I am sure everybody read the new combat preview. Sadly everyone only referred to the new strange LOS rules, but noone cared about the other rules the preview brought to us.

-new dice, power surge rules
-new "death" rules - or knock out rules

I have to admit I dont like the death rules. It seems that no character ever can die but only be unconcious after getting bitten by a dragon (or "knocked out" as they call it). Thats carebear rule is so ridicolous and additonally lacks any narrative.

I hated the lack of perma death in the first edition too. why not allowing death and have the player bring in a fresh character with some extra equipment? (eg with half of the equipment the dead character had?)

On first impression I don't like it either. However, as I understand it, each encounter has specific rules for winning and losing conditions for both sides that do not include hero death.

The divide and conquer tactic worked well in 1st ed, it sounds like it will work even better in 2nd ed. Now I'm looking forward to luring one hero away, knocking him out, and then pummeling him round after round. Getting kills in 1st ed was satisfying but somehow this way sounds even more diabolical.

Hopefully it also removes the tactic of having a "runner" in the group. While tactically effective, it made the game less fun in my mind since nothing was dying.

MasterBeastman said:

I agree with this. I never minded the frequent and habitual death and resurrection of heroes - that disbelief can be suspended easily enough in a world where magic is commonplace, however, I wasn't very fond of the way death had few (if any) lasting mechanical consequences. Suicide runs were all too frequent for my taste, and the worst part of it was that the heroes really needed to use that tactic to maintain their fighting edge. If you had the CT to spend, it was a downright practical move.

That said, I'm not entirely fond of the fluff idea that heroes only get knocked down, as the OP mentioned. I like how it gives "death" a bit more meaning - you can't afford to run into a room full of monsters because your hero will stay there and stay weak if he has no support. I dislike the idea that a dragon can only knock you over and not bite you in half, though.

However, I choose to see this not as a flaw in 2e, but rather as an opportunity to play with house rules. Perhaps a rule that if a hero gets attacked while he's KO'd he gets killed for good. Potentially with the option to have the party resurrect him after the quest is finished (for a reasonably high cost.) Of course, being a fan of roguelikes in general, I also find the idea of permadeath somewhat enticing, though I suspect it would make the game quite hard for the heroes.