Instakill Mechanics in TTRPGs

[Thomas Shey]

That’s not really what the link says, fwiw. It says that the losing side would often sustain far more casualties - 14% of deployed forces vs 5% for a victorious side. Exploiting a disorganized retreat with calvary is a well known Thing across history. You’re not looking to slaughter every last person - just be decisive enough the other polis gives on the purpose of the war (killing is not an aim in itself here after all - there’s a strategic objective at hand).

If we pivot back to our TTRPG paradigm though, it would make far more sense to focus on front line vs front line, where the latter would only commence a slaughter when the losers had no space to flee really.

There’s another comment further down that post that’s more applicable: “people don’t want to die, and even the winning side would usually rather spend time looting then risking their lives hunting down stragglers.”

When a victory is after a bunch of jostling and maneuvering and you’re in heavy armor and fatigued, you don’t want to pursue into the enemy’s reinforcements or their own Calvary or the like.

The problem is that in a lot of cases the cavalry example is at least as comparable; its opponents who are faster than you are, and who've already demonstrated they're capable of taking you down (because chances are you wouldn't be fleeing in the first place otherwise).

Also, serious fatigue is often a non-issue; most RPG fights are more like skirmishes than an extended battle, with engagement, disengagement and reingagement. While a typical RPG battle lasts long enough for the post battle adrenaline dropoff, that dropoff will typically happen well after the pursuit we're talking about is done deal, just because one way or another, it won't last that long.