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+--- Thread: [DT] Level Drain (/showthread.php?tid=212)
[DT] Level Drain - Kersus - 03-05-2015
There is an interesting thread on level drain at dragonsfoot and I wondered what you all thought of it?
As a player and/or GM. Is it overly harsh?
RE: Level Drain - Oedipussy Rex - 03-05-2015
The undead create an unthinking, irrational fear in people who believe in such things. What game mechanic can cause that fear in players of a game where a new character can be rolled up and ready to go in less than 10 minutes? The threat of taking away the thing that players cherish above all others: time. A level drain isn't a loss of abilities; it's the loss of the time invested in getting the character to that level. With a character death, one's time with the character is over, but one still has had all that time with the character. With a level drain, that time has been taken away.
Is it overly harsh? No. Level drain, like a dog's growl or a snake's rattle, is nature's way of saying, "Don't touch." But just like with growling dogs and rattlesnakes, some people just gotta touch anyway. They just can't help themselves.
RE: Level Drain - Kersus - 03-05-2015
Should new players/characters have warning ahead of time?
RE: Level Drain - Oedipussy Rex - 03-06-2015
nope.
RE: Level Drain - Kersus - 03-06-2015
I know I dealt with it as a player but I don't really call the details (over 25 years ago). As a GM, I certainly had it happen to players. It did teach some fear. It's interesting to see a group of players from different backgrounds. Faced with a menace, the old-school guys make that decision - fight or flight; while the more modern and some thick headed old-schoolers just assume that if it's in the way, they can defeat it and if they don't gain something from it, the adventure is at fault.