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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 6698882" data-attributes="member: 12377">"A game is a series of interesting decisions," and a decision where you have no idea what to expect is boring. So establish expectations, and then follow them:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the players are expecting to be captured, the enemy should capture them. The enemy shouldn't kill them, that's just mean, and violates player expectations AND player agency (because the players didn't see it coming they are denied any chance to do anything about it).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the players are expecting to be killed, the enemy should kill them, OR the enemy should capture them and this should be commented on as an unusual event -- a mystery for the PCs to solve.</li> </ul>Paradoxically, players expect to have their expectations violated occasionally; if everything happens as expected, it's boring. BUT they expect that there is a good in-game reason for it. "It's a genre trope" is immersion-breaking and unsatisfying for most players. (But not all; YMMV.)</blockquote>