Video Game Cruelty Potential/Tabletop Games

Examples of in  include:


 * While not a video game, it's an inherent risk of running neutral or evil parties in Dungeons and Dragons. In the case of evil parties, this is arguably the point.
 * Some spells in the expansions seem made for this trope. Great examples are Inner Fire (cause target to slowly combust inside and out), Drown (cause target to drown on dry land by filling their lungs with magically respawning water), Choke (basically what Darth Vader does), and the Distort Limb and Distort Body spells (turn target into Body Horror).
 * Some editions of the game had "Heat Metal" as one of the standard, go-to cleric combat spells. It was a spell that caused metal to gradually heat up over the course of several rounds until it burned flesh on contact. The spell description specifically mentioned how excruciatingly painful it was to try to hold on to something affected by this spell to discourage DMs and good role-players from simply deciding to hang on to their white-hot weapon if they had enough hit points to soak the damage the spell did. Unpleasant when used on your weapon, but remember: the spell was intended to be used against peope wearing metal armor. Heavier armors actually took longer to remove than it took the spell to heat them to flesh-melting temperatures.
 * Earthdawn has its moments as well, at least as a Nethermancer. You get to skin people alive just by touching them, or breaking bones just by snapping your fingers or just inflicting pain (this one without physical injuries though) for the hell of it.
 * Related to this trope, Exalted has an inherent metaphysical bond between two player character types. While it was meant by the divinities who put it in place to be the stuff of eternal romances and battle-forged friendships, the nature of the bond between the Solar and the Lunar Exalted has the potential for great abuse, both within the world and with certain magical abilities the Solars possess that can subjugate their Lunar Mate even more. There is a reason, after all, one Solar charm was dubbed the Lunar-taming Leash.