Player Death Scenes are why I play D&D

this post brought to you by the letter "I"

So my descriptions could use a little bit of work. I have trouble finding the balance between just enough information and not too much. The place I don't have to hold back is character deaths.

Players get attached to their characters. How could they not? I started out my DMing career struggling with guilt. Now I take sick satisfaction at their crestfallen looks as their dude is smashed into a fine paste. Don't get me wrong, I want the players to succeed, and I revel in their glory when they do. At the same time I don't pull punches and I reinforce the fact that their lives are fragile, and the only thing keeping them alive is proper planning.

I have a habit of switching into the third-person as they die. Thus I'm addressing what the survivors see happen. Typically the player stops listening about halfway through and stares glumly at their character sheet while the rest of the party leans in. It's a good time.

Here's a collection of death descriptions, pulled from memory, from the last few player deaths. Enjoy.

First character death ever, from the first trapped coffin in Tomb of the Serpent King.

"You open the coffin and the mold around the lid releases a burst of yellow gas...the spores pour into your lungs. Lettuce chokes and takes a step back, her fingernails clawing her at her throat, her eyes bulging like yellow grapes. She slumps to the ground, blood seeping from her lips and ears and finally lays motionless."

The fighter charged a goblin with her spear and critically fumbled. The goblin followed up with an attack from behind and critically hit. I tend to have players roll initiative at the beginning of the fight, then let things unfold as the fiction dictates. If it seems like the tide is turning in a weird way, or there's a regrouping effort we re-roll initiative.

"You charge at the frogman with your spear lowered. The cretin drops its spear and throws itself to the ground at the last second as your momentum takes you sailing over it....Now behind Pannelia, the cretin jumps to its feet and hurls itself onto her back. It snatches a crude bone knife from its belt and rakes it across her throat, tendon and flesh rip and snap, blood spraying from the open wound. Pannelia collapses to the floor gurgling, her helpless eyes glazing over."

Fighter with 1 max hp attacks a psychic tentacle brain with blade arms.

"Your axe sails past it as the creature lurches to the side, blaring a series of honks on its tube-like projections. Its bladed tentacle shoots forth, piercing Buzzuraz through the chest. He screams pitifully, bleached fingers tugging uselessly at the tentacle as he's lifted into the air. Soundlessly, the tentacle creature retracts the blade, dropping him to the ground. He squirms and riggles, gasping for the air before falling motionless. <you cannot defy us> you feel the creature's cheerful voice penetrate your skull <we don't want to hurt you, please just stop and listen to what we have to say>"

The party's caravan is attacked by giant moniter lizards in the plains. Hilarity and a chain of fumbles and crits ensue.

"You cleave the first monitor lizard's head clean from its neck and the creature begins thrashing and squirming on the ground, flinging blood and hissing. As you turn another monitor appears next to you, its mouth agape. Its needle-rimmed jaw closes over Uglat's face and drags him to the ground, shaking him back and forth like a rag doll.. After several painful moments his body disconnects from the head and crashes across the ground. The monitor's mouth splits into a wide grin as it crushes his skull in its mouth, blood and brain fluid seeping through the cracks."

Player smashed in a falling block trap.

"Insidia turns with a look of surprise on her face as the block begins to fall. She reaches her hand out and is crushed instantly, her body folding in half, her scream cut short by the thundering WHUMP. Her arm is sheared cleanly at the elbow and goes sailing overhead. There is neither blood nor sound in the aftermath."
(To show just how merciless my players can be one of them sharpened Insidia's arm stump into a point and used it to pick a lock later on. Also they gleefully start digging through the victim's equipment before their body is even cold and before that player has even had a chance to roll the Strength score for their next guy.)

Player activates a floor spear trap.

"There's a clank of machinery from inside the wall and a spear shoots out underneath Lamnar. In a flash it pierces through her groin and explodes out the top of her head, she's lifted a foot and a half off the ground. Her eyes search the room for some meaning in this, but there is no meaning, then her limbs begin to flail and shake and she stops moving."

Happy Halloween.