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<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5717911" data-attributes="member: 19675"><p>In 34 years in roleplaying games, I've only game mastered over 1 TPK...and in that case, the players' stupidity did them in.</p><p></p><p>What I try to do is establish that I'm willing to kill characters, so I don't generally fudge things in the players' favor. At some point, a PC will die or will get so close to dying that only extreme measures kept them from doing so... And then I'm free to fudge if I feel like it, because the threat has been established.</p><p></p><p>Because once the players think, "He's killed before- he could do it again!", the threat of a TPK is always there.</p><p></p><p>But the other side of the equation is not to overmatch your players' PCs every combat so that you NEED to fudge. Otherwise, they'll notice- just as your friend did- that you <em>always</em> succeed, even when you have no reasonable expectation of doing so.</p><p></p><p>That TPK? They thought I was kidding about something being a Sphere of Annihilation. So one guy touched it. <em>*ZZZAP*</em></p><p></p><p>Thinking I was kidding, and that the black thing was actually a disguised teleportation device, another PC touched it. <em>*ZZZAP*</em> I told them again that it was a Sphere of Annihilation. Another PC touched it. <em>*ZZZAP*</em></p><p></p><p>It was like watching bugs drawn to an electric bug zapper light as one by one, each PC walked up to it and <em>*ZZZAP*</em>.</p><p></p><p>(Remember <em>A Bug's Life</em>? "Don't go into the light!" "I can't help it!" <em>*ZAP*</em>)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 5717911, member: 19675"] In 34 years in roleplaying games, I've only game mastered over 1 TPK...and in that case, the players' stupidity did them in. What I try to do is establish that I'm willing to kill characters, so I don't generally fudge things in the players' favor. At some point, a PC will die or will get so close to dying that only extreme measures kept them from doing so... And then I'm free to fudge if I feel like it, because the threat has been established. Because once the players think, "He's killed before- he could do it again!", the threat of a TPK is always there. But the other side of the equation is not to overmatch your players' PCs every combat so that you NEED to fudge. Otherwise, they'll notice- just as your friend did- that you [I]always[/I] succeed, even when you have no reasonable expectation of doing so. That TPK? They thought I was kidding about something being a Sphere of Annihilation. So one guy touched it. [I]*ZZZAP*[/I] Thinking I was kidding, and that the black thing was actually a disguised teleportation device, another PC touched it. [I]*ZZZAP*[/I] I told them again that it was a Sphere of Annihilation. Another PC touched it. [I]*ZZZAP*[/I] It was like watching bugs drawn to an electric bug zapper light as one by one, each PC walked up to it and [I]*ZZZAP*[/I]. (Remember [I]A Bug's Life[/I]? "Don't go into the light!" "I can't help it!" [I]*ZAP*[/I]) [/QUOTE]
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