In a properly run game, death, if it happens, is not the result of a die roll, but of a series of choices made by the character. The die roll just furnishes confirmation. It's not random. If it were, there would be no point in the characters making choices at all.
So yes, you do say to your players, in effect, "Artistically speaking, I think your characters should die now," and if you've run the game properly, they may be upset about it, but they agree with you, *as players*, that that is the logically necessary result of their actions. They would have far more reason to complain if "oops, sorry, just as you're wiping your sword having polished off the last Archdemon a grand piano falls on your head." (Unless that was a feature of the game that they had a chance to find out about beforehand, I hasten to add...)
Having said that, it is my proud boast that I've never permanently killed a character, nor (if I ever game again) do I intend to. They're much more fun alive...
As for EVE, I go with demoneyes, taking his point that the other players aren't really roleplaying at all (they don't in D&D either, now I think about it), and Mr V. Fear of death is a body thing as much as or more than a mind thing, and a being that does not have the basic survival instincts is not a human being. It's a puppet being worked by someone sitting safely in front of a computer and probably playing poker in another screen at the same time...
no subject
In a properly run game, death, if it happens, is not the result of a die roll, but of a series of choices made by the character. The die roll just furnishes confirmation. It's not random. If it were, there would be no point in the characters making choices at all.
So yes, you do say to your players, in effect, "Artistically speaking, I think your characters should die now," and if you've run the game properly, they may be upset about it, but they agree with you, *as players*, that that is the logically necessary result of their actions. They would have far more reason to complain if "oops, sorry, just as you're wiping your sword having polished off the last Archdemon a grand piano falls on your head." (Unless that was a feature of the game that they had a chance to find out about beforehand, I hasten to add...)
Having said that, it is my proud boast that I've never permanently killed a character, nor (if I ever game again) do I intend to. They're much more fun alive...
As for EVE, I go with
Not how I play.