For some reason my train of thought for the last few days has been about what to do if one of my players characters die during the campaign.

Naturally I turned to Saint Colville to see what sage advice he had on the subject. Here are some of the points I picked up from his Let’s Kill A PC! Running the Game #68 video.

“…the game is so complex, no one doing anything wrong, characters can die.”

Matt Colville does get you to ask the question “how lethal is your campaign?” in the video. Up until now it’s now something I’d really thought about.

So how lethal is my campaign? Is death a rare thing, or uncommon, common or this is a suicide mission/dark souls level of mortality?

I’m not sure. It’s something I think that needs to be discussed with the players. My leaning at this point in time is it’s common. It’s a medieval fantasy setting. The world, especially outside of civilisation is a dangerous place. If it wasn’t why would our adventurers be needed, or driven to go out into the world? And let’s not ignore the expected life span of a pheasant in medieval times, and the state of medicine (even taking into account magic and potions).

“…my bad guys want to win. They are going to act the same way you do, and for the same reasons. They may ignore an unconscious pc under the reasonable premise they are no longer a threat. Or they may kill that same pc to remove a potential threat.”

“If we set expectations. If we explain D&D is a game, and that even a mundane encounter could go south without anyone intending it too. If we explain the bad guys want to win…”

I think the best line of the whole video is the following:

“Death is always a possibility. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”

It’s a line that with his other bit of advice for players “Anytime you are out numbered the odds are stacked against you.” should be repeated on a regular basis to players. And something I need to start doing.

There is also advice how to reply to the dead player when they want to discuss what could have been done different. Like avoid saying “if only you had…” and instead replying “there’s always something different you could have done” and staying quiet on the matter.

However what is missing from the amazing video of Colville’s is then what? Is the player out of the game? Do you get the player to create a new character?

I think that was my biggest sticking point, the then what?

This is where The Dungeon Dudes came to the rescue with their Character Death in Dungeons and Dragons – DM Advice and Tips video.

It’s interesting to have this different perspective on a character death in D&D. I particularly like their advice on dealing with the in game moment of a characters death. Which I’ll discuss in a moment.

They do mention words of warning, and Colville has also discussed this in a video or two. It’s sign posting that the players are about to get into a dangerous situation. Giving them the information they need to make an informed decision with. I kind of did that in my previous session when the Northlanders told the party about the Red Rage of Mintarn and that no adventure going after it’s horde had survived. But these guys also talk about warning the party that a player is down and bleeding out, and they better do something to help them. If the players ignore the warnings then…

Back to dealing with the death of a character. The Dungeon Dudes like to invite the dying player to describe the how their character dies. Then they go round the table asking each player how they character reacts to it in the moment. I’m not sure about the raising a glass and round of applause part. But we’ll see how the moment takes me when/if a character dies.

Now we get to the bit I wanted to know about.

The Dungeon Dudes have the player grab their dice and a blank character sheet, and immediately create a new character. If this is mid game, giving the player about 15 minutes to do that. Then the moment the narrative allows for it, get the player back in the game. Not worrying about it making sense, or fitting in with their back story. Afterwards you worry about back story, and fitting it into the campaign and integrating the new character into the group. They also talk about the whole group getting involved with this.

This all seems so obvious. But it isn’t until you hear some-one more experienced say it that you feel empowered to do it. I’m assuming that when doing this the new character is being created at the same level as the rest of the party (assuming all the same level, if not then the same as the lowest level of the party).

But what about resurrection? At the moment the party has just levelled up to become level 2 characters. So it’s not something available to them yet, unless there is an npc nearby that is able to do this. I do like the approach that Dael Kingsmill takes to resurrection. It sounds a great idea, and I like the plot twists it can introduce. Her injury system also sounds interesting. But that’s something to delve into at a later date.

I’ll also look into resurrection in more depth at a later date. I think it’s an interesting subject to dive into.

I hope this has helped. As a new DM looking into this has been a big help. I have a clearer idea of how to handle it when it happens. I just need to remember, hopefully the shock of a character dying won’t throw me off my game!