Sometimes it’s funny when tabletop RPG players expect the game to behave like a video game.
GM: “The nearby town sent a message that a swarm of zombies is coming down the haunted mountain for them! They need help!”
PCs: “Cool. But let’s finish that mushroom side quest first, and then we gotta help our wizard buddy get his new broom tuned up.”
GM: “…okay.”
<two in-game days later>
PCs: “Ok, what do we see when we get to that town?”
GM: “Seems like everyone’s dead. Looks a swarm of zombies or something came down from the mountain and ate everyone alive or something, maybe a day or two ago.”
PCs: <confused, shocked>
If you’re going to die, better to die on the main quest. I avoid side quest distractions.
“The hero died before he could defeat the Dark Lord because he was killed whilst on an errand to deliver 20 bear asses to a random villager.”
But what about when you die fighting the Dark Lord because you’re not overlevelled from doing all the sidequests?
