DM's: Are you afraid to kill PC's because of how players might react?

[BeholderBurger]

Two nights ago I was Dm'ing the Red Hand of Doom and the players had gotten to the Ghostlords lair. The game had been eventful but not really life threatening to the players up until this point but due to a combination of really bad luck, really bad judgement, player arrogance and DM ruthlessness 3 players and 1 NPC were slaughtered. (well maybe not the Paladin. He is now being used as a hatstand in the Ghostlords entrance parlour.) The 1 PC who escaped with his life (the cowardly rogue) is the only who moaned about it afterward claiming I had a grudge against the players. the other 3 players were loving it and have been on the phone constantly since talking about new characters with eagerness to play more. I reckon the player who survived felt guillty that he had survived to play another day.

 

[ivocaliban]

I have one player in my current campaign. If his PC were to die so would the current storyline. So, I voted "yes."

I've always been more interested in telling an interactive story than creating an abattoir for players to survive. That being said, any blatant stupidity would still result in death, but he doesn't have to worry much about being killed by a random element of the game.

 

[Xorial]

PC Death

I don't have a problem with killing PCs. That being said, I am a real big fan of alternate ways of avoiding death. I once had a PC that was killed by a Wight. His first go at a pure spellcaster & he played an elf. This created my fave misquote, "Give an elf a sword, and he thinks he's a fighter." His sorcerer kept acting like a fighter, just because he had a proficiency with the rapier . Anyway, Savage Species had just came out. I let him make a pretty steep Will save to stay his present alignment. The main wight was destroyed & he made his save, so he became a free-willed wight. Then promptly got destroyed 2 encounters later .

Basically, I like twisting things around. I was going to let the character go on a quest to restore him back to true life, but he went & did another crazy thing. I have managed to kill my fair share of PCs, and will do so in the future. I am about to start running Red Hand of Doom this New Year's.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Kill 'em all & let Moradin sort them out.

 

[Seeker95]

I warn my *players* at the start of any campaign (and whenever a new player joins) that NPCs want to survive.

BBEGs want to live and be victorious. Minions want to climb the ranks of the BBEG's favor, which requires living. Monsters will use magic items they possess, to the degree their intelligence will allow. Sentient home owners (read: dungeon monsters) will have escape routes and territorial interests.

The easiest way to accomplish all of these objectives is often to kill the intruder.
PCs are fair game. Death is rarely merciful. And monsters fight to win.

I as the monster will kill when it is the smart thing to do.
I as the monster will flee when it is the smart thing to do.

 

[Bad Paper]

I was very careful with my current group before their first death. The group includes my wife. She wound up the first to die: a druid killed by a tree animated by a treant! yay!

I had been afraid of being accused of "favoritism" if I killed someone that wasn't my wife. So this pretty much opened the floodgates for killing everyone else at some time or another.

Players come back minus a level, per the rules. In the one case where the PC was irretrievable (thank you, Heart of Nightfang Spire), the player rolled up a new character two levels below average party level. That is our standard cross-campaign house rule. The players eventually looted the ghoul's body, heh heh.

If there is one badass monster I can recommend to you RBDMs, it is a hobgoblin ghoul monk! Just don't roll 1s!

 

[BRP2]

I guess it depends how cinematic you want the campaign or how important the characters are. Not to sound like "sissy", but if players are really into roleplaying, then the focus should be on the roleplaying, not where the dice fall. Combat is just a plot device to some. Then again, I guess that's where action points come in.

 

[Roadkill101]

I have no fear of player reaction when a pc gets killed. My players appreciate the fact that I don't pull any punches on their behalf.

Replacement characters are always ready to be worked in as soon as circumstances allow. Most of the time the replacements are equivalent to the deceased character in power level.

I have no rules concerning the looting of fellow comrades, I let the players decide that on the spot. Last character that died the group just laying where he fell.

I don't allow character switches until the party has completed it's immeadiate short term goal, and then only at some sort of "civilized" settlement (no matter how mean and small).

 

[The_Warlock]

That's pretty much how I operate, tho I didn't know there was a codified variant rule for the negative levels bit. Thanks for doing all my typing for me Warlock.

No problem! Glad to have a similar methodolgy for dead'uns as someone else.

 

[kigmatzomat]

One point: I don't kill PCs. Dice and bad tactical decisions kill PCs. (Mostly dice.)

I agree that bad tactical decisions are a form of suicide (forget to check for traps, taunt the red dragon, stand in front of the ballista, etc).

But if they persistently mock the black-hearted Prince, kill a vengeful person's family, or otherwise earn the ire of someone able to afford a full blooded assassin's guild they will likely die. I will kill the PCs if they make bad strategic decisions.

Stratetgy, IMO, is the "story." Tactics is the adventure that results from the strategy.