Alternate rule idea for D&D. When you fail all your death saves your character decides to give up adventuring and find a more simple life.
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) September 4, 2018
Alternate rule idea for D&D. When you fail all your death saves your character decides to give up adventuring and find a more simple life.
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) September 4, 2018
This sounds like a joke, but I actually think this could be a really INTERESTING storytelling and roleplaying tool, with a tweak or two.
It’s kind of uninteresting in some ways for a character to simply die – particularly if the death doesn’t happen in a way that is dramatically interesting. But what if instead of dying, they have a “Near Death Experience” which leaves them with some potentially interesting personal crisis to work out?
Basically instead of tearing up the character sheet (or removing the character from play until the party can find a way to resurrect them), what if instead the character miraculously survives, but develops some sort of trauma or wrinkle in relation to their almost kicking the bucket?
Give the player choices to pick from, figure out what would be most interesting and fun for them to grapple with, but they have to choose SOMETHING that has happened to them that will have serious negative repercussions for a while.
Maybe they lose a limb or similar. Maybe they develop an overpowering phobia related to the thing that almost killed them. Maybe they develop a dangerously obsessive desire for revenge at any cost. Maybe they become paranoid and struggle to trust anyone, even their closest allies. Maybe they suffer crisis of faith or self confidence, and begin to question what they’ve always believed in most. Maybe some mysterious force / entity intervenes to spare them from death, and now that is somehow looming over them. The possibilities are tremendous.