I want to preface this by saying that I'm a very experienced DM but still feel I have a lot of room to improve and would like all kinda of criticism. My last gaming session ended pretty poorly, in that a character death led to two of my players vowing to never play any game I hosted ever again. I just want some feedback on it as I've gotten some pretty mixed opinions.
The party was traveling through an uncharted part of a jungle in what was already described to the players as possibly the most dangerous place in the entire setting. I had previously told the party that this expedition would be a meat grinder so I ass pulled some extra ways for them to resurrect dead characters. I knew that they wouldn't have fun having characters mowed down over and over again, but I didn't want to downplay the danger and excitement of the setting. Everyone seemed to be on the same page so far.
One player in the party insisted that his character be evil and every so often run off to do evil things without the party knowing about it. In this specific scenario he wanted to break off form the party while they made camp to go sacrifice a magic item to his evil demon overlord. The guide that the party had with them had just finished telling him that even running off to take a piss was pretty dangerous because the area was infested with monsters. The dude proceed to ignore all warnings and sneak off out of sight of the rest of the party, unsurprisingly he ran into a large cadre of goblins (I random encountered it) and was killed almost instantly. The goblins in question are also not ordinary goblins, but are the apex predators of the jungle in this setting, having invisibility, and advanced warfare tactics, they basically troll around in warbands and successfully murder everything that isn't green. The player was outraged and insisted that he was killed off unfairly and that for even putting him in this situation I was a bad DM. I mainly just want some input on the situation
Controversial character death
TLDR
>Guy runs off from entire party in known dangerous area
>Dies horrible death
>Says I'm a bad DM for not facilitating his fun and rerolling a bad encounter.
So this guy ran off on his own in a jungle teeming with monsters and blamed you?
Keep doing what your doing op less faggots in the hobby the better
>insisted that his character be evil
>killed almost instantly
>player was outraged
You're a good DM. Dummies gonna dummy.
I would have given starker warnings than that, including OOC warnings. However, Evil player sounds like a fool, and probably would have bitched at you for railroading if you'd given those kinds of warnings.
I suspect he's one of those spoiled, entitled players who want to be coated in plot armour and never really be at risk of having their character killed. It sounds like he could have been ressurrected anyway so he's throwing a hissy fit over nothing. If you 'lost' a player like that then I'd say that's something to celebrate.
He actually did bitch at me for railroading for something similar. He actually did get resurrected right after that encounter which cost the party basically all the gold they had, which sucks now that hes not playing anymore
No, it doesn't suck. Use combined player and DM fiat. Make a special retcon for the exceptional circumstances of severe player asshattery.The party never resurrected him. He ran off and got eaten by goblins. Never even found his cracked and gnawed bones. Everybody wins.
If you give fair warning, but the player ignored you, then the other players will learn not to fuck around when you say "That is not a good idea." or "That will likely get your character killed."
If it's a fair death and they can be revived, than it shouldn't be a problem.
Assuming this is a fair and balanced story: You don't give any sign of being a bad DM. Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes from edge player.
Big question is, edge player left because he got shot himself in the ass. And it was a fatal wound because that's where his brains were.
Why'd player 2 leave? Some sort of edge player labor union?
>ass pulled some extra ways for them to resurrect dead characters. I knew that they wouldn't have fun having characters mowed down over and over again, but I didn't want to downplay the danger and excitement of the setting.
Well you sure as fucked failed on that part. Resurrection immediately cheapens death no matter what way you go about it. If you're going to make it common you need to challenge your players in different ways, otherwise you're just inconveniencing them and cheapening up the setting as a whole (oh whoops the evil bad man is dead, and wait, no he isn't because one of his cronies just walked on down to the resurrection mart (tm) and now he knows who we are and why we want to stop him).
I'll fully support the death of the evil player for his actions. Probably should have played up the possibility of the hyper gobbos if they were so high up on the settings totem pole though. If I were in that circumstances I'd be most upset about being killed by a bunch of tucker's invisible *minor enemy I bet you thought would be a minor enemy* more so than anything else. Also why was there even a body/something to resurrect after a predator encounter? Surely they'd fairy off his corpse for food?
Maybe work up to putting the party in the most dangerous location in the setting, full of the most heightened apex predator instead of starting them there. Give them a chance to acclimate to the setting first. I mean where do you intend to go from here? They're already dealing with the setting's worst. What are they going to kill next? Got yourself a dragonball z pacing problem now.