Risk Aversion · Game Master's Laboratory

Risk Aversion

Something that I heard in a Matt Colville video I was watching again recently (I think it was the Running the Game on losing?) has been rattling in my mind.

Essentially he implied that new players, at lower levels in TTRPGs are more willing to take risks than players with more time in the game, higher level characters etc. I think that's fairly accurate, but I've noticed a related feature.

In my experience, both as a DM and a player observing fellow players, the behaviour persists into a new campaign. Even on their new level 3 characters people carry that risk aversion with them. My working theory is that they feel the new character is better- they've learned more about backstory, more complex/rewarding builds etc, so they feel more protective of the new character.

I've noticed this so much so that I've seen a player go in to their first campaign complaining combat isn't deadly, and on the next campaign and character they're asking for character death to be impossible, the monsters to be unable to crit, and for fewer combats.

Personally, I run 5e near enough RAW, so actual character death is pretty unlikely. You can still see it though, people will avoid fights, avoid going into dungeons and chase down items like adamantine armour or a periapt of wound closure to make them tankier. I floated the idea of using the lasting wounds optional rule table, and was met with a wave of people hating the idea.

Is this something any of you have noticed/experienced? I'm not sure it's an outright problem per se, but it's a change that has to be navigated.

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