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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6594464" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I would agree, if "real CAW" were synonymous with "evenly-matched CAW". Remember that CAW is a style, not a difficulty level.I don't have an explicit goal to defeat the PCs, and I try to ensure that they only go into lopsided fights with their eyes open (telegraphing difficulty), which isn't really compatible with "evenly-matched CAW" where there are enemies who are explicitly out to kill them. In fact I set up the campaign world to make them initially unimportant specifically because I think it would be too hard to avoid killing the PCs if they had such enemies right off the bat. ("Late at night, Falgoth the Ancient Red Dragon receives word from a paid informant that the Kingmen (PCs) have left the capital. The informant shows him the PCs' campfire, and Falgoth sneaks in at +7 to stealth (isn't spotted by watchman) and attacks you where you're huddled around the campfire. In the surprise round, he hits you all with 91 points of fire damage, save for half, and then kills Nox the wizard with three swipes of his tail." Note BTW that I am not averse to BBEG NPCs doing such things to each other, nor to showing up to recruit the PCs by proving that they could do such things to them if the PCs don't undertake a mission. In fact I'm planning to run this exact scenario next session, sans fire breath and killing, and with a slightly younger dragon.)Anyway, my point is that even though I don't deliberately set the PCs up to lose, if they do the wrong thing it can easily happen. So far, of the 4 biggest hostile encounters in the campaign in which combat occurred, the PCs have won 2 and lost 2. Of the ones that they lost, I allowed them to spend a karma point for a mulligant, and they still lost, but at least that time the barbarian managed to lug the wizard's unconscious body away from the battle instead of the wizard's corpse. (He still lost his pet wolf, and the wizard lost his spellbook and all his magic items.) The enemy didn't pursue because, see above, total annihilation of the PCs is not a motivation for them. I think it has to be possible for the PCs to lose in order for CaW to work, but I don't think it has to happen any particular percentage of the time. You can imagine a party who is so bad at CaW that they always charge straight for the superior enemy force, get slaughtered, and roll up new characters, but that would still be CaW.</blockquote>

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