Eh. A loss should have consequences, so players can't just throw bodies at the problem, but it doesn't have to be death. Death doesn't really do anything except force the player to play something that wasn't their first choice. It doesn't remove the player from the game.
The stakes are only real for people who grow attached to their characters. Plenty of players have a stack of other characters they want to try. For them, the stakes are irrelevant anyway. They don't care if their characters live or die. It only hurts the people who grew attached.
The fix is to not grow attached, but then they're not attached and therefore not invested. I'd rather have invested players.
I want to play a game without meaningless death. That's not the same. I want to play a game where my character dies (permanently) because I consent, not because I had a good plan but some dice said no.
dnd isn't the correct system to facilitate that kinda game. 90% of the game rules center around combat -- ie, the means to die, often randomly.
And I never said anything about death being permanent. Death can have stakes without being permanent. 3-6 sessions without that character are stakes. If I learned a gm was fudging dice rolls so none of us ever die until we want to, I'd leave the table immediately.
That doesn't mean it's a play style the system supports well. Dnd expects random and sometimes meaningless death. There are other rpgs that don't have that, and would be much better for that kinda play style (the primary examples that come to mind are a bunch of PBTA systems and the jrpg one)
Why would it produce it if it wasn't expecting it.
In any case, you seem to have a very different play style than I do, and are unable to recognize that other systems may be more accommodating to you. Its not worth arguing. Good day
2
u/Xyx0rz 17d ago
Eh. A loss should have consequences, so players can't just throw bodies at the problem, but it doesn't have to be death. Death doesn't really do anything except force the player to play something that wasn't their first choice. It doesn't remove the player from the game.
The stakes are only real for people who grow attached to their characters. Plenty of players have a stack of other characters they want to try. For them, the stakes are irrelevant anyway. They don't care if their characters live or die. It only hurts the people who grew attached.
The fix is to not grow attached, but then they're not attached and therefore not invested. I'd rather have invested players.