Survival rate in TOR

[Mythicos]

The only player character death I've had was a front-line Dwarf who fell on the bridge at Celduin. It wasn't the foes he faced, for he had slain many. Just, finally, a lucky hit from an orc got him. Wearied from his efforts holding the bridge on behalf of the villagers, he took a wound as the last of his reserves of strength gave way. The blade took him and darkness fell on the bridge. His comrades rallied and managed to defeat the darkness, driving their foes from the bridge and tipping their cart in to the river below. His actions were remembered by the company, and by the villagers of Celduin, and his memory honoured.

Reading the posts of this thread, it's relatively obvious that Celduin battle is a really dangerous one...

And having witnessed many times the devastating effects of being wearied, I'm surprised there's not more casualties. Do LMs pull their punches, so to speak, when one or more PCs are wearied and or wounded?

[Majestic]

I haven't pulled punches much. Only when the entire company is being routed do I perhaps back off a bit, and then only when there are story reasons for doing so.

[Valarian]

The only player character death I've had was a front-line Dwarf who fell on the bridge at Celduin. It wasn't the foes he faced, for he had slain many. Just, finally, a lucky hit from an orc got him. Wearied from his efforts holding the bridge on behalf of the villagers, he took a wound as the last of his reserves of strength gave way. The blade took him and darkness fell on the bridge. His comrades rallied and managed to defeat the darkness, driving their foes from the bridge and tipping their cart in to the river below. His actions were remembered by the company, and by the villagers of Celduin, and his memory honoured.

Reading the posts of this thread, it's relatively obvious that Celduin battle is a really dangerous one...

And having witnessed many times the devastating effects of being wearied, I'm surprised there's not more casualties. Do LMs pull their punches, so to speak, when one or more PCs are wearied and or wounded?

The danger comes more from the length of the battle than from the number of enemies. The wave after wave of foes wears the characters down. Any melee fighters are pretty sure to be wearied. I haven't pulled any punches for characters in the games I've run and I've only had the one fatality. Plenty of wounds, but only the one fatal wounding.

[Corvo]

(...)
Reading the posts of this thread, it's relatively obvious that Celduin battle is a really dangerous one...

And having witnessed many times the devastating effects of being wearied, I'm surprised there's not more casualties. Do LMs pull their punches, so to speak, when one or more PCs are wearied and or wounded?

Going on a mild tangent
I cannot speak about that specific adventure (in my campaign it was modified a lot), but in general I feel like many LM are pulling punches in their games (and that's is perfectly legit, btw): I'm referring to the wounding blows and the protection rolls.
Looks like a lot of PCs are going around with low armour (say, 0-2 d6), but in my games protection rolls are damn common! Of my two Fellowships, one got average armour 4, while the other got an average 2,5. The latter one feels like they are pretty vulnerable.
Maybe it's just that I got killer dices...
/End of tangent

[Robin Smallburrow]

I think I have mentioned this in an earlier thread, but my general comments on Combat:

1. Those Fellowships that act as true fellowships (i.e.as a proper team) will tend to survive and thus there will be few character deaths or injuries - the whole point being that someone will be there to 'watch your back' - this also means being able to avoid being surprised and ambushed - combat is much nastier if the opposition has the initiative!

2. Wearing heavy armour sucks except when in Combat, when it becomes a literal lifesaver! I ran a combat playtest for starting PC's against a bunch of Attercops, in one combat when the party were Surprised the only PC left standing was the dwarf, because although he was soon Weary he kept making his Protection Test (5d becomes important when you are Weary!!) I would certainly drop hints as LM before the Crossings of Celduin about looking for armour for the PC's....

Robin S.

[DarkTraveller]

I had all but one of the original party in my game get wiped out during Those Who Tarry No Longer. They failed to protect Irime and requested to help the sons of Elrond guard her to Rivendell. Due to a few hazard rolls they wound up getting ambushed in the High Pass by a group of about 20 Orcs which typically wouldn't have been a problem (they cut through Orcs like they were nothing), what sealed their respective fates was that they had all accumulated a ton of Shadow and spent a lot of Hope. During the course of the battle 5 of the 7 companions suffered bouts of madness. Leading to infighting and near TPK (the Sons of Elrond died too).

The only PC to survive was the Barding who burned his Birthright virtue to have only been thought killed. He then summoned the Eagle they had helped earlier and convinced it to take him and Elrond's sons to Rivendell.

This event has now led to the Lord of the Rings movie-verse in my game (Elrond being less joyful and trusting Men less, Arwen having a larger role in things, Legolas becoming a murder hobo, etc) though obviously the book version of The Hobbit is still game canon.

Long story short, watch your Hope and Shadow kids, they can destroy you if not properly maintained and turn Peter Jackson's vision into reality

[madgael]

We've had about 20 sessions so far, and so far only one PC death. Our Woodman went down hard in Fornost during the final "Last Stand" battle of Concerning Archers.

As it is, I'm a little bit shocked we haven't had more casualties. The fellowship is generally short-handed (usually only 2-3 per session), they tend to be very Forward-happy in combat in my opinion, and also I've dealt out a fair share of wounds so far. But they've been lucky and/or good enough to finish off combats before things get too out of hand. (There was one other Endurance TPK during a fight with a troll that went very badly against them. But I had them wake up a few hours later in the dark of the troll's lair, weaponless and with some nasty headaches.)

The trip to Fornost was a rough one though, and they were even more weary/miserable than usual when that fight started. I probably do pull punches more than I should in those situations, and as it was, I didn't realize he was dead, not just down, until the whole fight was over.

[zedturtle]

Well, there's a decent chance that I just killed four heroes in the Beornsvager game. Huh.

[Rue]

Well, there's a decent chance that I just killed four heroes in the Beornsvager game. Huh.

True story. At least we went down in a Tolkein-y way: Protecting Companions for all we were worth. (I'm actually having a case of the "oh sh*% did that really just happen" giggles.)

[jamesrbrown]

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking this Monday night some of my player-heroes are going to taste death on the Path of Serpents when they face a pack of basilisks. They've just killed a mad, hungry giant pretty handily and their confidence has reached tremendous heights. None of them are wearing great armour...