Are you a killer DM?

[Archade]

My players and I were talking about my casualty list of our campaign of nearly 2 years, so I'm curious ...

 

[The Forsaken One]

37 in 1 year and a half.

1 CoC game from which alot of those hail (a campaign of 7 months which we finished) and a FR game which has been lasting for a year now.

I live by the 'retreat is an option' rule but my players are just too bold rolleyes: ) I guess.

 

[bwgwl]

0 PC kills in 18+ years DMing.

 

[Archade]

Statistics

Fethoth (tiefling Rog1) - fell down a 20ft pit and died
Lukan (human Ftr2) - died of poisoned gold coins
Moukyon (vanara Mnk8) - died at the hands of a Bbn9
Fredegar (human Ftr3) - took a wrong turn, ended up in Baator
Aelor (aasimar Sor2/Rog2) - attacked a dire bear in hand to hand
Divinus (human Wiz4) - disembowelled by a Hieracosphynx
Ebon (Ftr1/Wiz3) - lightning bolt by vampire
Crassius (half-dragon Ftr4) - soul destroyed by a huecuva hill giant Clr1
Aristos (human Rog7) - died in his first session by a poison trap

Hmmm ... I may be forgetting a couple ...

 

[Norfleet]

You think that's killer? I've slaughtered more player characters in one session than all of you here put together in your entire lives. It was to the point where I had programmed a "character-o-matic" to spit out characters at the drop of a hat. My current kill record is 89 characters in 3 hours. It got to the point where stats weren't even rolled unless you survived your first adventure. Hell, I'm the one responsible for 4 out of the 10 entries for "You know your DM is too hard": #1, #5, #9, and #10.

It's amazing how high the body count can get when you simply have your human-intelligence monsters apply actual military tactics to their attacks and ambushes, and use personal experiences in the Vietnam War as a source of inspiration for adventures. Parties of level 10 characters have fallen prey to a handful of standard kobolds with crossbows and punjisticks.

 

[Mark Chance]

0 PC kills in 18+ years DMing.

Man, why bother playing?

I'm in the "My players fear me category," I guess. Combats in my campaign are becoming increasingly brutal. We tallied up three character deaths this last Saturday (out of a group of seven).

I do try to mitigate disasters whenever possible, and I'm willing to bend rules here and there to avoid character deaths. At the same time, I try to run major villains as if those villains desired to serve evil by giving the PCs the chance to die for their causes.

 

[Sejs]

Yes.



Additionally, I am also a Gnarly DM, a Radical DM, and a Tubular DM.

 

[Mark Chance]

This is the kind of DM I am:

 

[nsruf]

3-5 kills a year, but I only DM once every two weeks or so, and I don't do modules (which tend to be more hack-intensive IME).

 

[bwgwl]

Man, why bother playing?

i could say the same to you. i wouldn't want to play in a game where three out of seven PCs die in one session.

i run my games like action movies. in a movie, you know the hero is still going to be alive at the end of the movie. the movie doesn't lose any enjoyment or tension because of that knowledge.