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Help me! I'm afraid to kill my players!
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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1482945" data-attributes="member: 812"><p>deaded_beast:</p><p></p><p>First off, there's no shame in being a Spineless Puppy DM (the opposite of a Rat Bastard DM). Us Spineless Puppy DMs have our place in the RPG firmament, too.</p><p></p><p>There is no "best" way to play. There are only ways that individual groups prefer or dislike.</p><p></p><p>It can be hard when you want to tell the story of the Epic Heroes Who Rose From Obscurity to Challenge the Gods and they all get killed off at fifth level -- now it's the story of Those Other Epic Heroes Who Rose From Obscurity And Just How Many Epic Heroes Are Running Around Waiting To Rise From Obscurity Anyway? Which is less catchy. It's a basic problem in RPGs -- which are not fantasy novels.</p><p></p><p>But never, I mean NEVER ask a player how many hit points they have left BEFORE you roll damage. They're not stupid, they know that means they're NOT about to die. I keep track of my party's hit points on a private sheet, so I usually know how much they can take, and yeah, I fudge a roll here and there. My players are having huge amounts of fun so no harm no foul, right?</p><p></p><p>If you do kill someone and really wish you hadn't, I mean, heck, there are DOZENS of ways to bring them back. Just get creative. I've "accidentally" killed at least four characters on Barsoom and figured out ways to bring them back -- sometimes a little... altered, it's true, but hey, what's a little demonic possession between friends, right? </p><p></p><p>Look on killing a character as a chance to really mess with a player's mind. Which is what DMing is all about, even for Spineless Puppies.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 1482945, member: 812"] deaded_beast: First off, there's no shame in being a Spineless Puppy DM (the opposite of a Rat Bastard DM). Us Spineless Puppy DMs have our place in the RPG firmament, too. There is no "best" way to play. There are only ways that individual groups prefer or dislike. It can be hard when you want to tell the story of the Epic Heroes Who Rose From Obscurity to Challenge the Gods and they all get killed off at fifth level -- now it's the story of Those Other Epic Heroes Who Rose From Obscurity And Just How Many Epic Heroes Are Running Around Waiting To Rise From Obscurity Anyway? Which is less catchy. It's a basic problem in RPGs -- which are not fantasy novels. But never, I mean NEVER ask a player how many hit points they have left BEFORE you roll damage. They're not stupid, they know that means they're NOT about to die. I keep track of my party's hit points on a private sheet, so I usually know how much they can take, and yeah, I fudge a roll here and there. My players are having huge amounts of fun so no harm no foul, right? If you do kill someone and really wish you hadn't, I mean, heck, there are DOZENS of ways to bring them back. Just get creative. I've "accidentally" killed at least four characters on Barsoom and figured out ways to bring them back -- sometimes a little... altered, it's true, but hey, what's a little demonic possession between friends, right? Look on killing a character as a chance to really mess with a player's mind. Which is what DMing is all about, even for Spineless Puppies. :D [/QUOTE]
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