Accepting Failure

Last Friday I issued a challenge to call comers.  The result of which I would write about anything and relate it to gaming.  I’m going to keep the comments open for a week before closing them down.  So get in and send me whatever you got!

I’m hard pressed to accept failure, especially in a game like D&D. The cost of being a hero in a fantasy game is low. Yes there is a momentary value to failure (death specifically) but it’s offset by the fact that you can come back. In fact one of my most beloved characters died twice, and once came back as the undead, because of opportunity and my inability to accept his failure.

As a GM it’s a bit different. Without the chance of failure what are the odds that players will act in accordance to their characters? In a recent Iron Kingdoms campaign I started out telling the players that I’d be rolling in front of them and the dice would land as they would. I wouldn’t be botching it and I definitely would not be pulling the punches. The result? They were far more careful as adventurers. In the year and a half of play I experienced my first player death. Even I found a hard time watching the character die. Truth is, I probably took it harder than he did. I loved watching the characters grow and interact and it’s hard to watch one of them leave.

Cole of Singular Moments in Adventuring may accept failure as a part of his games, but I’m hard pressed to really accept it myself. As a GM I’m mostly talk. I want to pull my punches, keep the characters safe, but they are adventurers. Without the threat of danger, where is the glory? If at the beginning of the game I handed them all the treasure and experience they would ever receive, what would my players really do? They’d likely quit and roll up new characters.

Failure maybe a part of our games, maybe even our lives, but what fun is riches, fame, and immortality when it’s just handed to you? However, it was once said by a wise man, “Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyways.” So much like our characters before us, we only have so many rolls of the dice left in us. One day we’ll roll snake eyes and accept failure like so many of those before us.