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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5560191" data-attributes="member: 3820">Off and on, it ranges from a year or two for a couple of my co-workers to 15-20 years for some of my old friends. And one of the things that I think is worth pointing out is that over that period of time, it's actually possible to play quite a number of character concepts even if you aren't generating replacements for a fallen PC. One-shots, side stories, games that end naturally or unnaturally -- while having a PC killed is an excuse to try something new, it's not the only excuse. Playing with people who may have to miss sessions here or there due to real life actually has encouraged us to have three or four campaigns shifting around, any one of which may be run in the Weds. night slot.That's not what people on the low-lethality side of the fence usually do either. I create situations with variable consequences. I don't mandate the specific consequences, or the ending.Again, this is why "you should probably play some other game" arguments fail: because they so rarely understand just how the other group plays, and sometimes they don't even try. Predetermined outcomes for character arcs or scenarios can take place in a lower-lethality game, but also there are lower-lethality DMs who find the concept abhorrent. (Like me.) The two are not intrinsically connected. It's like deciding not to use norkers, and deciding not to let the PCs play races other than humans -- you could have a game where both of those things are true, but adding one does not mean the other is present."Death is rarer and harder to come back from" is not removing death from a game. The only house rule is "the raise dead ritual is not widely available, and may require extra components or efforts." Everything else is choosing enemies who might take captives rather than deliver a coup de grace, giving players opportunity to identify and prepare for really hard fights instead of trying to surprise them with them, placing more encounters where diplomacy is an option rather than a fight to the death, things like that. A lower-lethality game is absolutely by the rules.To be honest, "this style of play" you're describing isn't a style of play I see regularly; it's based on assumptions that might be correct for some groups, but not any of the ones I've played with. I'm willing to describe our actual games more if you're interested in seeing how lower-lethality can work in accordance with RAW and still run without rails or player fear of failure. But if you'd prefer to take my word for it, I'll just say "nope, it works much differently than what you've described."</blockquote>

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