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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bwgwl" data-source="post: 374527" data-attributes="member: 3876">well, i've been GMing for 20+ years now, and i've never had a TPK. i don't think i've ever (permanently) killed a single PC, either.this is where we part ways. i am NOT an advocate of open (non-fudging) rolling for DMs. this is the sole reason for your TPK -- you can't modify the results to bring about a more dramatic or more satisfying conclusion.IMO it's more fair to the players to fudge a few rolls here and there to tell a better story. it's more fair to spare a much-beloved PC than let him die to some random rolls.i've never seen the DM's role as an impartial one. i'm always rooting for the PCs too. the PCs are the heroes -- they're supposed to win. my job as DM is to provide an entertaining session. IMO if the DM is being 100% impartial and automatically accepting every die roll out in the open, he might as well be replaced by a computer. a human DM can modify results in the game to make them more dramatically appropriate to the situation. he knows when to throw out a roll that would badly disrupt the game. by definition, a TPK is an entire series of bad rolls that severely disrupt the game.i hope i'm not coming off sounding too adversarial, but if you allowed yourself to fudge a few rolls every now and then, you'd never get that feeling of being behind the 8-ball.fudging isn't just for being a softie and giving the players what they want. it's also a C.Y.A. (cover-your-posterior) measure -- you said yourself you underestimated the power of that half-dragon ogre. by rolling everything in the open, you committed yourself to that mistake and left yourself no way to fix it.it's all about being flexible! as far as your situation, you didn't realize the half-dragon was too powerful until the battle was already raging. but you could've removed a handful of hit points or whatever to make it easier to take down as soon as you realized the combat was heading toward a TPK. what's really more important, your "integrity" about keeping to the adventure as planned NO MATTER WHAT or the enjoyment of the group as a whole? who really would've suffered if that half-dragon had a few less hit points than originally planned? you'd of course give out less XP for defeating it, but at least the campaign could continue...your friend, though, when he saw that less players showed up than he anticipated, really has no excuse for not modifying that gnoll encounter downward. the just-missed TPK sounds to be more his fault than the players.again, i'm sorry if this all sounds a bit adversarial. i don't mean any ill will and i'm not trying to denigrate your position, i'm just trying to explain why i think your decisions could've been made in a different direction.</blockquote>

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