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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7397335" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!This style of DM'ing always perplexes me (and annoys me a bit, truth be told; I have nothing against DM's that prefer this style of gaming, but it is just so anathema to my views/style that it just, well...'nuff said, I think you get my outlook).IMHO, a DM should never "want" the PC's to win/survive. He/she should also never "want" the PC's to loose/die. A DM should strive to be ambivalent to the PC's plight. In short, it's not a DM's job to "keep the PC's alive" any more than it is for him to "keep the monsters alive".It has been my experience that a group that has played together for a while, and wherein the DM is "in favour of the PC's living/wining", WILL know if the DM is "cheating for them". I'd get that idea of you somehow being able to give the players the "illusion" that things are going to go badly for them right out of your head right now. You players KNOW that you will try and keep their PC's alive...so they are just not going to be all that worried about having their PC die. Whats worse is that if you DO end up killing one or more of the PC's, they are going to be upset with you...because they were expecting to not die due to the fact that you "want them to live" and probably have fudged the game in their favour up until that point. They will feel like you "tricked them" into getting killed because in their mind, you were playing as Mr. NiceDM for most of the time, and then you suddenly turn into Mr. MeanDM and kill them all.With the way it sounds like you DM (again, not knocking it for YOU, but for me...just oil and water!), you don't have the option of "not worrying". You've kinda boxed yourself into a corner; you have taught your players that you will try and pull punches when it really matters. It will take a lot of hard, cold PC deaths for them to unlearn that. This is one of the major reasons I fully support the "Neutral DM" ideal. My players know I will happily let their PC get killed and eaten by a pair of giant rats, just as easily as I will happily let their PC get immolated by a huge red dragon. It's not my job as DM to keep them alive; that's their job.So, what is my suggestion? First, don't "build encounters to the PC's capabilities". The only real thing you should kinda keep in mind is their general level. LEVEL, not Race, Class, Magic Items, Skills, etc. All you need to know is the parties average Level. Second, "build" your world and setting based on your, well, world and setting. If the PC's are all 2nd level and decide to take a short cut through the "Forest of the Dead", known for it's ghosts, banshee's, zombies and other undead horrors...and they all get killed by a random encounter with a vampire. Well, not your problem. They chose to go there and they had opportunity to learn about it, seek advice, then say "Nope!"...but they didn't. If you only have them encounter skeletons at most, you are teaching your Players that you will "only have them encounter winnable situations based on their PC level". This is, again IMHO, a BAD thing.Third, if you REALLY want the Players to "get it" that this boss battle is for all the marbles...ROLL ALL YOUR DICE IN THE OPEN! It will scare your players for sure (as they are likely expecting you to 'fudge' stuff in their favour). When they see you roll a claw/claw/bite combo on the cleric and your dice come up 20, 18, 20...then they see the damage dice and realize the cleric just got turned into swiss cheese...panic will ensue.That's my suggestion. Without knowing the exact make up of your group and your groups PC's, it's pretty much impossible to give you and mechanical suggestions. It's a style thing I think you are having problems with. Either embrace your more narrative/story based "PC's Are the Assumed Heroes" and let the PC's kick ass...or try and ween the players from that into a more "narrative/story is based on Players choices...and the PC's have to ACT Heroic to be Heroes".Then again, I'm what is nowadays termed a "Killer DM" (in fact, just TPK'ed a Hackmaster campaign we only got to play three sessions in just last week). My new'ish player commented "I get what you said about him not being afraid to kill PC's" as they were leaving the session to go home.^_^Paul L. Ming ("Killer DM" and sufferer of Grognardian Crumudgeonitis)</blockquote>

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