DragonLancer
Hero
If its through their own fault or the dice fall that way, they die. Theres no fun if theres no risk.
When Do You (GM) Kill PCs?
- Thread starter Xath
- Start date
Sigurd
First Post
I can honestly say that I have never once gone out of the way to kill a character. Of the characters that have died in games that I have DM'd probably none of them died without haveing their asses saved more than once previously by dice fudging, story manipulation, or the warning 'if you do that I know you'll kill your char..."..
That said, monsters have to be dangerous to be exciting. I reserve the right of players to do something stupid. Characters die even whole parties - but its awkward.
Sigurd
That said, monsters have to be dangerous to be exciting. I reserve the right of players to do something stupid. Characters die even whole parties - but its awkward.
Sigurd
DonTadow
First Post
I do this as well. If the dice are just against the pc that night then I might fudge, else its up to the pcs to take care of themselves. I am less lenient for idiotic tactics.Vurt said:If the players have planned well, or are using good tactics, and the dice just aren't rolling their way, I'll usually fudge a roll here or there to keep them in the game. Doesn't always work, but it often helps.
On the other hand, if the players have set on a course of action that is clearly risky without some good planning or having taken appropriate precautions, then let the dice fall where they may. (At one point this got so bad I had to stop running Barakus, as the players were getting frustrated having to roll up new characters every other session.)
Cheers,
Vurt
I had a pc die the other week from good role playing. The party were on a tower roof top in the heat of battle. The large Iron Golem had already thrown three of his party members off the roof and he was running for his life. He didnt check the door on the roof for traps nor the stairs inside. He ran, triggered a crushiing trap and died instantly.
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
I try to normally let the dice fall, but sometimes I'll wait until its dramatically appropriate to really take down a PC. But I've found that not being afraid to let the dice do the killing and avoiding fudging rolls can keep the players on their toes and can do a good job at encouraging very interesting and new tactics beyond 'charge in and fight'.
IronWolf
blank
In the last campaign I ran I let the dice fall where they may. That didn't work so well, we had a lot of PC deaths. In fact the campaign ended because of a near TPK and all of the original characters dead. This sort of derailed the plot that was unfolding. So we took that opportunity to turn the DM chair over to someone else.
In future campaigns I will be looking at other options possibly while still keeping the feeling that what the PC does matters. We'll see what happens when that time comes.
In future campaigns I will be looking at other options possibly while still keeping the feeling that what the PC does matters. We'll see what happens when that time comes.
i usually avoid character death whenever possible, although recently i've had a few close shaves that required me to fudge a few rolls. i usually roll in the open so when i pull out my dm screen the players know that i want them to stay alive. also when a bad guy beats one of the players i normaly 'leave them for dead' as in unconcius or dying. ressurection is unavailable at most times unless there is a high level cleric in the party (there isn't) so on the off chance that i do kill my player's characters they usually stay dead for good.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
diaglo said:
Yeah, that sounds real fun. :\
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Or any different?jstater said:
Wombat
First Post
Odd as it sounds, there is something to what Diaglo says -- of course, I started with OD&D, so that may say something. The whole "negative hit points" thing has confused me, since it is the only aspect of the game that can go into negatives when during the course of a normal game. **shrug** Not a big deal.
Still, my answer is a hair-splitter. I fall about halfway in between "When it is dramatically appropirate" and "Let the chips fall where they may". Characters don't die in small-time random encounters, but they do get whittled down before a big fight, thus leaving them in fear there. Equally, healing and resurrection is harder to come by in my world (very, very few high level NPCs, the characters are currently around 6th-7th level, and we are using AU/AE as our spell/class base book), so when death occurs, it is death. Period. As such, I sometimes will fudge matters a bit to keep them a tiny bit healthier, but if someone pulls something stupid, they are grossly unlucky, or something similar, they die. And once they die, they aren't coming back. Game over, man, for that character.
Still, my answer is a hair-splitter. I fall about halfway in between "When it is dramatically appropirate" and "Let the chips fall where they may". Characters don't die in small-time random encounters, but they do get whittled down before a big fight, thus leaving them in fear there. Equally, healing and resurrection is harder to come by in my world (very, very few high level NPCs, the characters are currently around 6th-7th level, and we are using AU/AE as our spell/class base book), so when death occurs, it is death. Period. As such, I sometimes will fudge matters a bit to keep them a tiny bit healthier, but if someone pulls something stupid, they are grossly unlucky, or something similar, they die. And once they die, they aren't coming back. Game over, man, for that character.
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