How often do your player´s characters die?

[Nene_Richards]

<Replying using best grumpy old guy voice>

Dang whippersnapper, flauntin' all them high falutin' store brought choices and all. Back when I started, we walked fifteen miles uphill both ways to play with rocks! I'll shows ya to respect yer elders ya young whelp! <shakes fist impotently> THAT'LL learn ya!

Ohhhh man a stone age RPer let me guess, Methesulah, that in your day you were lucky to be in a Rock/Paper/Scissors system! In your day there was no dice!!! (lol)

[First of Two]

I RPG stories, not shoot-em-ups, so if my PC's die I consider it a failure on someone's part, often mine.

For Star Trek, you've got to keep in mind that the characters the show focuses on rarely die, unless it's part of some big to-do.

NPC's, you can kill off like flies, and I do that quite frequently.

Serious injuries needing permanent medical remedies, yeah. IF a PC were to botch a roll, that's probably the worst I'd do to them. "Hello, Nog."

I'd let a player character die of abject stupidity (if the player just isn't trying, they probably want out of the game anyway), or in some heroically sacrificial manner - funny, no one's done that yet - but never casually.

I played once with a GM who was kill-happy - put traps everywhere, all of them immediately lethal. Once.

[LUGTrekGM]

My GMing experience dates back to Gamma World, Traveller, and AD&D (1979 version), back in the early, early days.

And, very nice that Traveller used 2d6.

I do recall not having any non d6 dice available anywhere for quite some time, and using paper slips drawn out of a "Dixie Cup" (TM).

Once Train & Hobby stores finally got on the bandwagon, and sold dice, inking dice with crayons was a real pain, back in those days, and the things rounded to spherical within a few months.

FASA Trek was a great, great game, and still is, except for the lack of advantages, and disadvantages. I've got 4 copies of the Starship Combat Simulator and over 400.00 worth of the old FASA minis.

My fondest memory is of marathon games starting friday nights at 6 PM, running till Sunday night at 11 PM, mostly 1st ed AD&D, but sometimes FASA Trek, or Battletech, mixed with the 1st edition Mechwarrior (Could you call it an RPG?)

Oh yeah, no dice bags for us, Royal Crown, baby, heck yeah. I still have my first one.

Anyone here ever recall using an electonic "Dragon Bone (TM)?" I used to own one, and would like to find one again, to stand as a tribute to Chaos on the Gaming Shrine.

[black campbellq]

Usually, the survival rate is good in my games, save for one player that literally is the probability outlyer. Different dice, a calculator programmed for dice rolling, PDA dice programs, or cards as randomizers (for Castle Falkenstein) -- this guy gets screwed every time. I try to avoid the "dice screw", where the characters are killed by sheer dumb luck, but if its story-appropriate, sure.

Trek normally has a lower death incident, on screen, but I've found that there's been a fair number of dead characters in our campaign (mostly above said guy. and I even cheat on his favor regularly...)

The Stargate game I'm running, survivability has been good, but the injury/serious injury rate has been horrific (I'm using the James Bond system, and a more realistic approach to the opposition.) The spy games usually see people make it, but there's a higher incidence of death in those. (Say a character or two over the last two years or so, with loads o' NPCs down for a dirt nap.)

Our Castle Falkenstein games, I usually cheat heavy for the players. It's heroic pulp stuff, after all...

[Pericles]

Ohhhh man a stone age RPer let me guess, Methesulah, that in your day you were lucky to be in a Rock/Paper/Scissors system! In your day there was no dice!!! (lol)

My my Miss La de da, Rock/Paper/Scissors indeed! I'll have you know in the beginning we Antideluvians played Rock/Rock/Rock! Made for a lot of tied games and usually just ended up in a fight. Things have gotten a lot better since then.

[Nene_Richards]

My my Miss La de da, Rock/Paper/Scissors indeed! I'll have you know in the beginning we Antideluvians played Rock/Rock/Rock! Made for a lot of tied games and usually just ended up in a fight. Things have gotten a lot better since then.

I have something to tell you Antideluvian... we can go on the internet and play something MMO's, where we do not use paper sheets or dice! I virtual enviroment through your computer monitor that allows you to play D&D now. No dice and no books!!! You even can make your character's look!!! NO MORE ROLLING DICE!!! It is true!!! It Is True!!!

[LUGTrekGM]

Yeah, I took a few years year out of my life, and programmed a Neverwinter Nights [Roleplay Category] Server, that has myself as Admin, 5 DMs, and is running at this moment. It turns 3 in September.

http://www.landofetarnon.net/

People have begged me to make a Star Trek Mod for it, but I hate 3rd ed D&D with a passion.

It's been a lot of fun, but a lot of hassle, too.

Cool as hell to walk around on an outdoor map that had it's basis as a sketch on 6 sheets of graph paper in 1979.