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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mr. Wilson" data-source="post: 5823823" data-attributes="member: 48009">Only once ever have I gone back and said an encounter simply never happened and I've never used an in game Deux Ex Machina that wasn't planned for plot reasons. The one terrible mistake I made (even after DMing for 10 years at that point) was in a random encounter I rolled on the fly.  My players stumbled upon a flock of 10 cockatrices for a group of 4 3rd level players and 3 were turned to stone before they could even take action.  The 4th was turned to stone trying to flee later in the round. I probably could have come up with a better solution had I not panicked, but it was a brutal, brutal mistake on my end and I just wanted it fixed. I have no problem TPKing a party, nor killing PCs (the players joke my DM screen is filled with skull and crossbones marking each dead PC), but I hate killing players over my fault. I will also say that PC deaths in my 4E game have gone down drastically (except during Fourthcore one offs), but I think this is more in line with a change in my DM style more than the system (concentrating more on story/politics as oppossed to dungeon delving). I'm getting ready to start a 4E hexcrawling campaign that will be more deadly, as befitting the theme.</blockquote>