Am I a Mean DM?

[ptolemy18]

Okay, here's the (brief) story...

I'm the DM. It's getting near the end of the campaign, and several players have dropped out, so the party consists of 4 PCs played by actual people, and 4 NPCs (former characters created by people who've dropped out).

Everyone (the remaining 4 players, that is) knows that the campaign will end in about two more sessions. I've already gone into "end of campaign mode" thanked all the remaining players for sticking around and told 'em there's just a little while longer to go.

The 4 players and I get together for the third-to-the-last session (two more to go). In the climactic battle of the session, one of the PCs is killed by a lucky blow from a bad guy. (Admittedly, the situation was unfair by the standards of any kind of normal "Challenge Ratings", and it was really a "run for your lives or risk dying" fight. They were three 2nd-level PCs in their nightclothes, unarmored, facing a 5th-level and a 3rd-level villain. The 5th-level villain got badly hurt and ran, which I'd been planning might happen, but the 3rd-level stuck around long enough to kill somebody before getting killed himself.)

So anyway, there were 4 players, there's only gonna be two more sessions, and now one of the 4 players' characters has died. He seemed kind of resigned but bummed out, and said, in a "maybe I'm joking, but more likely not" kind of voice "Aggh, you had to kill me, one of your most loyal players! What about all the NPCs we have trailing around with us...?"

But alas, although I'd been originally planning to have the NPCs in the first line of that battle, it just didn't work out that way because the players split up the party so all the NPCs were off somewhere else, in another room of the inn. :/

Anyway, I'm wondering if this DM-behavior seems unfair to y'all? The campaign has been going for about 13 sessions, and this is the second player-character death (the other guy got knocked negative and then fell off his horse and died, so I think he would have had even more reason to be pissed off, but he took it pretty well). Unlike the previous death, he has the option of getting raised, but I'm not sure how he feels about it... the XP loss is a pain and also, in-character, the party doesn't really have enough money to pay for resurrection so I'm thinking he'd have to go into debt or become some kind of servant of the temple. (That's how it works in my campaign world...)

Alternately, of course, there are several NPCs which he could play.

Personally, I think the answer is "It's not unfair to kill a player that way, but at the same time, I can't realistically expect that player to show up for the next two sessions." :/

Jason

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Don't even worry about it. Dieing happens. I'd offer the player the option of picking up one of the NPC's (two if you're up for a humorus situation) rolling up a new quick character, or sitting the end-game out (which seems painful).

 

[Lord Pendragon]

When you say "campaign" do you mean "campaign" as in, "this campaign consists of 13 sessions and then the party will move on to another campaign against a new foe," or do you mean "campaign" as in "once this campaign is over, we'll start a new one in with different characters in a different world"?

 

[Turanil]

What I see as REALLY UNFAIR, is not that a PC dies, but that after 13 gaming sessions they still are but 2nd level!

 

[Thanee]

Maybe each session is one encounter?

Bye
Thanee

 

[irdeggman]

I don't like the unfair circumstances.

Our DM pulls that on us all the time. He treats the PCs as if they were full level when calculating the EL even if they are surprised in the middle of the night and don't have access to their armor or spells.

Regardless of whether or not you had intended for them to run away you needed to plan the encounter as if they wouldn't (since players seldomly do what is expected - it is what makes the game fun and challenging, especially for DMs).

And I have to echo the question - why after 13 sessions are they only 2nd level? As I recall the guideline was 4 (or 5) roughly even encounters (EL equal to party avg level) to gain a level?

One more thing - don't feel bad about killing one of your most loyal player's character. PC death happens.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I, too, must echo the idea of 'why are they so low level after 13 sessions?' That makes me think you are a meany. Not that you whacked one of them (though, I must admit that you could have fudged things a bit to keep the guy's character around for 2 more sessions).

 

[Ryltar]

Not to be snarky, but: maybe the campaign isn't combat-heavy? Or maybe he doesn't use that standard "x encounters to gain a level" rule, which almost nobody (that I know) does? There's lots of perfectly good explanations as to why a group should still be low-level after 13 sessions.

To the point: I don't think you're to blame, ptolemy18. If the PC death didn't happen in the first round of combat or something, and they had a chance to see that they were clearly overwhelmed, then they should have run. There's no sense in planning everything to favor the PCs: the world's gotta revolve realistically around them. If they didn't run, they have to accept the consequences of that behaviour. It's a real bummer, though, that it happened so shortly before the end of the campaign ...

Here's hoping your player will attend, and maybe choose one of the NPCs for his new character.

 

[hong]

Okay, here's the (brief) story...

I'm the DM. It's getting near the end of the campaign, and several players have dropped out, so the party consists of 4 PCs played by actual people, and 4 NPCs (former characters created by people who've dropped out).

"To lose one player may be considered a misfortune. To lose four looks like carelessness."

 

[cmanos]

I, too, must echo the idea of 'why are they so low level after 13 sessions?' That makes me think you are a meany. Not that you whacked one of them (though, I must admit that you could have fudged things a bit to keep the guy's character around for 2 more sessions).

I played in a D&D game in college. We played once a week for 2 semesters and I had JUST gotten to 3rd level at the end of the last game. Out of the 6 starting characters and 3 characters that kame in later, myself and the mage were the only ones left alive. It was THE BEST game I had ever played. It wasn't so much about getting to the next level, but about struggling against the overwhelming odds, and living...not winning....LIVING. Was the most realiztic and intriguing campaign I've ever been in.

Death happens. Now, if you want to include said player in the rest of the campaign, perhaps he could play one of the NPC;s that have been following them around, or give him a chance to play one of the bad guys, perhaps who infiltrated the party.