Permadeath

In role-playing games, permadeath (or permanent death) is gameplay mechanic in which player characters that die are permanently dead and removed from the game and may no longer be used to play. Less common terms with the same meaning are persona death and player death. Games without permanent death may allow characters who are killed to be resurrected to a playable state, with this action often costing resources or undoing progress the player has made.

Permanent death is commonly a component of roguelike role-playing games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), although it is sometimes used in discussions of the mechanics of non-electronic role-playing games. Ewen Hosie of IGN states that though action games frequently employ this gameplay element, it carries no emotional weight. Game developer Andrew Douall identifies permanent death as a pillar of roguelike game design. According to Hosie, the roguelike Dwarf Fortress "does [not] even allow the player to win in any traditional sense".