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What attitude should Next encourage DMs to have to TPKs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5850180" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>All/none of the above. Each attitude is right for a different style of play.</p><p></p><p>"Apologetic" is appropriate to a heavily story-focused game where combat is secondary and character development (in a roleplaying sense) is the main goal. In such a game, an unintentional TPK is a major faux pas; stage-managing events to prevent such a thing is part of the DM's job.</p><p></p><p>"Disappointed" is the attitude for a game where the focus is on overcoming challenges. The DM's job in such a game is to test the mettle of players and characters alike, and it's not a test if you can't fail. However, the DM's goal is not to make the players fail but to elicit their best, their cleverest tactics, their most inspired roleplaying.</p><p></p><p>"Gloating" is the attitude for an adversarial game, where the DM's job is to come up with creatively sadistic things to do to the PCs, the PCs' job is to survive by any means necessary (including abuse of the rules), and body counts are through the roof. Gloating when the PCs don't make it is part of the "creatively sadistic" role.</p><p></p><p>D&DN should enable and support all three approaches, as well as the fourth "indifferent" given above (best suited to a sandboxy, "What do you want to do today?" approach) without pushing any particular one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5850180, member: 58197"] All/none of the above. Each attitude is right for a different style of play. "Apologetic" is appropriate to a heavily story-focused game where combat is secondary and character development (in a roleplaying sense) is the main goal. In such a game, an unintentional TPK is a major faux pas; stage-managing events to prevent such a thing is part of the DM's job. "Disappointed" is the attitude for a game where the focus is on overcoming challenges. The DM's job in such a game is to test the mettle of players and characters alike, and it's not a test if you can't fail. However, the DM's goal is not to make the players fail but to elicit their best, their cleverest tactics, their most inspired roleplaying. "Gloating" is the attitude for an adversarial game, where the DM's job is to come up with creatively sadistic things to do to the PCs, the PCs' job is to survive by any means necessary (including abuse of the rules), and body counts are through the roof. Gloating when the PCs don't make it is part of the "creatively sadistic" role. D&DN should enable and support all three approaches, as well as the fourth "indifferent" given above (best suited to a sandboxy, "What do you want to do today?" approach) without pushing any particular one. [/QUOTE]
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What attitude should Next encourage DMs to have to TPKs?
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