Back from a bit of a break this week, we'll be picking up on our Keep on the Borderlands campaign on Friday....the one where there was basically a TPK to close the previous session. I was thinking how important the threat and reality of character death is to a D&D game. I know that WoTC is pushing more story gaming and plot-armor for the characters these days, but the memorable encounters are those were death is a real and present threat.
My players would likely say that I am not a lethal DM, I always let the dice dictate the action in my games and since we've been playing 5th edition almost exclusively these past few years, there have only been a handful of times that character death was a danger. Those times though, were the most memorable.
Nothing sets the players on edge like watching one of the group get dropped. The 5E mechanic of allowing death saves makes it pretty difficult to actually die in these games, but the drama of letting the dice decide their fate in many instances is pretty fun. Everyone holding their breath as the D20 bounces across the table...
Some newer DM's will want to pull punches and lessen the blow on their players, but this is bad DMing...if your players walk into a deadly encounter, then make it deadly. You can't fight your way through everything in these games and sometimes running to survive is the best option. Your players will always remember that time that Joe's character fell into the pit of spikes or Sarah's character was consumed by the black pudding....and that's what playing is all about: having fun and a great story!
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