TTRPG Genres You Just Can't Get Into -and- Tell Me Why I'm Wrong About X Genre I Don't Like

[MGibster]

Hmmm, based on that, I'm not sure you'd dig Mothership either. You can definitely have one character panic, thus causing everyone to take additional stress, and possibly trigger more panic rolls. Also, combat isn't as detailed but is pretty dangerous. We were using some modifying rules to make it a little bit more survivable, which suited our group. I don't want to discourage you - I adore the game - but it's definitely a meat grinder.

The cascade failure in Alien usually goes as follows. One player fails a Stress roll, the result is their Stress goes up plus everyone present must make a Stress test. Next player fails and the result is their Stress goes up and everyone present must make an Stress test. It just keeps happening and after the first time it loses all its charm.

I think it's much like CoC here as @MGibster described. In that, in a lot of situations, so long as you actually have guns and get the drop on enemies, you can be extremely effective. Especially if PCs have the stats to support that. It can be quite deadly but like, not excessively so. PCs have a relatively decent amount of HP. If you do stupid things yeah you may die but like, it usually requires you to do something stupid for it to be a "meat grinder".

I don't find CoC to be a meatgrinder either, but it's dangerous. When the bullets start flying, even a reasonable plan can turn into a dead or severely injured Investigator in short order. The PCs can stack the deck or shave the dice in their favor, but at some point they're going to roll snake eyes or draw a bad hand. I sure as heck don't mind dangerous games where characters can die. I don't think D&D is deadly enough!