Are you a "Killer DM"?

[MojoGM]

Hey all,

Well, Saturday night in my FR game two characters (6th level) bit the dust in a battle with a nasty troll and some 4th level fighters. A combo of bad tactics and bad luck is to blame.

Before that battle, two of the characters had a nasty fight with a 7th level Cleric of Bane and his imp companion (this adventure "Woe to Mistledale" is in the last Dungeon mag), so they were not in full fighting form (one of these two died in the 2nd battle).

Anyway, it occured to me that in my many years of GMing, this was only the 2nd and 3rd character death I've had. That's right, in about 10 years of on and off playing, only one other PC has ever died.

Now, they'll probably end up geting raised, lose the level, and have to perform a quest of some sort to pay for it, but the question is this:

How often do PCs die in your games, and do you allow them to get raised?

 

[Maitre Du Donjon]

PC's don't die often. In all my DM'ing years, i don't recall much more than 5 or 6 character deaths. I like it when it's close (i've always played with the -10 rule), but I don't like it when they die.

If they DO die, it'll be because of incredibly bad lucks or amazingly stupid behavior. I am fortunate to say the latter doesn't show up too often.

Raising will always be possible, but only if the characters are worth it (can pay / can do a quest of some importance). I don't raise 2nd-level characters...

Maitre D

 

[Fenes 2]

I don't have raise dead etc. in my game (Too many problems with the world setting for my taste, and too limiting for the plot when the dreaded "Lets just raise the victim" solution rises its ugly head), but I don't kill off PCs without a clear warning ("Do that and you will/may die - want to reconsider?").

 

[mmu1]

I generally DM for people that enjoy character development and don't care that much for "iron-man" gaming, so in most cases, I tend to be reasonably careful not to kill off characters needlessly.

On the other hand whenever I run a game in which we agree beforehand that no punches will be pulled, there are usually PC bits everywhere, since I generally use groups of enemies rather than a single BBEG they can whale on, and it's not hard for one person to use better tactics than a group of 5 or 6 people.

 

[MojoGM]

The party was acting on behalf of the town of Ashabenford, so getting raised will be a little easier, but they will still have to pay AND do a mission for the church in question.

I think that is a good way to prevent abuse of being raised. Een if you can pay, a church will be hesitant to ask their god to grant you this gift without good reason.

So, a party with a lot of gold cannot just use the church as their personal "raise dead" depot.

 

[Gregor]

In the two years I have been playing with my current DM, I nor my party have EVER made it past 5th level. Sigh...

 

[Gwarok]

Deaths are pretty rare in the campaign I play in, altho I have 2 henchmen that were sorta thrown in the plot with my guy, and they are about 5 levels lower. I am sure they have died a few time and the GM fudges to keep them around for comic relief. We also don't allow rezzes in general as it makes political assasination pointless and generally would change the world too much if someone actually had the power to bring back the dead.

We've only had about half a dozen deaths in about as many years of gaming. It does sound like the fights you were putting those 2 characters thru were a bit rough tho. 7th cleric followed by Troll with homies? Not something I would like to face as a 6th level schmuck unless I had some burly gear.

 

[The Forsaken One]

Got munchkin's in my FR game and they're all powergamers. That alone asks for drastic challenges and high risk encounters.

I've got 4 players and an important NPC attatched to the party. Up until now everyone died once, but last session they all dropped due to one enemy.

The Cleric of Shar human was level 8, a Astral Deva (Fallen - Evil) level 6 (Savage Species), Evoker 7 human, Necromancer 6 human and a ECL 9 NPC vs 1 enemy.

That enemy was a 7th level Curst (FR template) fighter with a bastard sword (no shield) and just a studded leather armor. A +1 keen bastard sword, +2 studden leather armor, Bracers of Deflection +2 were everthing it had.

And it cut them all down on that single huge stairs leading up to that temple of Ilmater....

The fact was the Curst was heavily cloaked and all his facials and body were covered so they all screwed up by what they were facing. Just later the NPC and one wizard saw it but were both killed (wiz by an aoo and npc by 2 hits, (all 3 crits)).

The Cleric hadn't participated because he was fighting off 7 gargoyles all by himself and came out with 60 HP left. (lol).

He threw off his cloak and strode up to meet the curst in single combat and killed it in 2 blows.

Ah well... they had to spend tons of cash and equipment on 2 miracles to get teh NPC and the Deva Outsider back and ressed the rest...


So am I a Killer... probably since everyone died once now exept for the necro who died 2 times and at the levels presented above as a result in 5 months. I like high risk challenges and they have to because else they just walk over them (what I let happen alot but not too often so they keep alert and don't get to arrogant. Powergamers have to be kept in line I think...)

If they powergame and munch, I do the same, that's the price to pay. So imho they made me a killer. But then again, we're all 5 having a BLAST while playing so it's all great They hate dying but they learn and pick up.

 

[danzig138]

How often do PCs die in your games, and do you allow them to get raised?

I run a weekly session on Sundays with (currently) 5 players. In the campaign I'm running, we've had maybe 8-9 sessions. One player is on his second character, and this character has died twice (in the same session, he had some bad luck with yuan-ti mummies). Another player is on her second character (she choose to side with the Dragon Claw and died in the end). The shukenja has died once and come back, and last night, the samurai (upon whom the campaign was origincally based) died when the rest of the group left him to battle a cornugon alone. So far, there is only one player in the group who hasn't lost his character. When he bites it and doesn't come back, I imagine I'll end the campaign. I don't go out of my way to kill the characters, but I don't go out of my way to stop them from dying either.

 

[KitanaVorr]

1. How often do PCs die in my games?

I shot one the first day out in the chest (and he has yet to let up on that). I'm trying to kill the ones in the RE game, and I may succeed in knocking a few of them off tonight. I'm hoping to do much killing soon. In the D20 Modern world though I find many characters are very careful because it's much easier for them to die.

2. Do you allow raising?

No...and if for some reason I did, it would be an extremely complicated quest all on its own that couldn't be repeated.

3. Do you mind killing off your PCs?

Hell no! I like it...keeps them on their toes.