Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6EJpGIIR0
As usual fuck this guy, he farmed Daggerheart for content and couldn't even get his video to 8 minutes because he's an imbecile.
Death being possible is one of the most elementally good mechanics lost over the course of the WotC editions of the game. Last time I played D&D 5E I did a speedrun for death and died in the first encounter vs the first enemy by failing and then critically failing death saves. I consider it one of the greatest feats I've accomplished in gaming. Because by the end of that encounter I would have been 2nd level and it would have gotten even harder to die than it was.
Not only is death important, meaningless death is important to the game. Getting killed by an owlbear as soon as you leave town and get a random wilderness encounter, after failing initiative and surprise. Why is it important to have these deaths? Because they give merit to the deaths that aren't like this. If every single PC death takes place at a dramatically appropriate moment on the roof of a cathedral or in the middle of a rope bridge or fighting on the mast/sail of a pirate ship like it's some movie, then the benchmark is set for lame drama outcomes EVERY SINGLE TIME. All risk of dying while on the john is gone. When I say that I don't literally mean in the latrine but like facing 6 hobgoblins in a 10 foot wide corridor. You know, the pointless deaths. "I can't die here" is a terrible mentality to have in the back of your head because it eliminates risk and therefore eliminates interest. It's why idiot children 5E players stopped doing random encounters all together or "try to make them meaningful".
This is a mind virus that's removed the 5E player's sense of what's actually important in RPGs. Not amassing power or continuing chargen or having cool scenes. What's actually important is risk. Effort. Trial. Failure. Success. These words have no meaning without actual risk being actually present. That's why your campaigns only last 6 sessions now. That's why your DM shortage isn't getting any less short. Because it's like presiding over adult day care or DMing Candyland now. It's just a boring experience for a grown ass man to go through.
So maybe I should actually talk about the video. It spends far too long to praise a substitution for the lame shitty "death" mechanics in 5E and ShadowDrek. That being the lamer, shittier death mechanic in DaggerShart.
So in the gayme in question, there is a choice of three potential outcomes once HP is depleted:
Gays of Borey: Get a critical success on a task (probably an attack because you're a retard if you're playing this game) then immediately die
Not Too-gay: Don't die but just take a nappy poo for the rest of the "scene"
"Risk" it All: Roll a d20 vs TN 11, success means you basically are reset to full HP, failure means death.
Sue me I couldn't think of a good one for the last one. Let me tell you why this is all redundant stupid bullshit. First, the PC put themselves in a position to get killed and succeeded in doing so. The above just delaying the inevitable and stopping them from learning the valuable lesson which is "I shouldn't have done that thing, I'm dead now".
Secondly, one of the options is just not dying. The pussy out option. This option being present makes the entire mechanic a farce. It's not a death mechanic, it's a pussy death aversion mechanic. 2/3 of your choices can end in essentially being fine, which means you're a big fat pussy scared of natural causes happening to your character because you're dumb and make bad choices. The actual key is to git gud and suck less.
And like all the stupid bullshit of today, it was originated back when TSR owned the game. That's right, WotC doesn't even have the ability to lay claim to pussing out on PC death. That "death at -10 HP" mechanic was floating around in the AD&D2E days. Notice how I forgot about the video in this? Because it's forgettable.
