GoT is perfect example of my philosophy on death in TTRPG. It's not antogonistic because it's not targeting you but also there's no plot armor. You made decisions to get you into the situation, now you have to make the decisions to get out. I don't want a TPK and I would NEVER try for one, but if they chose the situation. . . a group of goblins ambushing my lvl 3 party versus my lvl 3 party deciding to raid an ancient red's hoard are going to have two very different outcomes. A death doesn't have to be a plot or story beat, it doesn't have to be meaningful, but it also shouldn't be meaningless (ie, Avernus' ridiculous exhaustion mechanic).
TPKs are all about expectations. If it is a small combat, there should not be a huge risk of death -- NOT 0%, but definitely not 100%. If it is a boss that has been building up for many sessions, prepare for them to attempt to end all of you.
Thank you, Eric! My husband is so disappointed that I couldn’t continue watching Breaking Bad, I just couldn’t get into it and it was so stressful to watch😭
Great points! I sooooo agree they should have stretched out Wanda’s delve into darkness. A Shadow totally would double tap the living to drain the delicious life force ;) they can be crazy OP monsters.
I can see your point about shadows! I tend to play them as more like, souls that have separated from who they were so they have lost a lot of their humanity and therefore wouldn’t always think to double tap, but that’s my personal flavour
I think death in ttrpg is wildly overrated as way to build tension/tone/consequence. When I think about combats at my own table that I found particularly interesting/excited/compelling they’re usually combats where the consequence has nothing to do with player death. One of the combats at our table that was the most exciting and got the most full participation was a combat we were told specifically we could not die in. The fight was with a rival party and had a lot more to do with personal relationships and interactions. We still fought insanely hard (mostly cuz we wanted to kick the leader of the party, who we just watch abuse one of their fellow party members, ass.). Knowing we couldn’t die, didn’t mean we didn’t fight hard or smart. I just think they are just more interesting ways to build tension and consequences in a combat than just character death. In fact, I think if you go from one deadly combat to another deadly combat where you’re worried about a PC dying, you can just got numb to it pretty quick. If you’re playing a meat grinder game whatever, do as you please. But in a heavy role-play, heavy plot game getting killed in a random encounter simply from bad rolls, it takes the wind out of the game in my opinion.
Holy crap. Vic. You keep shifting the definition of what you're trying to discuss (in the TPK talk) and *you won't let Eric finish a single freaking thought*
@@IdCritThat Apologies, that was probably too harsh; I didn't end up finishing the video. It was just grating on me. As someone approaching the topic from closer to Eric's perspective, it was frustrating that every time I felt like he started to make a point that resonated with me, the goalposts got shifted or the point got derailed. We're all allowed to be human, and I don't think you're a jerk or anything. This was the first video on this channel I've watched, so I don't really grok your dynamic/personalities and likely jumped to conclusions.
GoT is perfect example of my philosophy on death in TTRPG. It's not antogonistic because it's not targeting you but also there's no plot armor. You made decisions to get you into the situation, now you have to make the decisions to get out. I don't want a TPK and I would NEVER try for one, but if they chose the situation. . . a group of goblins ambushing my lvl 3 party versus my lvl 3 party deciding to raid an ancient red's hoard are going to have two very different outcomes. A death doesn't have to be a plot or story beat, it doesn't have to be meaningful, but it also shouldn't be meaningless (ie, Avernus' ridiculous exhaustion mechanic).
Yeah I (Vic) def think a meaningful death is ideal, but a meaningless PC death should never happen in D&D imo, agreed
TPKs are all about expectations. If it is a small combat, there should not be a huge risk of death -- NOT 0%, but definitely not 100%. If it is a boss that has been building up for many sessions, prepare for them to attempt to end all of you.
This is a fair point!!
Thank you, Eric! My husband is so disappointed that I couldn’t continue watching Breaking Bad, I just couldn’t get into it and it was so stressful to watch😭
he's going to love this comment
Great points! I sooooo agree they should have stretched out Wanda’s delve into darkness. A Shadow totally would double tap the living to drain the delicious life force ;) they can be crazy OP monsters.
I can see your point about shadows! I tend to play them as more like, souls that have separated from who they were so they have lost a lot of their humanity and therefore wouldn’t always think to double tap, but that’s my personal flavour
I think death in ttrpg is wildly overrated as way to build tension/tone/consequence. When I think about combats at my own table that I found particularly interesting/excited/compelling they’re usually combats where the consequence has nothing to do with player death. One of the combats at our table that was the most exciting and got the most full participation was a combat we were told specifically we could not die in.
The fight was with a rival party and had a lot more to do with personal relationships and interactions. We still fought insanely hard (mostly cuz we wanted to kick the leader of the party, who we just watch abuse one of their fellow party members, ass.). Knowing we couldn’t die, didn’t mean we didn’t fight hard or smart.
I just think they are just more interesting ways to build tension and consequences in a combat than just character death. In fact, I think if you go from one deadly combat to another deadly combat where you’re worried about a PC dying, you can just got numb to it pretty quick.
If you’re playing a meat grinder game whatever, do as you please. But in a heavy role-play, heavy plot game getting killed in a random encounter simply from bad rolls, it takes the wind out of the game in my opinion.
AGREEEEEEEEED I think a lot of DMs inexperienced in telling stories use it as a plot device sometimes but there is SO much more that can be done
Holy crap. Vic. You keep shifting the definition of what you're trying to discuss (in the TPK talk) and *you won't let Eric finish a single freaking thought*
I was developing my thoughts as we chatted (which I mention at the end!) I'm only human!
@@IdCritThat Apologies, that was probably too harsh; I didn't end up finishing the video. It was just grating on me.
As someone approaching the topic from closer to Eric's perspective, it was frustrating that every time I felt like he started to make a point that resonated with me, the goalposts got shifted or the point got derailed.
We're all allowed to be human, and I don't think you're a jerk or anything. This was the first video on this channel I've watched, so I don't really grok your dynamic/personalities and likely jumped to conclusions.
You guys never actually mentioned hpw Wyrmspan was! You got distracted 🤣 Is it good? Better than Wingspan? 💜
Loved it!! It’s way better than wingspan imo
@@IdCritThat that's good to know thank you!! About to get it this week :) have a great holiday 😊