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Message: <blockquote data-quote="twofalls" data-source="post: 2193513" data-attributes="member: 23718">Well, all the talk about EL and CR is fine, and I understand the gist of folks meaning, but I really don't think it matters all that much. I think the CR system is really more a way of helping new GM's balance encounters and avoid either TPKing groups or boring them with endlessly pathetic encounters. I've been running games since... well the dawn of time it seems sometimes, and I'm pretty good at just eyeballing it, particularly at lower levels.I can see the kidnapping approach, but I wouldn't use it myself. I think it's interesting to hear that you would handle it that way though. I'm not at all worried about the other players becoming interested in the future about being given outs if a character is dying, I can handle it. I run a gritty game, and in fact we spent some time at the start of Fridays session talking about what that meant. In this case I just wasn't comfortable with the Coup de Grace. Dying in a desperate fight against heavy odds is heroic, dying in bed from an Assassin's blade isn't. The character chose the crippling wound, and the story was made more interesting, that was one of the goals I achieved.It seems the majority of posters either wouldn't have let the situation happen this way, or would have let the PC die because of the failure of his comrades. I find that very interesting. I try to keep an internal consistency of logic in my games and ask myself "what would this personality do next", which is what I explained to Grendel's player when I pulled him aside and told him what was happening. I said to him "I'm doing everything I can to kill your character, but I'd really rather not see him die", the confused look on his face was classic. My biggest concern, knowing this player’s personality, was that he not feel that I was picking on him to be spiteful or mean for some reason. That was the other goal I achieved. All in all I was quite pleased with the night’s events, and the way things worked out.Thanks for your viewpoints, they were interesting to read.</blockquote>

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