Howdy and or Hail All,

So I was wondering - some RPGs are hard for PCs to survive in - having a high attrition rate and the like...

With that in mind, games like Cyberpunk and COC come to mind - heck even Mutant Chronicles!

( on a side-note, once upon a time I recall a player in my Mutant Chronicles campaign who went to the hospital to get healed, and "his" foes followed him there and found him on a gurney awaiting to be seen by a doctor - yes typical medical procedure lol - anyways said player once alerted to the danger - ending up fighting the foes from a gurny that was wheeled down a hallway with the PC on it firing down the hall, I recall him wheeling the gurnie into an elevator and getting away - that was an example of deadly gaming that comes to mind LMFAO from years past ; can't even get healed around here shesh)

ATM - I've been learning the game and more importantly the setting, grim dark, there is only war, life is cheap - all seem to indicate that Characters should be hard pressed - especially by definition of the game mechanics / aka math - seeming one really bad roll by the GM (rolling natural 10s on damage comes to mind) and your character is done!

Which I have no problem with - especially if there is an software based character generator (its been recently posted FYI)

Anyways - how deadly is your game?

Stay GAMING

Morbid

In my games, it's everything or nothing. If my players play intelligently and safely, there won't be too much trouble. If they begin to throw punches everywhere without getting sure they are the bigger fishes, they will get kill.

It's always the same:

Be discreet enough for your ennemies to not take notice of you

Or be strong and aggressive enough for your ennemies to cower before you.

Any in between, in my games, will result in ennemies gathering against them, their trail possible to follow and people able to stop them. Crush the resistance, or don't even let it the chance to know it must resists you.

As for the hospital scene, in my first campaign it happened. The wounded player didn't survive.

I underestimate the mechanical capabilities of my players, making them a deadly mix of Solid Snake, Sam Fisher and Revengeance Raiden. Certain combats that I elect ought to be deadly are either a wipe or fall apart not unlike a slight breeze. The trick to having a successful deadly game is not to let them have Power Fields. I know this now.

Not very, truth be told. I like to really grill my players, but in the current campaign, we've only had one death so far. To their credit, my players are careful. It should also be noted that in this campaign, they have yet to face a single stub gun. Plenty of tau pulse rifles and gene stealers, though. Ultramar is nicely in the centre of two conflicting foreign powers like that.

Given my experiences with the combat system, I would call it less gritty and grimdark, and heavily leaning towards cinematic 80s style action instead, where realism goes out the window and protagonists walk through lesser threats like it's nothing, unless you...get creative.

Now, if we're talking difficulty outside of combat, in that case, I'd say they're very challenging. I allow for mistakes during investigations that can, depending on what they do, have far-reaching consequences. Their current objective, tracking down a shapeshifting rogue assassin on his way to defection from the officio, isn't really what I'd call "easy" either.

It's very easy right now. I normally make a good effort to kill them near the end of a chapter. Some characters have ended up in crit damage and burning fate, but it isn't common. I don't believe that high character turnover is good for a narrative, so I make no effort to butcher people or they would all be dead many times over.

The Acolytes in my DH1 campaign recently hit Rank 8; we've had a lot of burnt Fate Points, but no permanent deaths. So, I suppose that makes me a push-over .

Like fog1234 above, I usually include one major combat encounter at the conclusion of the mission that is intended to put the party through the wringer; most other dangers encountered during the mission are usually incidental. The exception to that rule was a random encounter on a space hulk, where I rolled up the maximum number of warp beasts and came perilously close to a TPK.

I count Burnt fate points as deaths. It's what they are there for. So far in my current campaign I've played it 'soft' since I have a story to tell, but have had a handful of burnt fate points. In the next 'act' of my campaign, i plan to grill the hell out of the players. I've allowed them to grow to a point they can survive what's next if they play it smart, but ultimately i'm going to be throwing some pretty nasty things down their way - without even touching the really grisly stuff.

My campaigns have up until now had an average of 1 player death per year.

The campaigns usually run 2-5 years each.

So far, my game did not see the characters being threatened with death. My Players might disagree here, but let us face the Facts:

the characters are INVESTIGATORS (well, at least they should be), so most of the time it starts with the characters seeking out trouble, not the other way around.

One of the few realistic things about the game System is, that the side that is able to prepare for the fight or for the fight taking place under the conditions they would like (ambush, sniping, Sabotage of light sources, throwing of grenades, you-know-that-stuff) is likely to turn the Advantage into a victory.

So far, I have not had any reasonable chance to turn the tables on them in this regard, at least not without them passing Awareness tests to at least migitate suprise.

...and if I would have (or would even start aiming at that), the fate Point mechanismn prevent quick killing of an PC. Death never takes them in one fell swoop, it will knock at their door at least twice.