Party Nearly wipes. Did I handle this right?

[roguerouge]

(Yeah, I like the new edition, DEAL WITH IT!) We had two PC fatalities, with one of the players accusing me of being a killer GM.

Just as a tip, if you want me to read through a solid block of text to help solve your problems, you might want to lose the aggressive attitude. Because the first impression you gave me led me to think "Yes, he's a killer DM. Now what did he do?"

 

[Doug McCrae]

I'm glad Bob's PC died. Pity Newt's died too though and Dave's didn't. Often rpgs are just as unfair as real life.

I've never liked xp for killing monsters. It encourages the PCs to be bloodthirsty psychopaths and discourages talking to NPCs.

Bob whines too much. DMing is tough, you put a lot of work in and it's impossible to always make the right decision. I think what you did was pretty reasonable. As Pseudopsyche says it might've been better to have Jelia escape and harrass Bob and Dave's PCs later (targeted payback!) but, eh, hindsight has 20/20 vision.

Losing all your equipment does really suck in D&D though it's not as bad in 4e as in previous editions. Assure Bob he'll have a chance to get replacement equipment soon, like next adventure.