OMG, what a session!

[Lance D. Allen]

It started out really slow. I mean.. we wasted half an hour trying to get past my GM's block. The first defining event was when Lx's character got his skull fractured in what was supposed to be a minor sparring match exploring the multiple opponents rules..

Kory's character, Jaga, also managed to get in with Dominick (Lx's) by attempting to track someone who'd intruded into his quarters the night before. Then on the spur of the moment, I decided to turn a trip by Dom out to find the druids into a major plotpoint involving the local dragon..

Dominick was trying to find the druids to see if he could get his fractured skull healed, when a sudden compulsion overtook him to obey a summons. When he arrived in a clearing, he saw a severely wounded dragon.

Now an aside: This was essentially pre-scripted. Knowing in general how Lx was playing his character, I knew basically what he'd do. I used it as a step toward his destiny, and to add some "kewl factor" to the game. Hey, I'm a sucker for kewlness.

Anyhow.. the dragon asked Dom to kill it, because it was dying. He used his sword and a movement/growth/sculpture spell to drive the blade into the dragon's heart, and at that moment, the dragon released some held spells which implanted certain things into both Dominick and the sword. All of this was intended to add to the climactic occurrences later.

Meanwhile Jaga, Dominick's newly appointed bodyguard, heard some rumors of sorcerous activity in the city, and due to his hatred of sorcerers, went to investigate. He followed the rumors to a building which had a sort of fear aura spell on it, but one he managed to resist, for the most part.

Another aside: When I set up this scene, I only intended Kory to witness it, and due to his last character's bad experiences with sorcerers, to exercise the better part of valor, and report it back. Eh heh..

Anyhow, he manages to sneak up on the following scene: Two sorcerers in the middle of a blood-sacrifice ritual spell involving the aztec-inspired heart burning. The sacrifice was wearing the robes of a druid, as well.. On either side of the ritual space were the corpses of two guardsmen, both still clutching their halberds. Tho Jaga had no experience with walking dead, Kory's last character had very nearly died to one. I expected caution. But with Lx egging him on, he drew a javelin, took aim and transfixed one of the sorcerers (incidentally, the one leading the ritual) straight through the heart. Then he charged the second with his greatsword.

He managed to realize the danger in time as the walking dead reared up behind him, and parried the pike attack. As the sorcerer chanted behind him, he fought the corpse, and took a cut (level 3, zone III) in the side. He abandoned that fight and turned instead to strike the sorcerer before he finished his spell. He killed him in one blow, but then caught a strike to the side of the head. Only his helmet managed to save him, (level 2, zone IV, upper head) but with a BL of 10, and a Pain of 12, he was still in a bad way. Luckily I'd made the call beforehand that the undead were not fully walking dead, so when the sorcerer died, they fell. We had to cut the game before we found out what happened to Jaga, though.

To be honest, I didn't see him surviving at all when he said he was drawing his javelin. I figured this would be the second character lost within 3 sessions. But his character, though badly injured, has a chance of surviving. And why?

You guessed it; SAs. SAs, his helmet and desperate luck. But mostly SAs.

I think I gave out an unprecedented 8 SA points this session.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

It makes me wonder at the paranoia of the players in my group when not 1 PC has ever died. A few have gotten seriously wounded but never have any of them recieved the mighty reward of insight for a character KIA. This story reinforces the thought that perhaps I need to figure out how to make my game more lethal or evaluate what the PC's are doing to survive all the time...

[Caz]

I've had the same thought, after all my pCs survived a game I fully intended to kill them in.  One came out unscathed.  The other took a mace to the top of his head, recieving only a concussion due to a helmet.  Later, after he recovered, they were involved in a long siege, defending a castle.  There was an attempt to undermine the wall, they made a countermine and had a furious and bloody scuffle unerground in which he was stabbed in the face.  Later, on the wall, saved several times by his brigandine and got stuck in the hip.  Luckily he had quick healing advantage.

[Lxndr]

Just remember the incredible irony in this story:

* A character charged two full-on sorcerers, and lived to tell the tale for at least 60 seconds after killing them both (as well as facing the WALKING DEAD that they were animating).  

* The other character was sparring, using practice swords whose damage rules were purposefully dumbed down, and if it wasn't for the leather helmet he was wearing (which we didn't remember until the last minute), would have recieved a killing blow (level 3 vs level 5).  As is, he's got Pain 7 for weeks.

Just goes to show you both ends of the scale with TRoS - both survival in the face of unlikely odds, and the deadliness of even a practice fight when your SAs aren't firing.  :)

[Ingenious]

When my character went up against an NPC with SA's I should have lost(did not due to first session).. It turns out that a shield in fact at this point in the TROS system absorb damage while blocking. It either blocks totally, or doesn't. We used it sort of as armor, plus #of successes and TO as well as body armor... Turns out that my character would have died from a level 9 or so wound. So yea, lethality comes with NPC's using SA's. It allows the character to use their SA's, rewarding them for furthering the story and developing their character... but the NPC using SA's is comparitive. It lures the character into a false sense of security(in my case) and I did not know how many dice this guy had, so I thought a level 3 to the throat would handle him... but then he attacked again. And I almost crapped my pantaloons.
So that's my idea of how to amp up the lethality. NPC's with SA's.

The other story of note, is that the second sessions(after which I discovered he should have died in the first one) there was a tournament with wooden swords. I fought against two peasants... breaking one's jaw, shattering another's leg. So even with 'bokken'-styled weaponry it was near lethal. Though, the peasants did not have armor for this...

-Ingenious

[Lance D. Allen]

The point, once again, is a matter of what the character is capable of when they really care. It's not about checks and balances.. I don't care, I've never cared, if characters were balanced, or if the NPCs I threw at them were balanced. It's all a matter, to me, of the "no shit, there I was..." stories to follow... ie, the gamer anecdotes we all have. I've no doubt that when Kory talks about his days gaming with this group, this will be one of the scenes he recounts.

When was the last time you had a character succeed against all odds, not because he was an uber-badass, but because he really cared about the outcome? I can't say I ever had this happen in any of the other games I've played, or ran before TRoS. As much as I love Shadowrun, V:tM, and even Star Wars D6, none of them have this. I've always played characters who'd rush into danger, disregarding the risk because they felt strongly about something. Usually those characters failed, won by sheer luck or badassity, or had the GM fudge things to make it so my character survived, succeed or fail. TRoS bypasses those things by allowing the character's passions and drives make them more than they are normally.

That's what shook me. I've realized this from early on in TRoS's history, but this is the first time I've actually seen it myself. I heard everyone else's stories, and I was excited all over again about the system, but this is the first time it happened during my own game sessions. It's the difference in watching a thunderstorm, and being struck by lightning.

It.. bugs me to find these responses. It seems to me that you've missed the point. It's not about how my player characters are getting out of my carefully laid traps.. Hell, I never intended them to get into this one. It's not about how lethal the system is, or how powerful you can get.. It's about how what is important to the character gave them the strength to persevere against odds I thought to be impossible.

I could have killed him, no problems. All I'd have had to do was rescind my judgement that the walking dead were not animated with souls, so that they died when the sorcerer died. It wouldn't have even been power-gamed, or playing unfair, because the players had no idea until afterward that I'd decided this beforehand, for IC reasons. If I'd just changed my mind, he'd have had two mostly unharmed (sure, one was missing the top half of it's skull, but it's not like the walking dead *need* a head..) walking dead with halberds, 12 points of Pain and 10 points of Blood Loss. But the fact of the matter is, he killed two uber-sorcerers, and single-handedly destroyed one of my major sub-plots.

It was glorious.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

It.. bugs me to find these responses. It seems to me that you've missed the point. It's not about how my player characters are getting out of my carefully laid traps.. Hell, I never intended them to get into this one. It's not about how lethal the system is, or how powerful you can get.. It's about how what is important to the character gave them the strength to persevere against odds I thought to be impossible.

Well, it looks like we both might have missed eachothers points, mine was that I may have been cheating my characters as yours had a lot of fun being placed in this truly threatening position that their characters were driven to dive straight into and thus only because they cared so deeply did they survive. In my campaigns my players often don't need to throw in the SA's to walk out alive as they rarely even get touched. Thus I asked myself, what was I possibly doing wrong or different that keeps the players from being torn limb from limb.

What I am trying to say is, I am wondering if the "danger" element is not strong enough in my campaigns, maybe they are going up against mooks when I should have villains, or something. Just wondering what I am doing different that keeps them from ever even being injured.

[Lance D. Allen]

AH, I see then. Well, if Dominick's duel is any indication, a few practics spars now and then is sufficient if what you want is injuries. ::wry grin::

[Ashren Va'Hale]

what I want is the THREAT of injury. What good is passion: girl being used to rescue the girl if the character charges up the oliphant and wastes the entire outfit of haradrim and never breathes hard for it...  Sorry to all the legolas fans out there for that deregatory example. How can I make my players' experience as enjoyable as your example appears by making the conflict truly appear dangerous? Do I need to have someone's character get mauled to ilustrate things ? or could I have a spar get out of hand and wound someone that way? or is wounding even a necessary element of putting that sense of danger into a scene?

[Alan]

HI Ashren,

I'll bet you already have a lot of death in your game - all the opponents the players attack.  If your players understand that you're using the same wound system for them and their opponents, I'm sure they understand the risk of death and the difference SAs make.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

point.

[Ingenious]

..and all I was merely pointing out was how to amp up the lethality for Ash. Though he might not use that particular method. Cheating on rolls as a GM also works... *shrug*.
Wolfen, your point is perfect though. Many times in DND I have ran into the face of Chimera's alone.. against dragons.. golems, etc... and survived not due to luck or because I cared... because I geared my character to do that. With TROS it is very difficult to acheive feats such as these, but amazing feats im TROS are not impossible. My character died as a result from an NPC seriously getting pissed about our group being there and hunting for the woman he was to protect. Hence all of his SA's were firing, and I did not know at the time... so I underestimated him. I have yet to use all of my SA's at once like that, due to the way I geared my SA's. Through my character's survival however, I destroyed one of the main sub-plots for another character in the group... when I sniped Duran(see the post on that) and killed her. Had I not survived, the guy that was there with me would have died, and the plot would still be intact.
This would have been alot more fun for everyone else, including me.. as I look back on it I wish that my character HAD died in order for everyone else to see 'how deep the rabbit-hole goes' if you get my drift. And it would have been memorable for me to know that my supposedly 'uber-powerful' mercenary got his ass handed to him by an NPC that cared what he was fighting for and why he was fighting.

-Ingenious