D&D General Your Character Died! Who's Fault Was It?

[CleverNickName]

I've never played with a killer GM, but I think different people will have different ideas of just how anomalous killer GMs are, and how many PCs a given GM needs to have die in their game before that GM qualifies.

I don't know about "killer GMs," but I know there's a such thing as killer adventures. Tomb of Horrors, anyone?

 

[prabe]

I don't know about "killer GMs," but I know there's a such thing as killer adventures. Tomb of Horrors, anyone?

Absolutely. I figure in some instances those are pitched by GMs to their tables, in some instances they are asked for by the players. I also figure that there are GMs writing their own adventures in similar veins, which might make them killer GMs, I guess depending on other aspects of their GMing (it plausibly isn't just adventure design).

 

[Chaltab]

The most recent time.

In that case it was absolutely all my fault. I threw a bomb to stop some thugs from chasing us and it turned out the explosion was considerably larger and more damaging than I thought it would be. Nearly killed two other party members too.

 

[ezo]

95% of the time if a PC dies it is because they pushed their luck and the dice or DM finally caught up with them.

They should have disengaged, dodged, etc. but they decided just one more round, one more room, or whatever.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's what you get for going off on a life of adventure instead of tending to crops, washing laundry, or milking cows.

Which is why as a player it's always my fault, because I chose a life of adventure.

 

[Reynard]

I don't know about "killer GMs," but I know there's a such thing as killer adventures. Tomb of Horrors, anyone?

Tomb of horrors is itself an anomaly -- intentionally so. It was a tournament module designed to punish uppity players and their high level characters.

Now, there are killer rooms. Every dungeon should have at least one.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

i have never had a PC of mine die. not because they COULDN'T have (though i picked the don't understand option). i'm just lucky, i guess.

 

[TiQuinn]

It’s the DM’s fault! He totally should’ve known that giant crocodile that he rolled for the random encounter was too much for our 2nd level characters! This is 5e! It’s supposed to be nice, and sensitive, and not like those old D&D games! I had a backstory! I wrote five pages of it! What about my long lost father and the vorpal sword that he was supposed to pass down to me when I found him again! Now it’s wasted and it’s ALL. THE. DM’s. FAULT.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

"Who is" fault was it? What does that mean?

 

[Stormonu]

Interceding with my monk to keep the wizard safe. Got dropped by a gnoll. Told the cleric player to not worry about me after a failed death roll, I still had two more and it was more important to drop the remaining gnolls before worrying about me. Group saved the wizard by dropping the gnoll that had saved me, allowing the wizard time to blast the last remaining gnoll.

Rolled a 1 on the death save when it came my turn next.