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This is an option that can work in many games. Players don't generally like their characters dying, but there has to be some real risk of danger to make choices have consequences. The real game mechanical consequence of character death is that the player has to stop playing that character and roll up a new character.
But you can achieve this without the character dying. You can adopt this rule:
If a PC would die according to the game rules as written, give the player a choice:
- The character can die.
- The character survives, but receives some sort of injury (physical, psychological, or potentially even social), that prevents them from continuing a career as an adventurer. They retire and become an NPC controlled by the GM. The player cannot continue playing that character, and must create a new character.
The mechanical effect is the same - the player has to make a new character and can't keep playing the old one. But saying the character doesn't die and gets to live out a retirement can be enough of a softening to make it more palatable. Maybe they open up a tavern, or settle down with a family on a farm, or whatever. Another advantage is that the character can return as an NPC in later adventures, acting as a source of information or a mentor to new PCs. If making a new character takes substantial time, you can also let them continue playing the PC until the end of the session, so they're not stuck without a character (on the understanding that they're traumatised and will retire as soon as they get the chance, i.e. at the end of the session).
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Well. I guess that's one way to not need a ride out. Pretty sure Rey doesn't actually die here, or stay dead if that's actually what happened. No way would Disney pull something like that. Yeah, it's the last Episode out of the sequel trilogy, but Rey's not someone who needs a Death by Redemption sort of thing. Plus, what if the movie does really well? Now one of the main characters is dead, and no-one else has shown any sort of Force Sensitivity to pick up Force Ghosts. And even if the 8th movie was already not doing as well as expected, that doesn't mean Disney would simply throw away the new characters, right?
Pete must really be concerned here. He didn't threaten the die or anything! Think he's got a plan for Rey? Emergency Force Transcend? Nitpicking the GM's plan into still somehow surviving given the time juice and the dangling Nute thread? Or is Pete more just principled that there shouldn't be an easy out for character death even if he doesn't like it? Any of them would be completely in keeping with how he seems to play I think.
Transcript
GM: The cumulative Fatigue finally catches up with Rey.
GM: You drop your swords and collapse.
Finn: Whereâs Rey? Was she under that crashing destroyer?
Jannah: The Force is... powerful, right? She could survive?
Chewbacca: Or she could survive by being geographically elsewhere on the planet.
Rey: {unconscious on the ground} Or by the stated fact that I just passed out and havenât been crushed by a billion tons of flaming metal.
GM: Youâve taken a lot of punishment. This requires a save versus Death.
Rey: I have 18 Constitution. I need 3 or more.
GM: Correct.
Rey: ... 2.
Rey: Wait! I have a Fate Manipulation reroll!
Rey: ... 1.
GM: All is not lost! Iâm trying a new rule: If you die, you can instead take a crippling wound and retire from adventuring.
Poe: No, no! Go out in a blaze of glory! Say something heroic!
Rey: What are the mechanical downsides of death?
GM: Youâre dead.
Rey: And of retiring?
GM: You become an NPC. I control your character.
{beat}
Rey: I choose death.
{beat: Rey is dead}
Poe: Letâs workshop those final words.