Does the Death Curve Beat the Death Spiral?

[Umbran]

Your remarks bring to mind the difficult task of getting something to orbit a planet. Too steep of an approach and you burn up or slam into the planet. Too shallow of an approach and you bounce off the atmosphere and head off who know where. The successful angle exists but is very difficult to achieve.

Pretty much.

Nitpick: If you bounce off the atmosphere, not only was your approach too shallow, but you were also way too close.

 

[GMMichael]

What I want to see are combat systems that make it easy for the whole party to retreat and that provide a clear signal when it's time to do so.

This is fair. One thing that should be included in the Hit Points Are Genius thread (might be, I don't know) is that they're not externally visible. So if you're about to start a fight against the 1,000 HP kobold, a clear signal to run away might be nice.

The usual PC ethos includes "no one gets left behind," which is a fine thing except for the way the usual combat rules combine with it to produce a "Victory or death! Every combat is a Last Stand." setup.

I'll sometimes abandon that ethos when I tell an ally, "we should run," and the ally says, "haha! Art thou craven?" and runs in anyway. Who am I to interfere with someone's death wish?

Even with scummy NPCs and monsters willing to leave their dead and wounded behind, GMs often need a reminder to have survivors retreat. To expect PCs to leave their dead and wounded behind produces a game that's more grimdark than I care to either run or play in. With the usual combat systems out there, this turns nearly all combat encounters into Last Stands, either for the NPCs/monsters or for the player characters.

The theoretical (thanks, @Umbran) steep part of the death curve is the point to run. Before that, you still have a chance of winning. After that, there's no chance of winning, but at least you're still alive.