Quote Originally Posted by terodil View Post
Look, what kind of story are you cooperatively telling at your table if the players know that they can fly off the handle with absolute impunity because they can just point at the GM and say s/he 'has issues' if one of them dies? Our core disagreement is obviously at the point of what killing a PC 'for silly reasons' means. It's a rather fuzzy phrase and I think you'd do well to refrain from gratuitous ad-hominems until you clarify your position further. I certainly believe there are situations that can very quickly lead to a PC kill, and possibly even a TPK. It's not a good idea for a level 1 adventuring party to make a beeline for the ancient dragon's lair, even if their backstories say they're all dragon hunters, just because the DM had it circle overhead to create a sense of foreboding. Sure, any reasonable DM would give them several warnings and shots before the bow but at some point, the PCs make their own beds and have to lie in it.
It's not flying off the handle.

Attacking a princess that has a pet bird in a cage is flying off the handle.