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Comment by rightbyte | Hacker News Reader

How many characters have died in such a time spann? Like is any of the original characters alive?

Sorry i missed your second question. Plenty of characters are still alive. Characters retire into NPC formats, generally once they are lords and such. There is only so many apocalypses you can have to challenge high level characters. They can come on "screen" in other campaigns. They generally have their own faction that they operate off camera. New characters sometimes opt to be sons of earlier characters of their own, or of other players characters. It works quite well.

I have had to add a magical plant, which when processed, slows the aging process. I felt a bit harsh killing retired characters, so the rich and powerful tend to not age too much. Some players are fine with their characters to die off, but thats there choice.

Lastly we sometimes dust off old characters to deal with major problems or just for mainly RP type sessions.

Interesting read. I think the longest game I played was maybe 20 sessions over a year (it ended in a wipe). There is a fine balance between "feeling of danger" and losing interest due to deaths of characters that you have got attached to.

It requires some investment to keep it up but it is really nice to meet ppl on a regular basis for other things than food or alcohol.

Interestingly it was the thing that steered me away from alcohol. Being a brit i think we're prone to that. But Sunday night has always been RP night for me. Whatever is happening in my life, thats 'my time' and of course the wife and friends too. What else we supposed to do with Sunday nights, everyone is home and just waiting until Monday morning work. Hanging out with friends, eating a food delivery, telling jokes and story is peak fun in my opinion. Back in the 90s when this started that was my one night a week i weren't drinking so really helped me claw back from every night boozing. A net win on all fronts.

Plenty. Early days, from a GM perspective my mindset was the risk of death had to be genuine and meant victories we're more to enjoy. Over the years I've relaxed a lot away from that. Its not often nowadays that players die. I don't run published adventures, and don't always keep things within the appropriate difficulty range. However i will always give opportunities to withdraw or escape if its something a little too tough. Some systems are a lot more flexible on what each party can handle but things like PF2E the math behind the system is strong and you can easily gauge what they can't handle.

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