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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9549711" data-attributes="member: 42582">Instead of a Trickery contest, the players could have initiated a Kill contest. As things played out (ie scripting, rolls, etc), it is likely that many of the PCs would have been killed. But instead, they were captured. You think that the difference is profound in some way, not just in fictional terms, but in agency terms. But I'm not seeing it.The choice to Trick rather than to Kill is itself an expression of agency by the players. It establishes a different set of stakes. It allowed two of the players to achieve their PC goals, of escaping the swamp, even though they lost the conflict. Whereas being killed, or driven off back into the swamp, would not have achieved that goal.Did your game also feature a long discussion, in advance, about how to infiltrate the enemy installation (eg via steal, via fighting, via trickery)? Did it have a memorable attempt by the PCs to persuade the (new) bandits that they (the PCs) were emissaries from a previous group of bandits the PCs had confronted a few times?The players made their call, as to approach to take, and we resolved it. It was colourful, and memorable. The resulting escape from the Moathouse dungeon was also colourful, and memorable. I've got no reason to think it would have been better if there had been a fight to the death instead.</blockquote>