Killer DM or Puppy Love DM

[Darkfire]

I can sympathise Airwolf, my girlfriend glares at me everytime I assign targets for my attackers, or worse she gives me that vunerable look I don't stand a chance.

Guess I lean towards killer also. I enjoy heroic fantasy and for that the characters have to be afraid of dying. Just my opion of heroic of course.
Generally have about 1 or more deaths per session. Equates to a 15% casuality rate in the party. They do have access to raise dead, from pacts with godly patrons, but coming back from the other side has all sorts of problems

I do get a tingly feeling when my PCs run screaming for their lives

 

[Arnwyn]

I, like others, lean towards "killer". I hate it when PCs die, of course (since I enjoy PC plot tie-ins), however like Sniktch posted above, I have *very* little tolerance for player idiocy.

My low tolerance for stupid decisions usually wins out over the PC backgrounds...

 

[Lars Frehse]

I think I am leaning towards Puppy Love. PC deaths used to be much more common in my campaigns, but I had been going soft recently. After all, I do enjoy characters with a full fledged background and history more than having some new character every other session.

 

[the Jester]

I find that the satisfaction of overcoming challenges goes way down if there's not a real challenge, i.e. if you know the dm will pull your fat out of the fire no matter what. The more likely the dm is to kill you, the more enjoyment comes from surviving... at least, that's this killer dm's theory.

I just killed a pc on Saturday, though he was raised and got enough xp to get his level back. Ah, beholders.

 

[Schmoe]

I try to be impartial. I don't punish stupidity, and I don't coddle the weak. I roll dice in front of the party, and I play the adversaries intelligently and in character, but other than that I try to keep my emotions and opinions out of it.

Of course, I like to play up the Killer GM role, and I love talking about all of the horrible, evil, nasty ideas I have in store for the players. But then on the other hand, whenever one of the PC's bites it, I feel kind of sad and guilty.

The last session, the party (all 8th-9th level) was attacked by a horde of 2 dozen ghouls and a few ghasts. The priest was paralyzed, and a ghoul did the ol' coup-de-grace. I felt bad, but hey, what ravenous, undead, flesh-eating ghoul is going to pass up the chance at fresh, paralyzed meat?

I'm over it now, thanks.

 

[Fenes 2]

<Snip>

Guess I lean towards killer also. I enjoy heroic fantasy and for that the characters have to be afraid of dying. Just my opion of heroic of course.

<snip>

I do get a tingly feeling when my PCs run screaming for their lives

To repeat my old stance: My PC's are afraid for their lives, even if the players know that the PCs will not die. People who need the threat of PC-death to roleplay their PCs are not people I want to play with.

In addition I would rather have a funny battle with slapstick-antics and crazy ideas instead of a tabletop strategy game, so I am not too keen on "teaching" players to "play it smart" (and often boring).

I can enjoy a novel even if I know the ending, and I can enjoy a movie even if I know the hero will not die, and the same goes for my roleplaying sessions.

As a player, I do not deny that there is an additional satisfaction in knowing that a PC could have died in a tough encounter, but that (small) additional satisfaction does not even come close to compensates for the way the threat of PC death hampers my enjoyment of a role playing game session by forcing me to behave more paranoid and minmaxing if I don't want to lose a PC, and how the actual death of PC pretty much ruins my fun (and a couple of hours work on the character sketch and the background history).

 

[Darkfire]

I find the threat of PC death helps may players to sink into the game more easily. It removes that 'I can do anything I want' attitude that sits in the back of some players minds.

I normally run 7th level + campaigns and I reward audatious moves by the PCs, stupid moves get them killed. By this time the PCs should have enough experience to avoid stupid decisions.

Playing it smart is not boring. To paraphrase the A-Team 'They love it when a plan comes together' and so do I.

My villains have sound tatical plans and if the PCs do not they'll all die. Nobody should be charging into a dragon's lair without a very sound plan.

 

[Capellan]

Well, by DoCM's measurement system, I'm primarily a puppy love DM. PC deaths are few and far between in my games, as I try to avoid killing them unless they do something stupid.

I doubt my players see me that way, however - there are so many better ways to torture their characters than just killing them, you know

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm a puppy-lover who acts like a killer. It's true. My players are always terrified that THIS time their characters are toast. And yet, in three years I've only killed... two characters.

A couple of caveats:

No resurrection or raising in my campaign, so once you're dead, you're really, really dead. Very little magical healing as well. It doesn't take long to smack down a tenth-level party if they can't ever buff up.

My campaign has great big PC backstories and histories that are tied tightly into campaign plotlines so killing a PC means a great deal of work for me. Plus I like most of the PCs and would be really disappointed to have them out of the story.

I organize my campaign in "Seasons" and at the end of a Season, well, just about anything can happen. We're about halfway through Season Three so the players aren't TOO nervous yet, but as we careen towards the standard cliff-hanger finale, tension definitely will mount. Stakes get higher and my willingness to overturn plots by killing PCs gets stronger.

And on Barsoom, there are much worse things than dying...

 

[Darrin Drader]

I'm closer to the puppy love DM, although I will admit to having destroyed several characters over time. It just takes too long to build new characters and integrate them into an ongoing campaign. On the other hand, if a player does something absolutely stupid and dies because of it, I have no qualms with making that character into an example.