Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 206746" data-attributes="member: 1645">Then you sit down with your players to start gaming?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />To borrow from other media, one of the best ways to show how lethal or cruel the enemy is is via "red shirts" or "spear carriers".  That's why henchmen and followers are so great.  You can torture them, you can maim them, you can enslave them, you can graphically dismember them, etc.It does ruin the mood though when a cleric can just heal the fellow who had his eyes burned out with a hot poker.Rather than have the enemy play stupid, I prefer to either (a) use a smaller, less powerful enemy, if that's plausible, (b) use a smart enemy that simply doesn't know our heroes' abilities and isn't prepared, or (c) use a strong enemy, play them smart, but give them objectives other than killing our heroes.Why not capture the heroes?  Captured enemies really are worth more than dead enemies, especially when slavery (or ransoming) is expected, and there are no Geneva conventions on handling prisoners.I like that.  You can kill yourself struggling through a hard day's work for a silver penny -- or you can make great money adventuring!  Hey, how bad could adventuring be?  I'll see the world!Exactly.</blockquote>