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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merelycompetent" data-source="post: 5900663" data-attributes="member: 33830">I do not consider myself a killer-DM. I think only a small percentage of DMs would consider themselves "killer-DMs". Now, depending on which players, including former-players, you ask, the answer might be very different.The basic problem with this sort of thread is this: What, exactly, is a killer-DM? Is it: 4 PC deaths in <10 sessions? Is it 1 TPK every 20 sessions? Do you count suicidal PCs (ex: 1st level character walks into Huge Ancient Red Dragon's lair and kicks it in the nose)? Do you count ATS (Acts of Terminal Stupidity, like grabbing the disintegration sphere after watching Bob the NPC grab the disintegration sphere)?I've played in hard-core games where PC deaths (plural) were expected every session, and the campaigns ran to very high levels (1st & 2nd Ed). That's different from a game where the DM is actively trying to kill the PCs with metagame knowledge. The Anti-Paladin-Ninja/Clerics and beholder-dragons where pretty tough in that one. Would those DMs qualify as killer-DMs?I've run games where a confluence of bad dice luck and bad planning resulted in TPKs. I've had players decide to take on the top-level badguy before I thought they were ready, told them flat-out that it was no-holds-barred and he would do everything in his power to kill them. They went for it. 2 PCs out of seven "survived" - one because of a contingency spell that teleported his poisoned, insane, paralyzed, petrified, stunned, feebleminded, rot-grub infected, cursed body to a safe room, the other because of a deck of many things - he drew the imprisonment card. I've run other adventures where the PCs managed to awaken the wrath of the entire dungeon and have nearly every critter come out to beat them like drums - and did so. (That's where the players learned the age-old #3 rule of dungeon delving: Never flee into unmapped territory) . Do any of those make me a killer DM?Bottom line: What do your players think?</blockquote>

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