Re: [DL] "Mundane" Death

Jim Burzelic <zombi_bobb@yahoo.com> wrote
I apologize this is more of a pet peeve that's bothered me for a while.
I sort of ranted in my last message. I meant what I said but it was a
little ranty. It all stems from the fact that I witness time and again
players making assumptions about how a game flows. The metaplot, while
a wonderful tool and something I love and think is an excellent
mutation in the evolution of gaming, has caused players to become lazy.
Players more and more seem to need clues almost handed to them and
dragged through plot developement, to get to the combats that they know
they will live through so the GM can tell a complete tale. This, for
the GM, makes gaming little more than writing your own fiction with
characters suggested by friends and writing all the action yourself.
With some imaginations out there, you are most assuredly better off.
(This bitter comment is birthed out of the discovery that guns in PC
hands tends to make them unimaginative with their actions even in the
most "cinematic" games and unscarable in horror games.)

You have every right to rant, because you are correct. Players have become lazy, and worse. Many of the smartest gamers I know have suddenly grown stupid. I have been gaming since I was ten, and this year I'll be 33. That's 23 years of running and playing RPG's. There are only a few games that I will even consider running now, Call of Cthulhu, Space: 1889, and Deadlands are among them.

I have found some good ways to skirt player laziness and stupidity, and game stagnation. First, whenever I decide to run a new game, I create everyone's character. I do this for three reasons. The first is so that the characters are interesting and balanced. The second reason is that it makes it easier to exploit character weaknesses when the player is being "difficult". The final reason is that it makes the players think creatively. If they don't like the character that I made for them, then they start thinking about the kind of character they think would work for the game.

When it comes to character death's, I let the players know in advance that I'll kill off a character whenever I feel I need to. How the character dies depends on what's going on at the time. It could be heroic, mundane, or in response to player stupidity. I always keep a few extra characters around for just such an event. I have found that if the death is entertaining, then players won't complain as much.