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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 6150121" data-attributes="member: 221">So as DMs, we have those moments when we inflict major pain on our players and their PCs. Death by major damage, mind-control, paralysis, backstabbing NPCs, really bad rolls in combat, and like such.When these things happen, I normally attempt to put forth a very sympathetic face, a small, "tut, tut," and a sincere, "that's really awful, I'm sorry," before moving on and describing, sometimes in detail, what has happened. Such behavior on my part seems to go a long way towards facilitating an ongoing GM/player interaction and allowing me to continue to work against the well being of the PCs without seeming overly malevolent (after all, we are all there to have fun). My wife says that she thinks I sometimes come across as being moderately insincere when I sympathize with my players (as if I actually was enjoying hurting their PCs) but I think she is probably just cynical.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />So what technique do you use to keep your players in line when the game is doing very bad things to their PCs? How do you allow them to think of you as being on their side, even as you have monsters crush and destroy them?Or do you just go for full on GM vs. Player conflict?</blockquote>