So like the topic title and poll ask, do you play Dead is Dead.

Personally, ever since I started playing characters rather than classes, I can't avoid playing DiD, it just doesn't feel right continuing a character I know died previously. On the other hand I really want a long term character, and their mortality keeps getting in the way.

I'd especially like to know about those of you who only have one character, do you play DiD, and if you do, how on Nirn do you keep them alive for so long?

I would love to, however I have the habit of always going overboard with my mod setups that no character would ever live to see level 2. Getting two shotted by mud crabs the first few levels is common (one if power attack). :3

Perhaps some day I could show some restraint and fix a setup that is not overly punishing with just the right balance for a DiD.

DiD does not work that well in game that levels everything with you. In this scheme, it's almost impossible to die, unless you have no tactics in battle.

I have no problem resurrecting a character. I made them in the first place, they only exist because of me.

Now, I will load a character that has a limited set of goals and work with it until those are done, then retire the character.

Buffy has 2385 hours in game, playing at normal difficulty. We do not play dead is dead. If we did, I would never let her out of the Arcane University! Now, that said, it is somewhat of an academic point since we play so cautiously that she doesn’t get killed. If she did, however, I would reload her in a heartbeat. We would have a good cry, anolyze where we screwed up and continue. There is no lack of intensity in our game; when she gets hurt it is quite traumatic for both of us.

I'm far too attached to my characters to even consider playing dead is dead, but at the same time, I play cautiously enough (and, I would like to think, skillfully enough) that it's not really an issue anyway. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a character die. If/when one were to die though, I'd just reload the last save and go on.

Nice thread.

My most played character, Baa, has been around for a long time and she is not DiD. She is about impossible to kill in normal game play because of her numbers. She was not gimped in any way and went as high as she could with everything that counted. (She was created way before the internet came to my swamp so she was unaware she was not supposed to be so tough.) She is a vanilla, level 51, Breton, stealth archer, but lately she has learned to use a sword for screenshots, as arrow shots are kind of boring to look at. Most of her rings and trinkets are enchanted with Sigil Stone Shield 20, giving her an armor rating over 85. She can stand up in a fight making screenshots of her companion and not even worry about her health bar. Even when she makes videos with the menu turned off, she doesn’t worry about getting beat up. If she ever gets down to 50 percent it would be a surprise.

Baa has no fear of monsters. She is a Master of both Heavy and Light armor and trained (gods forbid) those skills by loading up with all the feather potions and armor she could carry, then finding a big monster and just standing there getting beat up until she used up all the armor.

Early in her life she may have been killed a few times, from what is no longer remembered, but very few times, if any, because she was wise from the knowledge gained from the four characters that proceeded her with their 1500 hours of game play. Traps come to mind as the only things that make her cautious. They can do her great harm if she doesn’t pay close attention, unlike combat.

Baa has been killed twice in the last couple of years. The first was when she was catching arrows a companion was shooting in daily practice, a common thing she does. Except this time the arrows had a rather strong area of effect damage that killed Baa because she wasn’t paying attention to her health bar because it was just a routine thing to be doing at Rosethorn Hall. That one was a surprise. The second time, she was killed when she arrogantly tried to walk out of a spike trap when her health was less than half. That one was a lesson.

Now on the other hand, Baa’s companion, Mooch, is no stranger to pushing up daisies. Just today she fell off of a building they were climbing, hit a rooftop, bounced, and was killed, then fell all rag doll like to the ground far below. That hurt and was sad to watch, but Mooch recovers nicely as she is set to essential.

I roleplay and I do not play DiD. I've been known to put as much as two months of preparation into a character. I build a brand-new mod list from the ground up for each character. In Morrowind and Oblivion I made unique houses for each. And in all three games I make unique armor, clothes, weapons, jewelry, ect, for each character as well (usually with a story attached to them). By the time I'm done with all this work I have written down a novella's worth of information about the character's personality, her past, her family, ect. I'm not about to let all that work go down the drain because of a momentary lapse of attention on my part.

With a few exceptions, all of my characters are dead-is-dead, and many of them are indeed dead. Having said that, several of my long-time characters have survived just fine. Of recent characters, Barb-Ann, Fitzie, Caius Cosades, Fausto, Wild Elf, Belle Winkle, and others are all alive and waiting for me while I attend to other characters.

My saddest loss was Silvonwe, whom I had played for over a hundred hours. She was Archmage, and close to finishing the Main Quest. She was the most fragile character I've ever played, being an Altmer Destruction Mage with the Apprentice birthsign, who wore no armor and limited enchantments. Even so, she survived into her mid-20s level, and it took an accidental simultaneous broadside from an Oblivion fire tower and a missed pop-up mine to bring her down. One momentary lapse, and she was gone.