More D&D Blogging

[brettday]

Here's a blog that I think is generally fairly well in line with my feelings on RPGs and system theory-- The Fine Art Of The TPKI especially agree with his feelings on the Sandbox / Railroad axis of gameplay-- neither works in a pure form. I think this is because I'm a big believer that balance comes from the DM, not the system. 4E is very well

Comments

[ninjer]

I'm still not convinced dying, getting killed, or even getting absolutely CREAMED by a six-level-higher monster is not "fun

[brettday]

TPKs can be funny; they can certainly be entertaining in retrospect. The problem is playing through them. It's excruciating to sit there for twenty minutes, knowing that not only is there really nothing you can do to change the direction things are going except hoping for nat 20s. It doesn't make you feel heroic when you eventually do get a character to level 3 or 4, because you feel like that time you were just lucky

[ninjer]

Here's food for thought, though; if I knew, as a DM, that a TPK was coming I wouldn't make it agonizing. I'd cut to the chase if it was absolutely dreadfully obvious there was no hope, even with nat 20s... because really, something has gone wrong if it's come to blows with an enemy that strong. Someone should have run, hid, tried to scare, talk- something creative and full of roleplaying that can be worth more than a dozen good rolls in a row.

Besides, there are things far worse than death, like finding yourself taken bodily to an unfamiliar world, captive of powers beyond your ken until the time you can hone your abilities and, later, seek out vengeance against those who imprisoned you in your earlier years...

[brettday]

Agreed, but now you're discussing setting and player ingenuity, which I think are totally divorced from mechanics.