RolePlay onLine RPoL Logo

, welcome to Community Chat

15:14, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

The price of defeat.

Posted by csroy
csroy
member, 100 posts
Wed 15 Mar 2017
at 14:42
  • msg #1

The price of defeat

Consider the following scene:

Baron a mighty warrior roars lifting his axe and charge the pair of orcs.

*dice clatter cries of happiness from the players*

With one mighty swoop Baron split one of the orcs in half... outraged the second orc lift his mean looking scimitar and slash at the barbaric warrior.

*DM dice clatter... critical hit ... rule-book shuffling*

The scimitar slice at Baron, amputating his left hand at the elbow...

At this stage Baron player goes OOC talking about how his character has just become unplayable and start talking about a new character.





Over my thirty years of RPing this is the phenomena I observed: when come to a major setback or obstacle (permanent maiming of a PC, major failure etc) many players would rather reboot (switching character or campaign).

On one hand no one like to play the outcomes of real failure and consequences of defeat (especially in a black/white gaming world where failure translate into the end of the world) but on the other hand, the greatest stories in RL are the stories about overcoming one failures of climbing out of the ashes of defeat and rebuilding one life.

Has anyone else encountered this phenomena and has anyone has any idea how to make the bitter pill of defeat sweeter for players so they'll not abandoned their characters/game?
This message was last edited by the user at 14:43, Wed 15 Mar 2017.
Sign In