I'm not the antithesis of this guy, bad things have to happen to characters to keep the story dramatic. But to make it a point to ensure that every character in the game is a miserable ball of depression - how does he keep finding players? I mean, I can understand he's got one or two long-time sycophants who get off on power-by-proxy watching him crush new players' hopes and dreams, but you would think word would get around in his local community.
There's a guy up here who plays D&D as a competition sport, it's him vs. the players - and if he loses, he just makes himself win without bothering to roll any dice. "Nope, sorry, he made it through the escape hatch."
Apparently, after a particularly brutal campaign involving phantom wards that weren't there a moment ago when they checked for them, villains that got back up more often than WWE wrestlers, and, I shit you not, a quest macguffin that was cursed, the players had had enough. At one point, they were fighting the Big Bad in a cavern and he started to slip out a convenient back door, leaving the party to his minions. The fighter of the group said, "I can't catch him ... BUT ... I can get close enough that if you hit me with your fireball I'll survive but the blast will get him too."
The fighter ran as close as he could, mage hit him with a fireball, the explosion engulfed the villain too for enough damage to kill him. The GM said, "Nope, you can't target party members." Final ruling.
Shortly after that, they all quit.
Now nobody in town wants to game with him.