How to avoid killing your player characters as GM

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Culture20

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.

Yeah, that's a good idea. It's a lot easier to forget the Duchess you're secretly conspiring with your ally to frame for murder is literally standing right across from you when it's something the GM said about the scene 10 minutes ago alongside the rest of the infodump than it is to do the same when you can actually see her there.