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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Monayuris" data-source="post: 8139737" data-attributes="member: 6859536">There are a number of ways to decrease the deadliness of OSR games.Hirelings & retainers:The players can hire retainers and henchpeople to round out their group. They will likely siphon some XP away, but  having a couple  extra fighters in the party can improve survivability of the whole. You need them less and less as you gain levels, but at the early levels they are invaluable.Poison:You can house rule poisons to not be save or die. I think a house rule used in Basic Fantasy is to have poison do 1d6 damage per Turn for 6 Turns. It will likely still kill a character, but time and a little luck may allow a character to survive. At the very least, you can continue to play your character through much of the session.Start at 3rd level or so:Once you get past level 2 or so, you become much more survivable. Monster damage tends to stay in the 1d4 to 1d8 range. It is more common for higher level monsters to have multiple attacks at lower damage expressions as opposed to higher damage (gargoyles, for example are 4 attacks at 1d3, 1d3, 1d4 and 1d6... average of 10 hp if they all hit). So, you can withstand more attacks with a few more hit dice. Increased capability and access to more spells also helps.Start with 3 hit dice:A rule, I considered is to have each player start with 3 hit dice worth of hit points. At each level, have them roll their total hit dice and only increase the total if the roll is greater. For example, have a fighter start with 3d8 hp. Say, this gives the fighter 14 hit points. At second level have the fighter roll 2d8, if they roll 14 or less, they keep 14, if they roll 15 or 16 they use that total. At third level have the fighter roll 3d8, if they roll the level 2 total or less they keep that total, if they roll greater, they use the new total. This gives early characters some extra hit points while keeping hit point totals in line as they level.</blockquote>

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