How to avoid killing your player characters as GM

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Honestly, given the characters will often know things the players don't - because they have skills the players lack - I think it's appropriate to basically give everyone a free variant of Common Sense,

Over time, I've come to the conclusion that Common Sense should be free even if the players are playing versions of themselves, because the characters (usually) have complete senses in their environment while the players have only the description I've given them verbally that they have to translate in real time to imaginary visuals, scents, sounds, etc. When a player says they do something unusual or dangerous, I almost always ask for reasoning and give clarification. The only exception is for characters failing a roll making them impulsive or oblivious.