Session to Death Ratio

[Cerebral Paladin]

For me, it depends entirely on the campaign. I ran a 3e campaign for probably 20 sessions without any PC deaths. My Heroic Dread campaign had 1 death in a twelve session, deliberately bounded campaign. My current 4e campaign is intended as a root-beer-and-pretzels, old skool style, kill-things-and-take-their-stuff campaign--my target in that campaign is roughly 1 PC death per 2 sessions, and we're running right at the target (5 deaths in 10 sessions).

I don't think the variance is about game system, so much as adventure design/gamemaster choice. I'm sure I could run a 4e campaign that was as nonlethal as my 3e campaign. But in my current campaign, I deliberately have the PCs facing large numbers of enemies, with frequent encounters that are higher level than the party (with lots of brutes, artillery, skirmishers, and some controllers, to avoid grind issues).

 

[S'mon]

In the last 6-session season of my 4e campaign there were 6 PC deaths, all permanent.

Over the full 12 sessions of the campaign so far there have been 8 PC deaths, 7 permanent. 1 PC was died, raised, then killed permanently.

So 12/8 = 1 1/3 sessions per death.

Edit: I think an appropriate death rate for a 6 PC group might be one per 3-8 sessions, less with skilled players, more with less skillful players.

 

[Ariosto]

Rate of character mortality in terms of equivalent character activity varies most directly by player expertise, lack of which is often a synergy with the fragility of 1st-level characters.

"Per session" has so little significance that I am not even going to try to estimate. If it were a matter of 50% KIA per session for a dozen sessions, or something like that, then I might take it as a flag to look at the circumstances. Otherwise, there simply is no reason to think in such terms.

One session might involve large parties making several disastrous expeditions. Another might be entirely devoted to a single, very successful adventure by a small party. Yet another might concern undertakings that by their nature do not pose much risk of mortality.

 

[Smoss]

Surprisingly I have not killed a PC for a while. Considering how deadly my system is, it has really surprised me. Even showing it off to some friends a couple weeks back who had never gotten a chance to play with it (And I threw a nasty at them just for the fun of playing around). They survived. Barely.

Hmm, maybe I need to up my challenges a bit.
--------------------------
Smoss
Doulairen (Doulairen)
Or go directly to detail on my RPG system:
RPG System (Doulairen)

 

[Iron Sky]

I've run 21 sessions of 4e and had 5 deaths (4 of those in one session). That puts me at about 1 PC death per 4 sessions in 4e.

In the 4e game I played in from level 1-21 (40-50 sessions?) we had 2 PCs petrified by basilisks (restored not long after the encounter it happened in) and those were the only losses.

In my 3.5 SH game, there were 5 deaths in 31 sessions, 3 of those deaths permanent. So about 1 PC death per 6 in 3.5e.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I voted for every 15-20 sessions, but it really depends on a few factors such as who is running, what game we're playing, and the plotline of the campaign.

Games such as Call of Cthulu have a significantly higher mortality rate, and we recently averaged 1 PC death every session for 5 sessions during our last run of 3.5 DnD.

 

[The Human Target]

I'm not sure really.

I will say, 4E has ratcheted up my death count a lot because its almost impossible for me to fudge the math so people live.

I prefer a rare death game.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Dying's too good for 'em!

Chop off both arms and legs and make the other characters carry that guy around with them. Then they'll stop complaining about character deaths.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Deaths for me since I've been running 4E have come in clumps. I've accomplished 3 TPKs since launch(One in the final battle of Demon Queen's Enclave, one at the start of Thunderspire Labyrinth when the PCs decided to provoke the entire town into killing them, and one where the party was destroyed by political intrigue), and I've only killed 4 PCs outside of those, one of those in a social/puzzle encounter and one in a skill challenge. Both combat deaths were due to epic stupidity and not bad luck(chasing after multiple fleeing enemies while bloodied and everybody else stayed three maps behind, and charging a room full of Netherese instead of following the party escaping through the hole the Wizard just blasted into the wall). Two of those deaths(the Netherese and the skill challenge one) came in the same session.

 

[Jack99]

I do not have the stats for my last campaign, but I am pretty sure one of my players does. Will see if I can't dig them up. My current campaign has run for 13 sessions, 36 times a player has been down and rolling death saves and of those 36 times has resulted in 7 player deaths.