Are you a killer DM?

[The_Gneech]

One character has died three times because the player keeps forgetting that rogues are not fighters; the rest of the group has taken some hits but never croaked.

Am I killer, or does that character have a death wish? The world may never know.

-The Gneech

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Running a previous campaign, I stumbled into what I believe is my personal favorite scenario.

The players constantly felt that their PCs were in real, significant danger. Indeed, one player was so sure her PC was going to get killed, that at the end of every session she'd tell me on the way out the door "Thank you for not killing us."

And yet, I never did kill a single PC.

That's the razor's edge that I, as a DM, now strive for. I want my combats to be deadly enough that the players constantly feel like their PCs are in real danger. But at the same time not so lethal that I kill off a PC each week.

I agree with those who've said that the possibility of PC death adds to the excitement. I also agree with those who contend that an RP-driven campaign is best served by a stable cast of characters. I try to give the players (and myself) the best of both worlds. If I'm careful and a bit lucky, most of the time I'll be successful.

 

[Darkness]

[stuff]

Bad thread necromancer! Bad! No cookie.

I've now come to the conclusion that killer DMs display a sad lack of ambition.

Death is a sweet relase. You can only truly torture player characters by keeping them alive...

Preach it, brother... I've been saying (and doing ) exactly that as well.

 

[pogre]

No TPKs in 368 days and counting!

pogre, reformed killer DM

 

[Anthelios]

Death is a common occurance in my games. In my latest chronicle, the characters went from 1st to 6th before a death was felt. That one was raised that session through massive gold donations to the church and accepting a quest. A quest that resulted in two more deaths. Well, they got ressurected.

The last two weeks have seen the most deaths, with the campaign about to end before Darksun starts we've gone into reckless and overdrive mode. Tougher CR's and more experience and goodies. One player has had a death for the past four sessions. Luckily for them, the 12th leve cleric hadn't tasted death until last night.

I'd say I'm not a killer DM. I fudge rolls in the PCs favor, yet they still die. They are a group of relative newbies to the game, though. The Wizards rarely counterspell, and the cleric likes to melee instead of watch out for others. The Half-Dragon Fighter flies off to single battle giants.. which result in his death time and time again. Most of the deaths are the wizards though, due to failed saves and fireballs in close quarters.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Well, i think I am.
Never in solo-games. When there is some personal character story, it's more about story, so death is not typical permanent way to end it.

In group games characters tend to die a lot. Perhaps because I like challenging encounters and my players don't feel they need to use all their character abilities. In other words, they get lazy.

Still, when I dm d&d there exist magic for raising dead. And if players survive to highter levels they can use it themselves too. Not that it's always possible to raise dead even then. I've had only one TPK since I started running d&d 3rd edition.

Still, my players seem pretty happy the way I run the game, so I guess, I am not doing anyting that wrong.