Author: Cooper Walden

Looking at Sean Winslow  and his very cool stuff for Torchbearer, I’m kind of surprised that no enterprising techie hasn’t written an algorithm that auto-generates Campaign Fronts, dangers, Grim Portents and Impending Dooms.  Like an awesome computer generated Mad-Lib for campaign and adventure ideas.

Heck, I’d take a program of auto-generating steadings and resolving steading conflicts as well…

What is it about table-top RPG’s that all them still have character death as a viable game option where CRPG’s have long since abandoned any possibilty of character death?  DW addresses this conundrum (well) with the last breath rule which is a tacit acknowledgment that players have long since abandoned the rogue-like mentality of yore.  Any thoughts?  Have player’s characters actually died in your campaigns?  Any TPKs?

There seems to be a struggle between verisimilitude and agreement that player’s characters are protagonists in a narrative arc the group wants told.

Beyond last breath.  Failure in DW (if ‘death’ is seen as a type of player failure) can be an Impending Doom coming to pass.  The players’ characters, instead of dying (say in a TPK) could find themselves in a world where they must work to rectify the quest they previously failed at completing.  That is also a price of failure that does not mean tearing up a character sheet, but is as permanent as doing so.