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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rogueattorney" data-source="post: 1468697" data-attributes="member: 17551">I'd never plan any encounter where the characters had no chance of survival.  Some encounters will be tough, some will be easy, most have the potential to be deadly, but all planned encounters should be surrmountable.Why do I stress "planned"?  Well, as DM, I do not assign all monsters below a certain toughness to a "1st level ghetto" filled with only kobolds and giant rats.  Things like Dragons, Vampires, Demons, etc. have a place in my world - they're the numero uno villains, and need to be accounted for in the setting from the very beginning of world design.  It is up to me as DM to give the players enough information about the setting for them to avoid the biggies until they are of a level to take them out, and it is up to the players to be aware enough of their own characters' powers to know what they can handle.An example from my recent campaign:  The party was all at 1st or 2nd level.  The player's home village was under siege from a group of goblins.  The players escaped the siege and sought out nearby villages to warn them and get help.  One particular village, Molokov, had a long history of trying to conquer the other villages.  After a series of particularly violent skirmishes between the area villages about a 100 years ago, there had been no contact with Molokov since.  The characters had this information, but decided that the risk to their village was such that it wouldn't hurt to go there for help.  Molokov was the home of one of the setting's big villains.  I half-expected the characters to check it out, and laid contingencies if they did.  I wanted to give them a good dose of the setting's background, but didn't expect them to confront the villain, because they were in no way ready to fight him yet.Upon arriving in Molokov, the characters quickly surmised that things weren't quite right.  The burgermeister was completely unconcerned about the goblins, even though some had been seen less than 10 miles away.  Said that "Lord Volkov" would protect them, and suggested that the residents of the characters' home village should join them in Molokov.  One of the smarter player characters recognized the name, Volkov, as that of one of the warlords from 100 years earlier.  When confronted with this, the burgermeister assured the characters that the present Lord was the previous Lord's grandson.  The burgermeister told the party that Lord Volkov was away, but would return to the village some time after dark, and suggested that the players stay at a guest house for free until the Lord arrived.  The players originally consented.  They looked around the village and came to the Lord's castle.  It was a crumbling ruin with two strangely silent guards with graying skin and a funny smell.  This disturbed the characters quite a bit.  They started talking about leaving the village, but decided to stick it out.  They joined some of the villagers for a feast at dusk.  One of the servant girls secretly dropped a crumpled up piece of paper in one of the character's laps while serving wine.  It said "Get Out!!!".  Well, the party needed no further convincing...  They each role-played excuses to leave the table, and then fled the village as fast as they could.  One of the players even jokingly said "see you in about 8 levels."Hypothetically, if they hadn't left - after drinking too much wine, they would have been put in a "guest house" that was more like a jail.  Of course it was going to be locked and guarded for "their own protection."  Inside, if they had looked around, they would have noticed a blood stain on one of the rugs.  Under the rug, they would have found a trap door.  Below the trap door, they would have found a basement full of decaying bones.  I made sure that the party thief had the requisite resources to pick the lock on the window, such that the party could have escaped out the back.So the question:  If the party had insisted on staying - if, when the vampire finally showed up, they insisted on fighting it, instead of fleeing out the back window - would any of you have blamed me if the characters died?  In that case what should I have done short of creating a setting without powerful villains?R.A.</blockquote>

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