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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paid a bod yn dwp" data-source="post: 8215983" data-attributes="member: 6872763">Yeah not disputing those. The antagonist’s in most S&S literature don’t die at all. This is where gamest elements come into play, IMO you need a threat of failure to game it. Besides with the predictable damage of 5e, low level mooks are very unlikely to cause instant death anyway, unless they collapse a building on you.  But the instant death rule does a good job (for me) of adjusting presumptions about the world in comparison to standard 5e. It sends out a message that we are all mortals, flesh and blood, at the same time still acknowledges growing heroic status. If that’s not your bag it’s very easy to leave it out, and take away any threat a mook might pose. What’s proposed is optional, so you can decide what you want to emphasise in your S&S.  We’re all naturally going to be emphasising different aspects in our games as we take ownership of them at our (virtual) tables.In my game creating tension through a small element of unpredictability is something that helps create a slightly more edgy S&S atmosphere. It’s certainly a gamest device.  If there’s no threat the game becomes very bland, and  S&S for me is anything but bland.I think we all have valid points here. But your argument is premised on literally emulating all aspects of the Conan texts for instance, then we’re going to have hero’s that can’t die in our games. That doesn’t strike me as something I’d wish to play in a D&D game. I need gamest elements as well, that don’t just focus on emulating texts, but are also mindful of how they create atmosphere at the table. Gaming is a different medium and sometimes it helps to emphasis chance and failure in that medium to keep tension and atmosphere alive.  In a sense I see it as translating from one language to another, sometimes it’s not desired to do it literally.In my view we are still no where near the level of threat in games like RuneQuest, or wfrp. That’s why I agree with Xoth, the 1/400 chance of a deadly crit is very low, but it shifts the paradigm of standard 5e slightly, but not too much, the right balance (in my game).</blockquote>

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