DM Intervention

[Xaov]

I have already stated I enjoy doing individual events, so here is the scenario. Up at college in my game I was running I allowed one of my players to enter a tournament to the death. I did not intervene until the very last battle, my NPC was beating the player and he only needed one more good hit to kill him, not wanting the player to die I had him pull a chain that opened the floor behind him and try to push him in without taking his final swing. Because of the intervention the player beat the NPC and won the prize.


To what extent should DM intervention be used?

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

To what extent should DM intervention be used?

Someone is going to come in here and say never, you should have killed the character.

Someone else is going to come in here and say always, you should never kill a PC.

The truth is there is no set standard, you can only go with your gut. Do you think you where to easy, not hard enough, or just about right?

As for myself, I rarely DM but I lay somewhere in the middle... Killing a PC just because you can quickly ends the fun for those who invest a lot of time into a character but at the same time there should be some challenge or the game can quickly become boring.

Know yourself and no your players and you should be good to go.

 

[Treebore]

I use god call rules. If he forgot to declare a god call, or failed it, too bad.

 

[Telperion]

I have already stated I enjoy doing individual events, so here is the scenario. Up at college in my game I was running I allowed one of my players to enter a tournament to the death. I did not intervene until the very last battle, my NPC was beating the player and he only needed one more good hit to kill him, not wanting the player to die I had him pull a chain that opened the floor behind him and try to push him in without taking his final swing. Because of the intervention the player beat the NPC and won the prize.

To me the term "DM intervention" seems a bit silly, because the DM is in control of the world. He decides how everyone else acts, or that is how it's supposed to be. The question that I always ask myself when faced with these kinds of decisions is: what does it do to the story I'm telling? If I'm not satisfied with the outcome of that question, then I look for alternatives. Maybe the NPC simply knocks the character unconscious and destroyes his reputation/honor/etc. ? If all else fails then don't be afraid of killing a PC. The player will be upset, but if there's no fear of death in your game then, IMO, it loses a whole lot of appeal. If the player is particularly upset then, after the game, explain your reasoning to him and he will most likely understand (if not agree with you).