Oofta
Legend
I always discuss lethality during session 0. I've never been a killer DM since death is pretty final in my campaign world. A TPK is pretty much the end of the campaign.
Thing is, one of my players (an old schooler like me) chatted with me about this after a session a little while ago. He said it was quite fun to have an ongoing campaign with characters that had so much long term interactions with each other.
So I don't see a lot of downside to not being a killer DM. PC death is never totally off the table, but it's been a while that I've actually killed off a PC despite coming very close a few times.
It's not that I think my players are delicate flowers, but death just ends a story. I don't think that makes for a better game for me or my players.
Thing is, one of my players (an old schooler like me) chatted with me about this after a session a little while ago. He said it was quite fun to have an ongoing campaign with characters that had so much long term interactions with each other.
So I don't see a lot of downside to not being a killer DM. PC death is never totally off the table, but it's been a while that I've actually killed off a PC despite coming very close a few times.
It's not that I think my players are delicate flowers, but death just ends a story. I don't think that makes for a better game for me or my players.