Pathfinder universe and the real universe, I am pretty sure that their heat deaths are both inevitable and so far in the future that we really don't need to worry about them.

[ShadeRaven]

Excellent video.

I am very similar to Jason, as I have had a character die recently in RotRL and even had a TPK this year in 5E, but generally just want that looming threat to be there, not something I actively try to accomplish. Compared to the other 3 local GMs here, that's a high mortality rate, but I generally play not to kill, letting the dice decide on fate. I am sure if I GMed like some here, with focused-fire, perfect tactics, and concerted effort, those numbers would be much higher.

I personally like that tension (I play D3, and other similar games, always in Hardcore mode), but I don't think it's for everyone (actually, the numbers show it's a small percentage), and I know that my players would tire if I was TPKing them constantly, even if I let them reset or reroll quickly. However, I've played with Deus Ex Machina GMs and I personally find that it reduces my enjoyment because as it's so hard to actually fail, I don't play with the same edge - they become lighthearted and almost comical (don't get me wrong, that's fun too, and I still show up every session).