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Message: <blockquote data-quote="enrious" data-source="post: 5742024" data-attributes="member: 2126">Obviously speaking only for myself here...I have no hard and fast rules - there is no rulebook in use of when to fudge because I see every instance as unique and should be evaluated (however briefly) using my intelligence guided by experience (props if you catch that reference).I can provide you with a few examples and the thinking I had behind deciding to employ nor not employ fudging.1) World's Largest Dungeon campaign - billed to the players as a meat-grinder no-holds barred event.  Player is playing a level-appropriate martial artist class (Chainmail Bikini Games) and in his first combat, is gored by a minotaur who rolls a 20-20-hit insta-kill.  PC is dead, create a new one.  I had no intention of fudging it because it added to the stakes the players had (they also had a party limit on the number of new characters they could create in order to "win" the dungeon).2) Same WLD campaign, many levels later.  A dwarven cleric was insta-killed by a demon within 10 minutes of the session starting.  Had the cleric remain dead but ruled that the cleric could be temporarily brought back to life (mainly to avoid having the player spend around an hour creating a new character and then waiting on a time for his character to be introduced to the party) by some devi and told that he was brought back to fulfill a service to the devi that was prophesied.  *That* turned out great because they were being troubled by a greater abyssal basilisk, who was in turn insta-killed by the priest on the very first round of combat.  When the party finished that section of the dungeon, the cleric said his good-byes and returned to the devi for his final sleep.  (The player had prepared a replacement ahead of time)3) An anything-goes Ptolus game.  A PC essentially murdered another PC.  Allowed to happen because anything-goes was advertised and by that point, even the player of the murdered PC agreed that it was justified.4) Same Ptolus game, three PCs are fighting 2 NPCs that are behind the door to a room - vicious fight and two of the PCs have died, while the two NPCs are on their last legs (as is the remaining PC) - the PC tosses in a bomb that would have killed one of the PCs, but ruled that they were both reduced to calling for a truce with PC, which he accepted.  The result was that the players of the dead PCs ended up turning the NPCs into PCs and the campaign focus shifted to the original PC.5) Same Ptolus game, three PCs have broken into a store and are confronted with some nasty PCs armed with firearms.  The PCs make a few ill-advised moves, which results in one of them standing out in the open and unsupported by his teammates (he was expecting their help).  No reason to mitigate it because it helped serve as a campaign definer.6) Kingmaker campaign - probably 5 or so PC deaths, none of which were alleviated as the party had access to resurrections, albeit at the cost of very valuable resources.  That put the onus on the players - make a new character or use up those resources, which I was fine with either way.7) Scarred Lands campaign - the party encountered a wrack dragon that hadn't yet observed them.  Everyone but the sorcerer decided to back-track and go around the wrack dragon, but the sorcerer opted to go invisible and walk past it.  Sadly, the wrack dragon had excellent hearing and smelling and soon, a full belly. Not mitigated because I saw no reason to reward poking the bear (or dragon in this case).In general, I won't fudge to save a character, especially if they're dead because the player was being foolish or there wasn't a meta-game reason for doing so (the player will be spending an inordinate amount of time on a new character, it will be an inordinate amount of time to introduce the new character, etc).  However, sometimes I will reduce the damage of an attack from outright killing a PC to being a round or two from death, to give players a chance to save 'em. Sometimes the gods favor the PCs.That and I prefer to antagonize players by burning their barge.  Death becomes a sweet release.</blockquote>

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