A new player upsets his group in Dungeons & Dragons. This costs his character his life in the first round, even though his companions feel sorry for him.
What kind of character does the player take on? User msNSFW69 shares in his thread on Reddit the dramatic story of his group in Dungeons & Dragons. A new player had joined their group and brought a Drow rogue that he wanted to play.
During their quest, they tried to save a village from demonic corruption. In the process, they found an abandoned bag of gold. As is often typical for a rogue, the player then wanted to keep the gold for himself and not share it with the group or the village.
This is actually not an unusual situation for groups playing Dungeons & Dragons. But for this player, misfortune began, costing his character his life and leaving his companions with a heap of guilt.
“I didn’t know we couldn’t deal lethal damage if we wanted to”
What happened next? In his group were also the thread creator as a chivalrous fighter and a paladin. Since both were primarily for the good, they warned the Drow several times to give up the gold, or there would be consequences.
It came to pass that the two attacked him, believing they would teach him a lesson and the healer would help him back on his feet. Unfortunately, the paladin scored a critical hit with his first attack, and the rogue fell unconscious.
Since the fighter had already stated in advance that he would also attack, the game master insisted that he carry out the attack – which caused the player to automatically fail two of his three death saving throws.
The healer could no longer react, as the game master then initiated round-based combat, and the rogue also failed his remaining saving throw. His character died during his first session with the group.
Immediately, his companions were overcome with strong pangs of conscience and apologized for the mishap. “Since I am also new to DND, I didn’t know we couldn’t deal lethal damage if we wanted to, otherwise we would have,” explains fighter msNSFW69 in his thread.
In the game, the two characters confessed their act to their adventurer guild comrade, after which they were imprisoned. The Drow player himself didn’t hold it against them, as he had other ideas for characters and since he hadn’t even played his rogue for a full round, he wasn’t attached to him anyway.
What does the community say about this? In the comments, many voices express their sympathy for both the player and the two attackers and share similar experiences. Some hold the blame rather with the game master (DM) of the session, as he should have clarified the options and consequences from their perspective to the inexperienced players, while others offer tips on how to handle it better:
- Lazy_DK_ writes: “Sounds like your DM isn’t particularly experienced either. The DM should have offered you the option of ‘non-lethal,’ and he seems a bit bloodthirsty making you attack as well. As much as ‘that’s what my character would do’ is, it didn’t seem particularly fun or good for the story.”
- redrosebeetle suggests: “I explicitly forbid stealing between players unless all players agree to the object in question. This is a team game, and it’s not fun to always be on guard.”
- TheRealRedParadox reflects: “This is why PVP without consent is banned at most tables. Sorry, but yes, buddy, PVP should be agreed upon by both parties, and your DM kind of messed that up as well.”
That characters sometimes die early occurs more frequently in Dungeons & Dragons. However, there is also the other extreme, where game masters might need to make their players’ characters virtually immortal: DM admits he makes a player incredibly strong in Dungeons & Dragons because otherwise he can’t handle it.
