Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kichwas" data-source="post: 784473" data-attributes="member: 891">Re: Justifiable TPK?  I think so.I still get players who solidly believe they have an inherant right to victory over every conflict no matter the circumstances.It's very dangerous when you're also a player at the same table as them, you start playing the game looking for an escape route. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />As a GM, I think in all my years I've only actually killed off one PC in a legitimate conflict. During one of my first 3E games. That may sound like a very strange track record when I say I've been mostly a GM since 1982...But most of that time has been spent doing super hero games, or games in genres where you try to avoid the conflict. In supers I've had plenty of KO's. Right now I'm averaging one per session. Those are kind of like kills, they would be if we were dojng fantasy...The most hair-raising battle I ever ran was in Albedo. Nobody died in the two rounds of conflict, but the hail of sudden bullets and massive injuries on both sides left the players a bit shell-shocked. They opened an air-tight door on a moon base and the rabbit on the other end was ready with a machine gun. He let loose a hail of bullets and every PC but the guy standing right there at the door who opened it went down in that first shot... That PC fired back and destroyed just about everything in the room beyond except the guy in front of him he was trying to hit, and one of his allies who had been out of the way at the time.No deaths, but they were all out of fighting capacity in a round. The second round was a short exchange of fire and then a desperate attempt to close that door on both sides until they could regroup...I've managed to get a whole group of PCs to go at it against each other in Palladium fantasy once. A randomly rolled band of goblins... which I introduced as a group of 'goblins merchants' walking down the road in broad dyalight with overflowing packs of assorted pedler's goods... The groups passed each other and then both circled back to track the other in the night. The PCs couldn't find the goblins and gave it up, but the goblins found the PCs and waged a two day assault of terror using the one sword, one bow, and one ring of invisibility they had between them all to convince the PCs that other PCs were secretly attacking them or robbing them in the night... By the end of the conflict the remaining PCs were huddled in a cave peering into a raining forest beyond in sheer terror never having figured out the true nature of their opponant and still waiting to be stabbed in the back by their cave mates...Abough half of them went down if I remember right, but none by the direct hand of any of my NPCs.Now... I have had some -invalid- kills. When I was about 12 or 13 I was running a group of 9th level pcs through a dungeon I'd put together and at one point I just had them all make saving throws and then announced that all but one had just died from the breath of a red dragon... I consider that unfair because I gave no warnings there were any dragons on hand, nor any chance for the PCs to take an action that would have let them avoid the conflict. So I don't really count that encounter in my list. It was just after I'd started gaming anyway, back in the days when I read the treasure table for Orc, noted the 1-3000GPs, and thought that meant per orc and not per tribe... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" />Where I really get players these days is in my red herrings. I seem to have a natural talent for them. With the exception of a module I ran about a year and a half ago every plot I've done in the past few years has gotten totally sidetracked by the PCs falling hook, line and sinker for red herring... I've been wondering if I should even bother prepping adventures anymore, because the PCs always fall for the ruse anyway and we end up in a totally new adventure while the main threat gets away with it all... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> If you're ever sitting in a game I run, and your hero comes across a bank robbery... stop paying attention to the guy in the costume running out with a bag of money, and look for the old lady crossing the street a block down... If you pay attention, you'll see why... but they never do.</blockquote>

Verification