Post
by Irongron » Mon Aug 08, 2022 4:47 pm
I was hesitant to post here, as this is a very old topic and one I've commented on many times.
There are a great many new players since last time round though, so here goes...
In so far as mechanical consequences for death...
Time was Arelith had truly massive XP loss, at time when level gain was a fraction of what it is now. For more casual players this could set them back weeks, or even months.
There were two major consequences of this:
1. 'Killbashing' was the number 1 issue
for many players, and led to considerable amounts of bad blood. Basically, in PvP you could force the maximum penalty on a character by destroying their body, thus leaving nothing to raise. 'Bashing back to level 1' was a real issue, and because of this PvP characters truly ruled the roost
2. Dungeoneers were risk averse. With such hefty penalties the most dangerous, and thus exciting, dungeons were abandoned, and anything lethal was bad design. Player characters would circle areas considerably below their level because the risk of dying simply wasn't worth it. Adventuring was boring, and certain dungeons were badly over trafficked.
Because of these, and some more minor issues I decided on almost a full 180. It wasn't universally popular, of course, but I do stand by it. I'd rather play in the wild west we have now, and design dungeons to be dangerous.
Anyway, that's the mechanical side, but as posters have said above it doesn't end there. What psychological weight players give to it is up to themselves, both as a reflection of their own character, and of the society, and its values, in the setting itself. The first of these is up to the players, but I can talk about the second, as I think for many players this aspect of death, and its finality, in the Forgotten Realms has not been fully digested.
This is a world where the dead, can indeed, be brought back to life, and furthermore is a service offered by the local temple...
I mean, that's a crazy sci notion right there. If I could just wheel my grandma across the street to the church and fork out a few thousand dollars to bring her back each time she died the world, and how we view death, would be very different indeed.
Still, we know that resurrection isn't offered to everyone, and (we can hope) most churches frown upon doing this too readily, but it doesn't really end there.
In the Forgotten Realms life after death isn't a question of faith, but verifiable and extremely real. The journey, goes on.
Finally, if these two points weren't enough, it is a world of monsters, like...everywhere. Wars and crusaders abound, nation states routinely execute their convicts and everybody, like...everybody knows they could die an unexpected violent death at any time. This isn't like the occasional black bear wandering into town to raid a trash can, there is a fully armed goblin in there, ready to serve you up as sunday dinner to his family.
Death is meaningless, because life is cheap.
So personally? I don't much care if I see a character say they don't much care about death. I am actually far more bothered by them shrugging off pain and trauma like it's nothing, because that stuff...REALLY hurts. I hit my head on a low beam a few days back and it still hurts like hell, I can only imagine being bludgeoned and eaten to death by a zombie feels considerably worse, and not something I'd be just fine and dandy about after being raised from the dead.
So I might not fear being dead in the Forgotten Realms, but I'd sure as hell fear being killed, and most definitely fear the thing that did it to me last time round.