I had them in the palm of my hand...

[Tinker Gnome]

Anyone ever find themselves in a position where they could uttersly screw/ and or kill the PCs, but then find yourself holding back because you really DONT want to kil them. I find myself constantly devicing plans to kill and or screw the PCs, and if they get successfully implemented, I find myself putting in some way for the PCs to survive cause I find myself not wanting to kill them. Am I just a freak? Or are there others like me?

 

[Piratecat]

Of course. Any DM can kill the PCs any time they want to!

The trick is making them enjoy it.

But yeah, sometimes this is a lot more clear than other times. I'm a big fan of occasionally taking people captive; I think a lot of players hate it more than character death, and it's a lot more fun in the long run.

 

[Baron Opal]

Absolutely. There have been times when I have constructed some particularly fiendish scenario and not been able to think of a way out. I sprung it on my players confident on 5 bright youths being able to find some out that I missed on my own.

They died, quite horribly. I felt bad.

I also have to agree with Piratecat. If you want to make players squirm and use 110% of their insight and creativity, threaten them with capture, not death.

 

[AdamBomb]

yes, there other dm's like that. I'm one of them.
There are a couple reasons why. The primary one, for me, is that a TPK probably means the rest of the evening will be spent rolling up characters, which means less for me to do besides wait and wait with the occasional approve/deny of some PC concept or request. I'd rather we play D&D, so I'll keep the PC's alive just to keep the evening going. I feel I'm not doing my job if I'm not knocking at least one PC a night into negative HP's, but I don't try to kill them all.
The other reason? No DM will ever admit this, but secretly, we're rooting for the PC's. We want them to win, to high-five each other around the table when they pull off a huge victory. Don't tell my players that though.

 

[Stalker0]

Any DM can kill the PCs any time they want to!

This is your power and responsibility as a DM. It is very very easy to kill a party if you really want to, no matter how powerful they are. Its the reverse of the matrix, the good guys are bound by the rules, you as the dm are not, you can make up whatever you want, with whatever powers you see fit.

So the trick I find is to set up encounters so that you can take off the kid gloves with a monster or npc and challenge the party, without worrying about blowing them all away. Its a tricky balance, one that can take a lot of experience to master (I certainly haven't

 

[Aikuchi]

Often enough I design so that most adventures are deadly unless they can find an effective tactic or vulnerability.

When death occurs, they presume I'm just as surpised at the outcome (when I'm not), but its fun to know they consider me part of the unintentional "accident"
It was fun! They like to gloat over a death of a villain NPC who was trying to run away but died in the process due to a cleverly devised trap they concocted. They seem to think he was a recurring villain who's demise was cut short of the story arc.
He was a one-off meant to die ... but shhhh, I won't tell that if you wont

 

[shilsen]

As Piratecat said, any DM can kill the PCs at any point. Heck, it's hard enough not killing them with encounters that should be no more than a reasonable challenge. The last session in my Eberron game (see sig), the five 8th lvl PCs fought five 6th lvl NPCs. The fight ended with 2 NPCs down and all five PCs down.

The campaign's heavily character-driven and resurrection magic isn't readily available, so I don't want to kill a PC unless the player really wants him to go. So I've instituted an action pt rule which prevents death. Without that, there'd have been 16 deaths in 31 sessions. Instead of death as a result of defeat, the PCs have to face the possibility of capture, the loss of valuable equipment, and simple embarrassment. Or, as I like to say, death means that the torture ends

 

[Gold Roger]

*stands up*My name is Gold Roger and I'm a killer DM.

Now, it's not that I TPK my group regularly (one TPK so far). However, we do have a high mortality rate. I'm a tactician player and as DM will always play a bit to my own preferences. I simply think an easy fight is dull (I often have to hold myself back because I DM for a bunch of buttkickers).


I don't pull any punches, try to play opponents to their intelligence and have the world react according to their action, which can end quite badly for the PC's.
For example currently two are bound up on deck of a smuggler ship that was to take them into another town. The crew currently searches the ship for the other two, who where clever enough to find themselfes a hiding place to sleep. One of those currently has no weapon, because she drunk herself into a stupor in the shady part of a shady town and was robbed in consequence.

That's what happens when a group with the reputation of unscrupellous killers (didn't get the nickname "The Slayers" for nothing) bullies a ship of pirates and smugglers to take them without payment, then pisses of the crew even further and then all go to sleep without even posting a guard.


I simply don't believ in pulling punches. However, in a hopeless situation it always help to relax for a moment. Often there's a non cheesy, fun and logical out lurking in some corner of your mind you just don't get at the moment.

It also helps to not throw a situation at the PC's and not thinking of any outs beforehand, simply relying on "they'll figure something out". Always have two or more outs at the ready and point little clues to each. If they come up with some of those, you don't have improvise it. If they figure out something else, great! And if they still can't find a way out, give one to them, but not before someone died (again, I'm all for not pulling punches).

 

[LostSoul]

This is one of my pet peeves with D&D. I'd rather the survivability of the PCs wasn't so dependant upon the DM. I don't want to have to pull my punches.

With that goal in mind, I've been a lot more interested in running published modules. I won't change anything, and then I'll try and kill the PCs with everything in there, pulling no punches. I run the NPCs as consistently as possible, and if they want to kill the PCs, then I will use all their resources to do it.

That way any victory the PCs have comes from the players and not by the grace of the DM.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Bump