Re: [DL] attrition rate?

[The Baron Samedi <baron11@netmcr.com>]

>
>
>Being WIld West and Horror combined, plus a less forgiving wound system than
>many RPG's (An unhurt man can be killed by one pistol shot if he's unlucky)
>the death rate is higher than many RPG's. Do other marshals out there run
>into problems such as this one, with plots crumbling because the characters
>they involve are no longer alive?
>
>Brian "Just wondering" Leybourne.
We have an attrition rate near 1 per storyline, Generally.  In one of My 
Deadlands game, the original group survived partly because they were 
ridiculously powerful (learning the system and all) but they had 0 
casualties.  The "rebooted"  group has lost 1 character to death, 1 
character to fleeing the law (officially, by the public record, he is dead, 
but he is not really) and the group has very nearly lost others too but has 
not yet.  My other Deadlands game has had no casualties thus far, but it is 
a shorter run game (by a couple months) tho one PC very nearly died 
(everyone spent chips to keep him alive) from a fall.  My HoE game have had 
3 casualties OTOH (one of which was resurrected, one came back Harrowed) 
and they lost 1 PC, a Harrowed, as her Guts were destroyed (30 wounds) and 
no one could heal her but the Doomsayer (and she declined that) so we 
assumed she is sitting in town learning reconstruction for at least 2-3 
years of game time.  Another PC is very close to getting killed barring 
some reconsideration of insulting random NPCs.  (he has lost 1 PC 
already)  These games are all about 6-8 months old.  The HoE game I play 
has had 2 PCs turn into odd aliens (a plot of that Marshal) but that is the 
only losses. That game is in the 6-8 month range too.  The other HoE game 
out there (I am not in) has had no losses (in 6 or 7 games), from what I 
understand, nor did the one Deadlands game I played in (in the 8 sessions 
it went).

I think this is not a bad thing.  It keeps people knowing their character 
CAN die, but people are not killed gratuitously.  generally, if people keep 
losing characters in our troupes, they start putting less and less effort 
into characters, and less and less interest in games. Still, there is that 
fear in the back of the mind that their PC can die, and that is what is 
important.  I make character death rare, but always possible.

An interesting note, BTW.  I am essentially a member of 3 different gaming 
groups.  Two of these I run Deadlands or HoE for.  One (who had originally 
played AD&D and Call of Cthulhu thus were used to high attrition) was the 
group that were in the first mentioned game with low attrition, while the 
second, who originally played most White Wolf, had PCs die more often 
(probably cuz they were less careful).  My other Deadlands game is a mix of 
the two.

Jason,
Da Baron
"Z is for Zombie, That's Good Enough for Me"