Players who are taken out

cczernia · Post by **cczernia** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:43 pm

Something I discovered recently that annoys me about rpgs is when players get taken out or temporarily removed from the game. This can be knocked out, stunned, paralyzed or killed.

Either way from 1 to many rounds that player doesn't get to do anything.

This occurs in Savage Worlds when you get shaken. During your turn all you can do is roll to do if you become unshaken. If you fail your roll then you have to wait to make the roll again on your next turn. I thought it would be more fun that instead of losing your turn you get a -2 to all rolls until you succeed at your roll of being unshaken.

More fun for the player and everyone involved. I also noticed that D&D4 has a lot less effects that make you loose a turn (unless knocked down to 0 hp).

Anyway, what are some better ways of not taking players out of the action during combat? If you do take them out of combat what are some thing players or GMs can do to keep the player more engaged in the game?

Skyman · Post by **Skyman** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:03 pm

Well I sometimes let them roll for the NPCs and direct attacks or such

jimmy corrigan · Post by **jimmy corrigan** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 12:13 am

~~[quote="Skyman"]~~Well I sometimes let them roll for the NPCs and direct attacks or such[/quote]that's what i'd've said.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:17 am

Fuck those players. If they don't have the sack to make it through an adventure, they don't deserve to play. You can spend that downtime rolling up a new guy. That's how we did it back in the day. I'm sick of all this hand-holding and group-hugging indie shit nowadays.

Gotetsu · Post by **Gotetsu** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:52 am

~~[quote="devlin1"]~~Fuck those players. If they don't have the sack to make it through an adventure, they don't deserve to play. You can spend that downtime rolling up a new guy. That's how we did it back in the day. I'm sick of all this hand-holding and group-hugging indie shit nowadays.[/quote]

I LOL'd.

Dragonkin · Post by **Dragonkin** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:11 am

~~[quote="Gotetsu"]~~I LOL'd.[/quote]

ROFLMFAO, here.

Dragonmaster Zoc · Post by **Dragonmaster Zoc** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:16 pm

Death is an inherent risk in adventuring, almost by definition. If there is no significant risk, then there's no sense of drama. If a character dies, then it's usually because the player was doing something dumb; suck it up, learn from the experience, and try to not be so reckless in the future.

Yes, not having fun because your character is dead is s a problem, but it's also a real incentive to care about your character.

Temporary loss of control, like that shaken issue, is disproportionately annoying relative to how little impact it has in the long run. Feel free to just ignore those rules, if you want to; ignore the option of surprise in combat, ban all mind-control abilities, etc. No system is a perfect representation, so feel free to sacrifice realism for playability to whatever degree you feel comfortable.

TLDR version: If you don't like losing control of your characters, then don't use the rules that result in such.