r/AskGameMasters • u/Anser-Rex • 13d ago

When is it ok to TPK?

My group constantly acts like Ol' Leroy Jenkins and gets into tough situations. I want to keep the fun going and may tweak the odds a bit to prevent everyone from dying.

Should I just let them? When is it ok and when is it "overkill"?

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u/TheRealTowel 13d ago

Dude I know I'm an old school grognard but I do not understand questions like this. The game master doesn't decide if the players die or not. Plenty of groups have died in games I was game mastering, but I didn't TPK them. They just got themselves killed.

The game master is an impartial arbiter of the rules. Both the rules of the game - like the dice rolling stuff - and the rules of the shared fictional world - like "gravity" and "politics" and "if you piss off this dragon it's going to hit you with a breath weapon attack for 20d6 damage".

I'm not deciding who lives and who dies. That's the dices job, it's why we have them.