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<blockquote data-quote="Kelleris" data-source="post: 2024889" data-attributes="member: 19130">Hm.&nbsp; Well, I have never killed a PC in anything other than a deliberate one-shot, but I still have a reputation in my group for being a tough DM.&nbsp; Why, you ask?Because I rather enjoy beating the PCs to within an inch of their collective lives without killing them.&nbsp; The &quot;bad stuff&quot; comes from the other elements of the situation.&nbsp; My players know that the odds of ending the day at low hps and drained resources are very good in any case, so it's just a matter of when it happens, how, and from whom.&nbsp; The penalty for poor tactics is taking a beating in the plot.To take an example from a PbP game I'm running right now, the PCs are in a tough fight against gobs and oodles of low-level warriors.&nbsp; I highly doubt that this will be the end of any of them.&nbsp; However, depending on their tactics and how well they handle the encounter, they could achieve any degree of success from...&nbsp; er, excuse me, better spoiler this for any of the players in my Dromus game:[sblock] unmasking and capturing an NPC that's been antagonizing them from the get-go and clearing their name from the charge of dabbling in dark magic to being run out of town to another plane, bruised, beaten, and pursued by both the cult they wounded but didn't finish and the guards who saw them fighting in the streets and, well, dabbling in dark magic.[/sblock]Especially in a mid- to high-level game, the threat of the latter result is much more interesting than just dying, and far more of a motivator to me.&nbsp; I've actually lost a player because he felt I was making his character's life too miserable, which I suppose is my equivalent of killing some poor schlub's guy off eleventeen times in one session.&nbsp; (Bad me!&nbsp; Bad!)To my mind, this is a much better way to &quot;toughen them up&quot; than whacking people via an unlucky crit.&nbsp; It means the penalty for playing stupid is an intrinsic part of their interest in their character, and I don't force them to lose the character before they've lost interest in him or her.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kelleris, post: 2024889, member: 19130"] Hm. Well, I have never killed a PC in anything other than a deliberate one-shot, but I still have a reputation in my group for being a tough DM. Why, you ask? Because I rather enjoy beating the PCs to within an inch of their collective lives without killing them. The "bad stuff" comes from the other elements of the situation. My players know that the odds of ending the day at low hps and drained resources are very good in any case, so it's just a matter of when it happens, how, and from whom. The penalty for poor tactics is taking a beating in the plot. To take an example from a PbP game I'm running right now, the PCs are in a tough fight against gobs and oodles of low-level warriors. I highly doubt that this will be the end of any of them. However, depending on their tactics and how well they handle the encounter, they could achieve any degree of success from... er, excuse me, better spoiler this for any of the players in my Dromus game: [sblock] unmasking and capturing an NPC that's been antagonizing them from the get-go and clearing their name from the charge of dabbling in dark magic to being run out of town to another plane, bruised, beaten, and pursued by both the cult they wounded but didn't finish and the guards who saw them fighting in the streets and, well, dabbling in dark magic.[/sblock] Especially in a mid- to high-level game, the threat of the latter result is much more interesting than just dying, and far more of a motivator to me. I've actually lost a player because he felt I was making his character's life too miserable, which I suppose is my equivalent of killing some poor schlub's guy off eleventeen times in one session. (Bad me! Bad!) To my mind, this is a much better way to "toughen them up" than whacking people via an unlucky crit. It means the penalty for playing stupid is an intrinsic part of their interest in their character, and I don't force them to lose the character before they've lost interest in him or her. [/QUOTE]

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