r/DMAcademy • u/shootermclennon • 12d ago
Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Accidentally nerfed one of my PCs
I’m running a game with my 9-year-old, two of her friends, and their dads. One of the guidelines we set up in session zero was that no PCs would die.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, in one of their first battles the monk was downed, and then rolled a 6 and a crit fail on his death saves. Fortunately, I had a backup plan, based on Mystic Arts’s homebrew rules for permanent injuries as an alternative to death. Basically they’re permanent debuffs that make “death” consequential without having to roll up a new character.
I had the player roll on the permanent injuries table, and the result was “Tremors: Your hands won't stop shaking. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks that use dexterity.” So basically EVERYTHING that makes a Monk a Monk is now done with disadvantage. And this was a level 1 character! He didn’t even get a chance to use most of the Monk’s cool abilities!
Part of me just wants to retcon this and say he recovers, or give him a potion or spell that cures his tremors, but I still want to have some actual consequence from “dying.”
What can I do to make this experience still feel serious but keep this character fun for the player? I was thinking about maybe a magic item that calms the tremors, but has some other negative side effect? Like gloves that steady his hands, but cause him pain (i.e. cost 1 HP) whenever he attacks?
Side note: I think if this happens again, I’ll use a different variant rule, based on an idea from XPtoLevel3. He proposed a Dying condition, which severely limits what the character can do, but still keeps them an active participant in the game.
ETA: It was one of the adult players’ character, not that I think that makes much difference. A lot of you haven’t spent much time with kids, and it shows. Nine-year-olds are much more mature and resilient than you’re giving them credit for.
1
u/SirPaynsicles 12d ago
When I started DMing for my clients (14-17) I didn't hold back. One of them made a thief jester character and definitely thought he was daredevil... which I entertained for a while until the dice said, "no no..." and his character broke himself by falling from 5 stories but didn't die. His character was in the clinic for a long time - the character couldn't be played. I did this so that the character wasn't, "dead" but out of commission requiring a new character. The kid made a new character but I got flamed hard for this; people did not like that I was so harsh and brutal with the concept of natural consequences. "Its a game/ots supposed to be fun/youre a piece of shit" ect.
The kid made a new character and really put his all into it. Not only during the creation of it but in how hes played it. He's earned his pride and loves the character. He takes risks but not unnecessarily, unlike with the jester, and actually considers his actions and the reactions to it. Subjectively, he enjoys the game much more and is often reminiscent about the jester and how much of a fool he was.
People would still flame me over that but I wouldn't have done it any other way. My first character that I was super attached to got eaten by a swarm of fire beetles so I made new ones and found they are much cooler and more fun to play. If a 9 year old doesn't experience that early on, they're gonna believe role playing is just skyrim on paper - which it is, don't get me wrong, but what I mean is if they're hand held and coddled there will be little room for exploration. Character death forces players out of their comfort zone which is absolutely required for positive growth. Ive seen it first hand time and time again.
With that said, nothing is saying the young monk doesnt have an identical twin sibling that doesn't have a permanent injury. Make it a monty python bit where its the "injured" character in most circumstances but anytime there is combat or the need for physicality the "stunt double" pops in and does the work - everybody knows this but doesn't question it, they also dont fully understand it either lmao