So have any of my fellow and far more experienced GMs out there sat down for a session and thought, for whatever reason

"Frak it, I think I will kill a PC tonight"

Now I dont mean committing douchebaggery and rigging rolls or throwing planets on top of wookies,

but pulling out all the safety's and nets and just throwing everything you have at them, to see how the party would fare, to really put pressure on them. Im talking about multple whole squads of stormtroopers, Krayt Dragons, AT-ATs etc, teally turning it up to 11

Hmmm...nope.

Good luck with that! It's not that easy in this game. The opposition need really nasty weaponry and/or talentry and to multiple times crit a PC to kill them. Repeatedly attacking them, when they're already down, is the one feasible way I can think of: But, I'd call that douchebaggery, if you're not a rakghoul or such like. Even stormies only commence slaughtering the defenceless at a direct order after all resistance has been squashed.

Force, even a direct hit from a heavy Turbo will only put you to double threshold and crit you once, technically.

I've felt the need to pressure the group on some nights more than others, but that usually occurs if they haven't had a really big battle for awhile. Little skirmishes are fine but sometimes you do have to push their luck and give them something really hard to fight. The main thing though is I don't focus on trying to kill one of the PC's, I just focus on trying to take them down and see how they react to the situation. If they aren't smart enough to run away from a Rancor that's been let loose then that's on them if they get squished!

On another note, if you feel the need to kill a PC or TPK you might want to reconsider either who you are playing with (if they annoy you enough to want to kill all of their PC's) or at least make sure they are aware of your GM style and that they know you won't be holding back and will actively be trying to kill them.

Sorta. In a previous campaign/story arc I introduced an inscrutable alien construct, a collective of "destroyers" known as Inhibitors. Each time the PCs encountered evidence of their presence they found nothing but tattered blood-spotted clothing. I flat out told the players there was little they could do (at personal scale) to defend themselves against them. Two weeks ago they encountered one face to face and watched a rival die to its predations in mere seconds.

They have no stats, just a stark statement from me that going toe to toe with one is suicidal.

The player who hoards thermal detonators wasted no time lobbing one, and even then refused to believe that was the end of it.

Sorta. In a previous campaign/story arc I introduced an inscrutable alien construct, a collective of "destroyers" known as Inhibitors. Each time the PCs encountered evidence of their presence they found nothing but tattered blood-spotted clothing. I flat out told the players there was little they could do (at personal scale) to defend themselves against them. Two weeks ago they encountered one face to face and watched a rival die to its predations in mere seconds.

They have no stats, just a stark statement from me that going toe to toe with one is suicidal.

The player who hoards thermal detonators wasted no time lobbing one, and even then refused to believe that was the end of it.

while it is cool, I don't see the point of them having an unbeatable enemy. That would be frustrating as a PC, unless it is a famous real character (i.e. Darth Vader) where you can't be aloud to kill them. I mean, did the Thermal Detonator destroy this construct? Well they eventually be able to kill them or maybe shut them off? If there is litterally nothing they can do, the PCs may not enjoy that.

Why in heavens name would I do that? That's stupid.

I'm not a fan of an unbeatable enemy myself either, I as a PC not being able to kill something is extremely frustrating and if I did this to my PC's one of them would probably take it as a challenge and end up dying. I don't want to do that to them and not let the dice roll, I might warn them and tell them to use extreme caution, but if they want to fight it then it gets stats (unless it's Darth Vader or something).

The only time I'd consider killing a PC is if a) the player is murder-hoboing his way across the galaxy (I haven't experienced this kind of player yet); or b) if the player wanted a new character and wanted his PC to go out in style.

So have any of my fellow and far more experienced GMs out there sat down for a session and thought, for whatever reason

"Frak it, I think I will kill a PC tonight"

Now I dont mean committing douchebaggery and rigging rolls or throwing planets on top of wookies,

but pulling out all the safety's and nets and just throwing everything you have at them, to see how the party would fare, to really put pressure on them. Im talking about multple whole squads of stormtroopers, Krayt Dragons, AT-ATs etc, teally turning it up to 11

No. What's the point of just rolling dice until someone dies?

Nope.

I like to include seriously hard encounters sometimes to show the PCs that they are not invulnerable and to stir things up, but I totally disagree with engineering a PC death. Like 2P51 said what is the point of just rolling til someone dies?

If I make an encounters that would be lethal for PCs, it is usually quickly clear that the PCs are outclassed and it becomes more about how to get away from the bad guys.

On another note, if you make encounters designed to kill players, your players will realise that soon enough and will get sick of your game and not bother playing at your table any more.

I suppose if I was interested in the idea from a mechanical stand point, I'd probably just roll it myself in off time, but I wouldn't waste table time on it.

Bad idea, the only time to kill a PC is when the character does something to earn it. That is unless the player wants a heroic death.

I have a house rule that if you exceed 2x WT you die. That does keep the PC's from taking otherwise insane risks.

The only time I'd consider killing a PC is if a) the player is murder-hoboing his way across the galaxy (I haven't experienced this kind of player yet); or b) if the player wanted a new character and wanted his PC to go out in style.

I generally agree. But I will also kill them if they are being stupid. One player (not sure if he didn't understand the rules or what) charged 2 groups of 5 minion stormtroopers with a non-combat focused character. Multiple players warned him that was a bad idea, I made sure I understood what he wanted. He got hit twice, each shot doing more than his WT, each rolling lots of advantages. I didn't feel too bad about declaring him dead that time.

Likewise, if they go off alone and start fights where they are outnumbered, I usually don't mind killing them off.

No. What's the point of just rolling dice until someone dies?

Actually I'm going to rescind my previous statement - there was ONE instance I can think of where I purposefully and deliberately stacked the deck against the PCs to the point where one or all could die: the end of my Padawan game.

We have been running the game alongside episodes 1-3 from about 99 to '05, adapting the game to the events of the movies. It was about a year after RotS dropped, as we got close to wrapping up the game, I was pretty clear that the extermination of the Jedi was coming, and while it will be epic and memorable, it'll probably be very lethal too. The up side is that everyone was okay with this, and I set about figuring out where they would be when Order 66 dropped.

Thing is, they were all very clever and resourceful and managed to escape the clutches of the Empire - well, save for one who died on a completely random roll when he punched the hyperdrive wide open without bothering to plot a course at all. Rolled a D20 and he came up 20. Thing is, at the end, I wound up overturning that random roll outcome for a happy ending at their "Things have gone bad" rendezvous point.

But beyond that one set of circumstances with full player buy-in, I would never be a jackass and just kill players for random GM pleasure.

I don't set out to kill a pc in a session, but I do place them in situations where they can get themselves killed through stupidity.

I would sooner kill an NPC that the party has invested in than kill a party member.

I recently ran a session in which a character was going to be killed off (player wanted a new character). We made it epic. A crashed republic vessel lost at the end of the Clone Wars. It had crashed in the Jundland Wastes, Tusken Raider territory, hence it being basically untouched save some Tusken attacks.

The new character was a Clone Pilot that had been part of the mission to get their vessel back to Kamino 20 years ago. The player really wanted their own Rex type of character as seen in Star Wars Rebels.

The group encountered the Clone Commandos that the Pilot was tasked with taking back to Kamino for medical attention. They had been in stasis up until about a week prior to the group getting there, so the Commandos are still young and in their prime.

The Commandos were super brutal. Downed a player, nearly downed another in 2 separate attacks. The talker of the group who is an ex-Imperial Admiral convinced them to stand down with an exceptionally good Leadership check, explaining what has happened in the last 20 years to the Clones.

Turned the combat I had planned into a revelation moment for the Clones and turned what was planned to be Adversaries into allies. It was a fantastic moment.

I had a player ask me to try and kill his PC once. Which I did. With a rancor.

But no, I've never had that thought come unbidden to my mind.

I uh....no, no I haven't, at least not since the 80's.

I have sat down to make an insurmountable challenge, but never with the goal of killing a PC.

I have sat down to make an insurmountable challenge, but never with the goal of killing a PC.

Oh, I've done that before. I'll design a prison, all the fences and routines and security checks, go "****, how are they working around this!" and then build a game where they had to break in an rescue a prisoner. So set up a problem I have no idea how they are going to beat? Sure.

I have sat down to make an insurmountable challenge, but never with the goal of killing a PC.

Oh, I've done that before. I'll design a prison, all the fences and routines and security checks, go "****, how are they working around this!" and then build a game where they had to break in an rescue a prisoner. So set up a problem I have no idea how they are going to beat? Sure.

This was what I was more after and intending, not and endless horde mode till they die.

I just made the mistake of allowing the party access to about 200,000 credits at the end of Beyond the Rim (they sold the Nightcaller to Reom) and now they have pimped out all their gear and their rickety old YT1300 looks like a B17 flying fortress

I used to play Paranoia and Call of cthulhu, if your Original character was still alive at the end of the session (not campaign, session!) something went wrong (most likely the GM didn't turn up )

Outside of those games GMs really shouldn't try to kill PCs for their amusment. (Unless those players deserve it)

But if you gotta do it...

ROCKS FALL! EVERYONE DIES.

I burned one of my pcs to death for trying to save a slave from his hutt master. He knew it was suicide at the time though the group had already lost a leg and been driven to near death trying to get the slave to safety. Just when they were on the verge of thinking they were home free the hutt himself showed up with a second wave of reinforcements.

Sorta. In a previous campaign/story arc I introduced an inscrutable alien construct, a collective of "destroyers" known as Inhibitors. Each time the PCs encountered evidence of their presence they found nothing but tattered blood-spotted clothing. I flat out told the players there was little they could do (at personal scale) to defend themselves against them. Two weeks ago they encountered one face to face and watched a rival die to its predations in mere seconds.

They have no stats, just a stark statement from me that going toe to toe with one is suicidal.

The player who hoards thermal detonators wasted no time lobbing one, and even then refused to believe that was the end of it.

while it is cool, I don't see the point of them having an unbeatable enemy. That would be frustrating as a PC, unless it is a famous real character (i.e. Darth Vader) where you can't be aloud to kill them. I mean, did the Thermal Detonator destroy this construct? Well they eventually be able to kill them or maybe shut them off? If there is litterally nothing they can do, the PCs may not enjoy that.

Basically, what I'm getting here is it's okay if it's Vader, but not if it's something Vader would look at and say "Nope." And you're not the only one to suggest such special dispensation. Seriously, not being a d!ck, but seriously?

To be clear, the collective wasn't introduced specifically to be PC killers. They're the "Vader" - if you will - of my current campaign.

But I get it; every challenge must be successfully overcome...excepting perhaps Vader. From now on we'll be playing Chutes and Ladders, Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh, Candyland, and Tiddlywinks, because not ALWAYS "winning" is, well, too hard.