GM/Player Style: Grey Areas & Red Lines

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by mpipes

OK, now that is beyond the pale!

You would not spring something like that on a batch of new players to put it mildly!!! Just goes to show you there is always some nut job that goes not just one step, but rather several steps too far.

Yes indeed, that action violates just about everything we've been discussing here. I appreciate that the GM was aiming to shock the Players, but doing something like that, without even considering the feelings of the Players, without considering the negative image it conveys about gaming.
To my mind, what that GM did is worse than the GM who deliberately kills off PCs to prove that they aren't afraid of killing PCs.
And more so because it was a public game, in an event where people are trying to showcase the positive aspects of gaming.

Gaming is a group activity, it's not meant to be played just for one person's enjoyment at the expense of the other people in the group, regardless of whether that person is a Player or the GM.
Again, I'll harp on about knowing your Players - my game group is a collection of friends, some I've know for a few years, some I've known for a few decades. I have a decent understanding of what they like and dislike, what's acceptable and what's not and also what sort of topics will derail the game. Like any friend would do, I try not to have events in-game that will actually upset the Players or the game (so for my group, real world Politics are left at the door, much too divisive to be discussed during game time)
The GM mentioned in the news report had a responsibility to be even more careful because the Players were all, potentially, strangers at the table.