>Start a new campaign of 5th ed. D&D, with some RPG noobies
>Spend a cheerful two hours (plus pizza) on character creation, telling each other funny backstories and swapping character dialogue
>First encounter, I give them a single Bugbear to fight
>Bugbear rolls a natural 20, obliterates first Player Character
>Minimal damage in return
>Bugbear rolls a second 20, knocks down second player
>Only group wizard is left
>He rolls a 1 for spell damage
>Bugbear walks up and knocks down Wizard too
>They have failed their questi
>Players seem genuinely hurt, as though I've been a terrible asshole to them...
I-I-I didn't mean for this to happen /tg/, I swear I didn't..... ;_;
Good way to start that afterlife campaign.
>>46630308
That's when you end the session and start the next with them being captured by bugbears.
>>46630308
Here's the (you), kid.
>>46630308
Don't start at level 1.
Or play a game where life and death aren't the matter of one unlucky roll.
>>46630308
>all three player characters passively stood there attacking one at a time with no strategy other than "wait for my turn, then roll to hit"
I'd say that I hope you told them that they learned a valuable lesson about the value of teamwork, but since you don't actually have a group, it's not really a concern.
>>46630420
>*Plebeian detected*
It's the fear that makes you feel alive
What >>46630373 said.
Or what >>46630331 said.
Merge the two ideas, even.
>Dead characters suddenly wake up
>The world is gray and seems frozen in time except for them. There is mist everywhere.
>They can see their dead bodies and the bugbear standing over them.
>Then a wisp of red, and the Goddess of Death appears, with skin of alabaster and hair the color of a raven's feathers, wrapped in a red hooded cloak, holding a scythe and a lantern
>[or whatever your god of death looks like]
>The Goddess of Death peers at them through her lantern-light. Her eyes are black as entropy itself.
>"This isn't right," she says. "I do not know you as well as I should. Something has gone wrong. Your lives were not finished."
>She considers.
>"Wait here. I must investigate. Do not move from this spot. If you move, you will pass on - but if you wait here, I may be able to make a deal with you, and return you to life. I suspect I shall need mortal agents..."
From there she leaves, and you can have skellies or something show up to harass the party, or Shadows just outside of a, say, 30 foot radius, or various things tempting the characters to move. But if they don't then the Goddess of Death returns and restores them to life but says that in return they have to do her a solid.
Ta-da~!
>>46630331
>>46630522
IT'S TIME FOR THAT GHOSTWALK CAMPAIGN YOU'VE WANTED TO RUN YOUR WHOLE LIFE!
>>46630522
Oh, and their characters wake up hanging upside-down in a bugbear lair while a bugbear cook prepares them for dinner.
>>46630373
>>46630481
I did pretty much this, but they still seemed unimpressed.
Perhaps in time, they shall grow.
>>46630308
you see, this is one of the reasons I like to start the campaign off with either the town geing attacked or some kind of mass brawl that can be spun out if the players are rocking the numbers, or the cavalry can arrive to cries of "you held them back just long enough" if they can't roll for shit that evening.
Admitedly not even that would have worked in your situation, but at least they could reasonably be saved by the town guard and wake up the following day with a burning need to redeam their earlier failure.
>>46630308
>I-I-I didn't mean for this to happen /tg/, I swear I didn't..... ;_;
...Unfortunately, this can happen in any RPG...
It's just the nature of the beast, it does really suck that it happened in their first session ever, but there's not much you can do about it.
Best options I can think of is to either do a retcon of the encounter and they that they never encountered a bugbear to begin with, or to have them wake up in some hospice after some good Samaritan rescued them.
>>46630308
USE FATE POINT!
AMMARITE \TG\?
>>46630308
Levels 1-3 are by far the most lethal. I usually start at lv3 or use "you got captured" for that and when it makes sense.
>>46630308
A bugbear seems like overkill for three 1st level adventurers. Not saying it's your fault, but that deserves a redo.
>>46630308
The bugbear natural 20 could have been replaced with a miss. You don't need to follow the dice everytime. You are the DM. The dice is not your master. You are the master.
>>46630486
Which other games also do better.
>>46630308
>Not just fudging the rolls
>Not coming up with any of the number of easy alternatives
Congrats, in their eyes you are now that gm
>>46631145
>> You don't need to follow the dice everytime.
Why both having dice in the first place if you're just going to ignore them when it's inconvenient?
>>46630308
>everyone's having fun in the pre-game
>game starts
>party whipe in seconds
>everyone feels bad
>"but it was the dice"
You are now THAT DM. Welcome to the club. Enjoy your stay. And remember, you're in here forever.
>>46630981
silly op should have Failed Forward (tm)! On a 7-9, nothing you did matters! Now let's talk about what rumours you hear in a diverse town!
>>46631193
Because you are the DM. That's what you're suppose to do. Every single RPG in the face of the planet will tell you that: "Ignore the dice if you have to". That's called the golden rule.
>>46630308
Let them have horrific, grisly revenge on the bugbear and its immediate family, that never fails to cheer up my players.
>>46631193
Otherwise your job job could be done by a computer. It's okay to break rules sometimes.
>>46630308
Either have them wake up in the bugbear's larder (iunno, cannibal bugbear I guess, go for the Empire Strikes Back starting) or have them wake up as spoopy scary skellingtons in the army of a necromancer and have them break free to restore their lives and so on.
Alternatively have some smug butthead rescue them Lord Flashheart style and give them an oblivious and good natured pseudo nemesis to constantly try and upstage, but every time they're almost wiped have him arrive to rescue them, or if they dally around on a quest have him complete it before they get there. After a few weeks of this they will hate the shit out of that guy.
>>46630541
>>46630308It was all a dream
>>46630308
You've already failed at GMing.
You may want to stick to playing your usual murderhobos.
>>46630481
This was my first thought. Especially the wizard. He just stood there? It should have taken the bugbear a round or 2 just to get to him. That's on him.
