"Lethal" games?

[LordBill]

Mmmmm...lethal!

First edition dnd, at level one, is mighty darn lethal! A fighter might have 6hp and a sword is probably doing 1d8+1. Ouch. Say hello to wizard with 1-4 hp.

Call of Cthulu, old version is very lethal. And you can go insane too!

I just published a pnp rpg game called Crime Network, where you play a mobster. The game is lethal; being shot...well....kills you. Or its very easy to die, anyway.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Two systems that are very brutal are Riddle of Steel and Battlelords of the 23rd Century.

Riddle of Steel tries to be much more realistic with their swordfghting... where actually getting hit with the sword once means debilitating injury that will usually result in getting knocked out / incapacitated / killed within a matter of seconds. A spiral downward from which there is very little chance of recovery. Add to that a much more realistic "healing" system... and your characters can be screwed. Hell, my own time playing a RoS campaign I got my ass handed to me the very first session, spent half the campaign on bedrest in prison trying to recovery from my sword wounds, then upon finally healing enough to get out of bed, made an attempt to escape the prison and got impaled by a spear, sending me back into recovery mode.

And as far as Battlelords is concerned... it was designed to be lethal. Gunfire, explosions, malfunctions... the party is meant to be treated as disposable income for the corp that hires them. And the systems' Injury charts have like 33 percent instant-death on certain ones, crippling injuries and such to fill out the rest. The game is not meant for long-term campaigning... it's meant for amusing and fun one-offs.

 

[maddman75]

What's all this 'old version' stuff? I run 6th edition CoC regularly, and its just about as deadly as the original. Let's see, last one shot I ran

- One PC stabbed to death by a strange goat-man
- One dessicated and drained of life by a Colour so bad she caused people looking at her to roll Sanity. She was then shot in the face
- Another was burned alive.
- Still another was cut down by the goat-man while begging it to spare him in exchange for his soul. Goat-man would not be appeased.

And while the current version of Cthulhu isn't 'eats 1d6 characters', it isn't much better

 

[knightofround]

Thread Summary:

What PnPs can be truly named lethal? Brutal? Murderous? Harder than punching a raging bull to death after he's gored both your biceps? Where if you still have your starting character after the third session, you're probably cheating?

Sir,

I believe the game "Hackmaster" was built for you.

 

[Uder]

Thread Summary:

What PnPs can be truly named lethal? Brutal? Murderous? Harder than punching a raging bull to death after he's gored both your biceps? Where if you still have your starting character after the third session, you're probably cheating?

With the right/wrong game master, all of them.

Seriously though, Dark Heresy or WFRP1e/2e can be brutal until you get some advances under your belt.

 

[Ariosto]

Hackmaster tries harder. It sort of has to, after giving everyone a 20-hit-point "kicker".

 

[Ariosto]

I run 6th edition CoC regularly, and its just about as deadly as the original.

What's with this "just about"?

The original gave you about twice as many hit points.
Old HP = SIZ + CON

That was changed in the first Revised Edition to
New HP = (SIZ + CON)/2

Maybe I missed some other little changes along the way, but this seems basically backwards to me.