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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9757926" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Only if you're actually ready for that kind of story.As someone currently right now in real life struggling with making sure life does, in fact, go on? Yeah I really, really, really do not need that kind of thing in my life right now. But I get quite a bit of value out of playing TTRPGs anyway. Cutting that out of my life would in fact make improvement more difficult, not less.Which is a long-form personal way of saying, you left out a critical part: "The PC has lost everything they care about, what new things can they find to care about? Which are often some of the most powerful and uplifting stories for me". For you, these are powerful and uplifitng. For me, they're a constant neverending reminder of the personal, familial, medical, economic, and social stuff I'm dealing with.The analogy I've heard that I quite like (from Overly Sarcastic Productions) is that grimdark narratives like this are like an ice bath: shocking, even refreshing, especially if you've been going through sweltering heat. But for folks who spend their days in the frozen tundra, not at all productive or enjoyable or uplifting.Whereas to me, a high-lethality game is specifically going out of its way to tell me that PCs are disposable and life doesn't matter.For me, life is valuable because of...everything else. People, places, experiences, principles. These are the things that, as mentioned above, give value to survival. Survival itself? Mostly pretty freakin' miserable. My late father mostly survived for the decade prior to his cancer diagnosis. I know what "survival" looks like, and it sucks. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.</blockquote>

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