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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8121423" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is in RPG General, so I assume we're not just talking about D&D or about fantasy RPGing.Generally I prefer character-oriented drama to single-person-per-unit wargaming, and character-oriented drama works better when the main threat is not PC death.But deaths can occur when the game dictates as much. This is a function of mechanics and of fiction.A couple of mechanics-first examples: <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/played-some-wuthering-heights-today.672161/" target="_blank">a PC died in our Wuthering Heights one-shot</a>, and <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/i-really-enjoyed-todays-classic-traveller-session.657595/" target="_blank">a PC died in our Classic Traveller game</a>, because that's what the action resolution mechanics dictated. The mechanics here then dictate the fiction - eg in the Wuthering Heights game there was a scuffle in the bookshop, and the PC lost and so had to make a role against Decrepitude, and rolled a fumble (1% chance ie d% result = Decrepitude score) which = death. I (as GM) narrated it as a heart attack, so as to bring the fiction into conformity with the mechanical outcome.A fiction-first example: in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/prince-valiant-rpg-played-a-session-today.652393/" target="_blank">our first session of Prince Valiant</a>, one of the PCs was hunted down by the Wild Hunt. Mechanically, this was a standard extended contest in that system: opposed dice pools with the margin of success depleting the loser's pool. Being dropped to zero meant the PC had lost - the fictional context for this meant that he had been captured by the Hunt. Hence he was dead. That's been the only death in that campaign, which is now into double-digit sessions, as it's the only time the fiction has mandated such an outcome - eg in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/prince-valiant-actual-play-our-most-recent-sessions.668770/" target="_blank">a more recent session</a>, one of the PCs was reduced to zero dice in his pool in a fight against an undead lord, and I (as GM) narrated this as a serious wound (the enemy's greatsword having thrust through a gap between breastplate and pauldron to inflict serious bleeding) and not mere stunning and exhaustion (which is my default narration for a lost physical contest).The idea that a RPG is "soft" or "easy" if PCs don't die very much seems wrong-headed, because mechanics can be about when you lose an argument or when you lose a race just as much as when you lose a no-quarter-shall-be-granted duel. And the fiction of a RPG can be just as challenging to navigate if it is about figuring out how to leverage this NPC away from that NPC as if it is Tomb of Horrors.</blockquote>

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