Character Death - what now?

[Lorimez]

Evening all.

Long story short but in the next session I'm almost certain a PC will die or at the least retire his character. While he has plenty of ideas of a way forward with his choices (Dwarf, High-elf, Ranger), I wanted to ask the community for some help.

He has earn't at least 40 XP and maybe 60 advancement points (As the rest of the fellowship roughly has). Even if his death is heroic, based on the book he's likely to get about 4 xp points for his next character.

This seems to make his new character signifcantly behind the rest of the Fellowship and considering he has no advancement points, even further behind. Given that the campaign (DoM) is getting progressively more difficult, how do other LM's handle a player death - in terms of starting xp and AP?

Many thanks

Lorimez

[Hermes Serpent]

I'd have him design a character with the average amount of XP and AP that the other characters have. If there is no generational continuity with the current character penalising the player by making his new character less competent is not fun.

[Rich H]

Personally, if a character's death adds to the story and is a positive influence (at least as much as death can be!) then I'd let the player generate a new character using the accumulated XP and AP that he had for his old character. I mean, what's the real harm in doing that?

Obviously this would mean that the player (with your input if he/she needs it) would need to come up with some details regarding the PC's background beyond the usual starting character. After all, this is a bit of a veteran/experienced PC we're talking about, not some blockheaded Bracegirdle from Hardbottle!

[Pangea]

Though I agree with the answers above, I'd ask the (other) players how they feel.
To make sure they are okay with it.

[Feanor]

I have somewhat of a different question here. As i am playing DoM i was abit worried maybe, and qurious as to the fact that some pepople here on the forums have said previously that the campaign increases in difficulty as the campaign progresses.

What are peoples here opinion on playing the whole cmapaign with a group of 5 characters that average not more than 50 exp per character at any given time in the campaign ? IS that a problem? People in our group will be going through at least 2 characters to 4, each. At least as it looks right now. We have played the first 10 years of it.

Anyone with experience on this, please respond.

regards, Feanor.

[jacksarge]

I have a player who wants to retire a character and has already created a new one in anticipation. The old character is a Woodman, the new a Beorning - I just gave him an equivalent amount of XP/AP to what the old character had earned and asked him to work on a back story. In our game I don't see there being any problem with this. In a long campaign where the difficulty is gradually scaled up, the characters need to be able to keep pace with XP/AP. What I have allowed for the game I run may not suit others.

[Angelalex242]

It depends on how serious a thing you want death to be in your game.

If you give the new guy all the XP and AP of the old guy, then adventurers will be fearless, because 'Screw it, I'll just respawn anyway if I die.' Death will be treated about as seriously as it is in Call of Duty Black Ops. Which is to say, not at all.

Following RAW...you get 4 XP and no AP for your new character...forces PCs to be more cautious...and some of them will even be cowardly.

Instilling the Fear of Death in the Players, not merely the characters, is an important part of the game. Because you know if you die, you'll come back with a 3rd rate loser next to your powerful friends.

[Rich H]

It depends on how serious a thing you want death to be in your game.

If you give the new guy all the XP and AP of the old guy, then adventurers will be fearless, because 'Screw it, I'll just respawn anyway if I die.' Death will be treated about as seriously as it is in Call of Duty Black Ops. Which is to say, not at all.

If that's truly how you and your friends approach this RPG, and most others, then you have my sympathies and my pity.

[jacksarge]

It depends on how serious a thing you want death to be in your game.

If you give the new guy all the XP and AP of the old guy, then adventurers will be fearless, because 'Screw it, I'll just respawn anyway if I die.' Death will be treated about as seriously as it is in Call of Duty Black Ops. Which is to say, not at all.

Following RAW...you get 4 XP and no AP for your new character...forces PCs to be more cautious...and some of them will even be cowardly.

Instilling the Fear of Death in the Players, not merely the characters, is an important part of the game. Because you know if you die, you'll come back with a 3rd rate loser next to your powerful friends.

On the other hand, should a character be discouraged from a heroic and self sacrificing death for the sake of his fellowship or others, because he/she will get a low level replacement? Also, unlike a CoD soldier, most people get some level of attachment to the characters, particularly if they have invested some roleplaying, backstory, development etc. If you like the character, yes you want to keep it, but I think you should not be penalised for dying heroically if the situation calls for it.
Obviously unnecessary combats should be avoided, but outright cowardice doesn't seem befitting of a Tolkienesque adventurer hero.

[zedturtle]

Well, like lots of things, I think the happy medium is probably somewhere in the middle. 4 XP seems like a minor amount, but it's enough for a starting hero to do something effective with, whereas it won't put a dint in the goals of a more advanced character. And the source material certainly has uneven power levels in its parties... we even see the lower advancement characters start to catch up to the more advanced characters at the end (Merry and Pippin, I'm looking at you).

I'm also running DoM, and I'm playing around with house rules to allow a little bit of advance 'catch-up'.