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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crimson Longinus" data-source="post: 9485350" data-attributes="member: 7025508">First, in the stories it often seems that Conan is in mortal peril, yet he doesn't die, because he is the sole main character and the author decided that he doesn't. But if we accept the uncertainty, this doesn't need to be the case in a game; mortal peril might be genuine.Second, I don't think your point about win or die is quite true. As long as the enemies have motivation to keep the defeated PCs alive, they quite easily can. Non-lethal hit rules are super generous (more generous than I like, in fact) and stabilising a dying character is trivial. And even if left unattended, a dying character is more likely to live than die. So "beaten and captured" is a perfectly viable outcome in D&D 5e.</blockquote>