[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Perma-death

[Dana V. Baldwin]

Caliban Darklock wrote:
> Why does it need to have meaning?
>
> Honestly, why? Players risk their characters' lives as a matter of
> course. Indeed, that's the only way to progress in most games. If life
> is so cheap as to be risked on a daily basis, why does death need to
> be in any way remarkable? Why not just have it be along the lines of
> "oops, try again"?
>
> The vast majority of players are not playing out their epic fantasy
> tales in your game. They may THINK they are playing out an epic
> fantasy, but they're not. They are escaping their drab little boring
> lives. When you construct death in such a way that it drops them back
> into the drab little boring game they've already played, your game
> sucks - unless the boring part of the game gets a hell of a lot easier
> AND FASTER with real-world experience.

I couldn't agree more. too often designs rely on the 5 things such as
replacing a character when she dies or trying to make death have
meaning.

The complete opposite approach works well for me. this plays precisely
to what I was rambling on about in talking about a Hackmaster campaign.
Unlike many table top D&D session where the players have all become
attached to their characters and are spending their gaming sessions
trying to craft the next great Salvatore novel, in a Hackmaster campaign
if you live to see level seven you are a celebrated hero!

Death doesn't have meaning other than it is usually accompanied by a
particularly nasty roll on the critical hits table (severed spine FTW!).
Living has meaning!

We often hear "everyone wants to be the hero but not everyone can be the
hero". What if everyone doesn't want to be the hero. What if some of
them are content to hang out in toewn and not fight monsters or be
adventurers at all. What if some of them like to go on nice safe patrols
with decent rewards and low risk. What if those that want to be the hero
get a shot at actually BEING the hero, as long as they can stay alive. I
really think there are compelling designs that can be made of reversing
these assumptions. it probably will be another men in tights game but it
could look refreshingly different. Content as always being the key and
in this case the dilemma (repetitiveness).

Sure, we see these games remade a lot because the formula actually
works. D is right. Formula movies work great too but every once in a
while you can start a newtrend and perma death for me was that new trend
in table top gaming that brought back the fun of rolling the dice as
well as rolling (not role playing but playing the rolls) of the
character. Sure crafting a novel is a lot easier  if the main character
never dies but aren't the truly compelling stories the ones where
adversity, risk and the unexpected turn up upon occasion?