Survival rate in TOR

[Southron]

I was curious as to how many PC's have been lost in other's games and under what circumstances.

Were they killed by overwhelming numbers, very powerful foes, etc....

[Glorelendil]

The only actual PC death I've seen was Rocmistro willingly sacrificing a character for the story value. It was a great moment.

[Deadmanwalking]

Nobody's died yet in our game, though there've been some close calls (and one character retired after he went permanently deaf). For example, there have been several Protection tests (I think three or so) that would've killed someone if they'd been failed.

Really, the system is pretty low lethality. It's hard to kill a PC outright in it.

[Dunkelbrink]

No deaths here either (40+ sessions), but the Woodman has been close several times. He fights with no armour and always in Forward stance, seldom weary and dishing out damage as no other but has become Wounded a number of times. He was closest to death when he suffered a Bout of madness in the middle of the Battle of Celduin and charged headlong into the enemy lines. He was swarmed by enemies, downed and most likely doomed, had not the other characters charged forward to shield his body with theirs (Protect companion several rounds). True Fellowship indeed!

But yeah, the game is not that lethal which I like. Let the heroic deaths come at the right moment. I've even all but excluded the Adversary ability No quarter because I don't like those kind of deaths.

[Rich H]

No deaths here, although the players/PCs do still approach combat with trepidation and are wary and considered in many battles. I think even though I've only Wounded one PC once, the threat of defeat is often very real and therefore still make combat exciting and viceral.

[Mythicos]

TPK here

It happened in the 6th adventure of Tales from Wilderland, "The Crossings of Celduin".

I'm going from memory here (it happened about 18 months ago, and I don't have my books with me at the moment), but from what I remember, it was a combination of two things:

1) On their way to the Crossings, a Travel check resulted in a Hazard, and I (LM) decided that they spotted from afar a scout from the invading orc army. The PCs decided that they had to hunt down the scout, a warg-riding orc. They managed to get to it and kill him, but were pretty unlucky and were severely depleted (Endurance-wise, and the best PC fighter was wounded);

2) During the face-off with the Army, the wounded PC got unlucky (again!) and was downed by a 2nd wound; things went downhill very fast after that.

Weirdly enough, as was the case with Dunkelbrink above, the wounded PC was an unarmored Woodsman, although maybe less berserk (not always in Forward stance). His reasoning was that the Fatigue accumulated from wearing an armor (and going down from accumulated fatigue and endurance loss) was more damaging in the long run than the risk of being wounded.

Problem with that reasoning is you're right until you're proven wrong; but by then it's too late...

We're playing another Campaign right now, I'm a player and, BELIEVE ME, I wear armor.

[Earendil]

I've just finished my campaign this week (apart from some wrapping up). It was the whole of Tales From Wilderland, plus several other adventures interspersed: 13 altogether, including 2 from Ruins of the North. None of them died.

Passing out from going down to 0 Endurance was common enough, but wounds weren't. I think they were all wounded at least once, but in the case of the dwarf, it may have been only once. I also don't think anyone ever hit 0 Endurance while wounded (though at least once someone needed to retreat as they were in imminent danger of that).

Like Dunkelbrink, I don't like No Quarter. If an enemy has it, I give them something else instead.

[Afterimagedan]

Any recommendations for what to give the creature instead of No Quarter?

[zedturtle]

Any recommendations for what to give the creature instead of No Quarter?

Horrible Strength is my preference... it still gets across the deadly nature of the Adversary without creating the auto-kill situation that No Quarter does.

[Rich H]

Any recommendations for what to give the creature instead of No Quarter?

I don't substitute another ability I just play such adversaries to the best of their capabilities and make decisions for them based on knowledge they wouldn't necessarily have within the game. It's metagaming but it makes them very dangerous, which fits the spririt of the ability. Appreciate this won't work in everyone's game though!