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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8330916" data-attributes="member: 6801252">I think the archetype being discussed is a portmanteau of a few different DMs:Some actually bought into the glamour of killer DMing and went out of their way to be brutal, probably not GMing for long. Others bought into the glamour and played it up, but weren't particularly killer in their actual scenario design, perhaps even pulling punches while allowing the illusion of their joyful mercilessness to contribute to their player's suspension of disbelief concerning their actual feelings of achievement-- I used to do this a lot when I had players who wouldn't anxiously convince themselves it was completely true, and then begin resenting me for it. Some jokes still get cracked, but there's very much disclaimers now, and mostly other players make them ABOUT me, rather than me making them. Others were interpreting the game as an actual gauntlet, and high lethality was just their idea of the game, you'd expect to see this in troupe play, ala DCC's 'funnel' dungeon, players die a lot but they can jump right back in with new PCs and give the trap/puzzle/monsters another shot, its not actually a terrible experience because the failure state is so soft-- new PCs just stroll right into where the old ones are and pick up their gear, the point is making your way through the obstacles and traps, even learning the dungeon as you go and exhibiting that knowledge by making it further and further. Others probably had players that treated them that way because impartiality can lead to some merciless TPKs, especially if the player thinks that a GM 'ought' to pull punches, with the 'pull punches' being contrasted with a scenario exhibiting fair consequences and 'beatable' or at least survivable situations. I have a player that treat me this way because their own attitude is that character death should be impossible, and that they aren't really 'interested' in being able to fail, they essentially want a pageant of their characters exciting and ego-stroking exploits-- I'm not willing to go in that direction so their remaining in my group is a question of their own tolerance for my actual style. This gets especially 'killer DM' the worse the decisions the players make, and can get into a style mismatch where the players are playacting when the GM expects them to be problem solving.</blockquote>

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