Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7397845" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I don't try to find ways to keep my players alive, once they are beyond a certain level threshold. While they are level 1-5, I'm generally nice to them. But once they reach level 10 and up, the gloves are off. Monsters will do their best to kill them, and I will not go easy on them.</p><p></p><p>And because I know they can easily handle encounters of a normal challenge rating, I pick monsters of two CR's higher. I want them to barely survive a big battle at their current level.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think most DM's don't get enjoyment out of killing the players. But you do have to establish stakes and suspense as a DM. If the players know that no matter what they do, they'll always be saved by their DM, then the DM is shielding his players from any danger, and ruining the suspense of the campaign. I want my players to feel genuine suspense. I want them to feel like their choices are sometimes a matter of life and death. And there's no better way to get this across, then to occasionally throw a foe at them that is above the normal challenge rating for their level.</p><p></p><p>The higher the level of my players, the more the encounters will be skewed in favor of the bad guys. I purposefully add a difficulty curve to my campaign, because I want them to do more than just spam their abilities. I want to challenge them to use tactics to try and even the odds with their more powerful enemies. </p><p></p><p>My players recently discussed visiting a dragon on an island, and they hesitated, because they know that if their DM throws a dragon at them, and it happens to be hostile, that it will mess them up. They know that dragons in my campaign will probably be scary and angry, and that I will play that dragon to the full range of its capabilities. It will set fire to their ship, and if they manage to flee, it will chase them and set fire to what ever town/village/city they try to hide in. And it is awesome to see them nervously squirm at the prospect of having to fight a dragon.</p><p></p><p>And yet they are also excited to fight one, because of their slim chances for survival.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7397845, member: 6801286"] I don't try to find ways to keep my players alive, once they are beyond a certain level threshold. While they are level 1-5, I'm generally nice to them. But once they reach level 10 and up, the gloves are off. Monsters will do their best to kill them, and I will not go easy on them. And because I know they can easily handle encounters of a normal challenge rating, I pick monsters of two CR's higher. I want them to barely survive a big battle at their current level. I think most DM's don't get enjoyment out of killing the players. But you do have to establish stakes and suspense as a DM. If the players know that no matter what they do, they'll always be saved by their DM, then the DM is shielding his players from any danger, and ruining the suspense of the campaign. I want my players to feel genuine suspense. I want them to feel like their choices are sometimes a matter of life and death. And there's no better way to get this across, then to occasionally throw a foe at them that is above the normal challenge rating for their level. The higher the level of my players, the more the encounters will be skewed in favor of the bad guys. I purposefully add a difficulty curve to my campaign, because I want them to do more than just spam their abilities. I want to challenge them to use tactics to try and even the odds with their more powerful enemies. My players recently discussed visiting a dragon on an island, and they hesitated, because they know that if their DM throws a dragon at them, and it happens to be hostile, that it will mess them up. They know that dragons in my campaign will probably be scary and angry, and that I will play that dragon to the full range of its capabilities. It will set fire to their ship, and if they manage to flee, it will chase them and set fire to what ever town/village/city they try to hide in. And it is awesome to see them nervously squirm at the prospect of having to fight a dragon. And yet they are also excited to fight one, because of their slim chances for survival. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
Top