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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BadMojo" data-source="post: 206323" data-attributes="member: 569">I believe someone already mentioned using the Vitality/Wound Points system, but you could also lower the threshold on the Massive Damage rule.  Call of Cthulhu D20 mechanics help to enforce a more "gritty" feel through a combination of lower HP and a much lower Massive Damage threshold.  If you want your game to be even more deadly you might consider making the Massive Damage roll harder to make.As for non-rules stuff, I would say this:Nobody has plot immunity.  If you have a long-term NPC and the players absolutely love him/her, then kill off that NPC and make it a nice plot hook.Don't pull punches with the PC's.  Adventuring is dangerous business, and even "heroes" often die quick and seemingly meaningless deaths.  Of course, it can be hard to strike a balance between a grim & gritty campaign and an absolute meatgrinder where you have very little continuity due to PC's dropping every single game session.The lesser of two evils. Sometimes heroic types must make tough choices.  Sometimes you need to sacrifice the village to save the Kingdom.  Make sure the PC's realize that their actions have consequences and the "right" action isn't always readily apparent.  Definitely take advantage of moral "shades of gray".  If the PC's fail lots of innocent people could die...if they succeed hopefully fewer innocent people die! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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