On "The Meaning of Your Character's Death"

The Black Mete Open Table Session 4, will be held next Friday. There's a few things I'm going to clarify for the table, before the game begins. One of the players, who has been present for two out of the three sessions so far, is playing his character in such a way as to be more of a liability to the party, than an asset. In short, he's the classic disruptive player, who doesn't want to cooperate with the other PC's, has already gotten one character killed and is about to do so again. After this past Friday's session, I think I've got his approach fairly well figured out. We're going to have a very frank, open discussion about all of that, as a group, before play begins.

Should be fun. I'm DMing an open table, mostly for people I've only recently met and most of the players don't know one another, either.

Last session, there were six players. Three of whom, have never played D&D, before joining my table.

A part of my talk, is going to consist of some version or another of the following:

"See this module? It's called The Nameless City by Alphonso Warden. It's for 7th to 10th level characters. And if I had you all roll up level appropriate characters right now and sent you into this thing, I would bet money on a TPK!

"By the time your current characters actually reach that level, it's my intent that you'll be able to go into a module like The Nameless City and have a good chance at surviving and coming out with some treasure and xp.

"That's going to take all of you honing your playing skills, both individually and as a group! I'm going to make sure you have a chance to do just that! Player skill isn't a guarantee of survival. Smart teamwork doesn't mean success is assured. It just means you'll have a good chance. Play stupidly and you're sure to die. Fail to learn from your mistakes and you're screwed! If you refuse to cooperate with one another,  then I'd suggest you get the fuck out of the dungeon!"

Now, Blair of Planet Algol put it wonderfully: 

This isn't World of Warcraft, this isn't T-ball, this isn't Chutes and Ladders; this is Dungeons and fucking Dragons, so you damn well better hustle and sweat and think and pay attention in order to keep your character's head above water blood.

There's a reason those monsters in the manuals have stat blocks. Things like HD, HP, AC, #Attacks, Damage per Attack, Special Attacks, etc. They're not just for show. Otherwise, I wouldn't need a monster stat block at all. I'd just make it up as I go along, making sure the monster didn't do more damage than a PC's current HP. The monsters would hit when it was "dramatically appropriate." There would be no need for monster HP or AC, either, as the monster would also die whenever it was "dramatically appropriate." But, I'm not running a "story-game." That's not my cup of tea.

I'm running Dungeons and fucking Dragons!

The "meaning" of your character's death?

It means that when you do survive, creeping into a dragons lair and getting into the fight of your life, coming close as shit to having your ass handed to you but managing to pull your own fat out of the fire, burying your axe in the fucking dragon's brain, all covered in gore and probably having to get a comrade or two resurrected, afterwards, you'll remember it. You'll talk about it with your gaming buddies, years down the road.

It means I'm not going to hand you triumph, on a silver platter. You've got to earn it!  When you do get your shit together, when you have honed your playing skills to be as effective as you can be, both as an individual PC and when working with the party, you'll have a good chance at success! And when you do succeed, it'll mean something!