Masters Workshop - PC Death

 

There is a post over on BlueSky that got me thinking. I made a screenshot of it below. 

I've played in a few games where you will spend an insane amount of time making characters. Tons of fiddly bits and stuff to figure up or buying gear. Then just an hour into the game and one bad roll, all that is gone and the PC is dead. So you start all over again.

Needless to say after a few times with stuff like that happening I said "fuck this, not fun anymore" and left. This has probably been on of the main reason I soft ball the first few games of anything I run. So the players can get into the feel of the game a bit and so they don't have to do character creation all over again.

Now I've never played or read Tenra Bansho Zero but I remember some folks up in arms over this rule. I like it and I don't myself. Probably because I've dealt with my fair share of problem players over the years and if they figured out they couldn't die no matter what, well the amount of stupid shit they would attempt is something I don't even want to think about. But I get the general idea. Three hours of character creation and then the first chest you fail a trap check on and get a bad save, BANG you're dead. Now you sit there and crunch numbers why the rest of the table gets to play. No thanks.

A friend told me Colonial Gothic has a 'Coin' mechanic that allows you a one time 'cash in' if your character dies. It saves them from death but they may have recovery time, bad injuries, etc. But you get to keep on with that one PC and that sounds doable. 

But my main take away is that after hours of character generation a system with instant character death is a whole shit load of no fun. Simple systems where char gen is only five or ten minutes, that works. Hell something with mostly premade char gen with only a couple tweaks would be the best idea. At least for those who want to run high mortality games where one wrong roll ends things.

Personally I like more invested character creation. More personality is developed that way and you are more able to play what you want. This enables you to, y'know, have more fun. 

So I'm thinking of something akin to a mechanic where it gives you that second chance. But it doesn't shield you forever. But once it's used it's gone. Because I don't want to have the idiot squad doing stupid shit and never learning that there are better ways to do things besides leading with their face into combat. 

What are your thoughts?

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