Again, consider the difference between, "I like haggis. Haggis should exit,
Best spelling mistake I have seen today! Haggis will exit whether you like it or not!
Again, consider the difference between, "I like haggis. Haggis should exit,
There is no RPG but D&D and Gygax is it's prophet!(Maybe some people think that D&D can't involve escalating stakes without fudging? But even were that so, this thread is in General RPGs, not a D&D sub-forum.)
Interestingly, in 5e, we find the following text:
"Sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate a foe, rather than deal a killing blow. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable."
So, I'd correct you to say that a massive proportion of the rules are dedicated to reducing the enemy to zero hit points, to "taking them down" so to speak. Whether that means death is a separate question.
Let me ask you two things;
1. When was the last time you were in, or ran a campaign in any rpg system whatsoever where death was not generally the main point of combat?
2. If you can think of one - how many such campaigns out of all those you have been involved in does this represent?
That last line is I assume tongue in cheek?
You are presenting death as the ends of combat, but I find that death, even in combat, is not an end but a means.Let me ask you two things;
1. When was the last time you were in, or ran a campaign in any rpg system whatsoever where death was not generally the main point of combat?
2. If you can think of one - how many such campaigns out of all those you have been involved in does this represent?
2008, I think was when my last Champions campaign wrapped, it had gone six years, and had been concurrent with two 3.x campaigns. I'd also run a campaign in the 90s, from '93 through about 2000 I think, concurrent with a shared Storyteller campaign that also wasn't too into killing as the whole point of every combat (nor, indeed, combat as something that happened in every session), and, before that from '84-'89 (that was a crazy time, we had 5 campaigns going at once, 2 or three Champions, a D&D and a Traveler), those two overlapped by AD&D campaign, which spanned 1e/2e going from '85-'95. If we want to go with 'not exclusively' instead of 'not generally,' the 4e campaign I've run since 2012 and the one I've been in since 2010 would also both count, since there have been quite a few scenarios where killing at least some enemies was undesirable for whatever reason (two quite challenging battles in the last few months have been issued as non-lethal challenges, one was an 'all comers' arena battle, one was a contest of champions). And in 4e that's very easy to do, lethal or not was decided when you drop the target. 5e kept that, mechanically, though the 5e games I've run have been very AD&D inspired, so quite killy.1. When was the last time you were in, or ran a campaign in any rpg system whatsoever where death was not generally the main point of combat? 2. If you can think of one - how many such campaigns out of all those you have been involved in does this represent?
Anything that's not the way D&D does it comparatively uncommon in the hobby, of course, just like people are a tiny minority of earthlings (be it by individuals or biomass) compared to insects (nevermind fungi). But in terms of games out there, there's quite a lot that de-emphasize random/arbitrary character death and the murder-hobo lifestyle.Campaigns without lethal combat are corner cases. Campaigns without the risk of character death are corner cases.
Are they invalid ways to play? No of course not. But they are very uncommon.
Yet a lot of folks do tweak D&D to make PC death less common, the game's always included copious magical healing, and Raise Dead when that wasn't enough - and PC durability (or at least, death-avoidance) has been trending upwards for practically the whole run of D&D.In a game where challenge is valued, risks are overcome (with all the catharsis that comes with that) and lethal combat rules take up a large part of the rulebook, it is entirely obvious that there should be a risk of death for PCs or an element of risk is taken from the game and it loses the capacity to keep players on the edge of their seats during the vast majority of physical combats (i.e. those in which death is a part of the scene).