I’m not much of a Poker player but I’ve played enough to observe that five-card draw is a terrible game. Now I know that statement will be enough to get a fair few people angry with me but you can test this theory on your own. Go play some five-card draw only remove betting. Then observe how much you enjoy that game.

If you just had a blast playing five-card draw with no money then you have my sincere apology. But if like me you’ve realized its pretty boring without stakes then you may also be willing to concede that poker is not the only game that is improved when risk is involved.

I often think of the last 5E game in which I actually played, “Dungeon of the Mad Mage.” I had for better or for worse created a Paladin which I intended to be selfless in nature.

As it happened my party wound up in Undermountain where we opened up a fight on two fronts. In short order it was clear we were facing the rarest of 5E monsters; the “Total Party Kill.” My Paladin, true to his nature, stepped through a door and locked it behind him. Intending to sacrifice himself to save the party.

But the party and the DM had other plans. For all of them my character dying would have been a tragic end to their fun. So his imaginary sacrifice was thwarted by party fiat.

The problem was that my fun and investment in the character and the game was immediately ruined by my well meaning friends. I never did play in that game again.

I may be the extreme case but for me if the game lacks teeth, if my character can’t die, if there are no stakes then what am I doing with my time?

More often than not I’m running the game. When I do I’m frequently bored. Pillow-fisted monsters and fight-everything players get old fast. What a game like that needs is lethality.

Now I know lethality is not popular these days. Some people think character death is the same as losing and losing isn’t fun. But is it fun to win something rigged in your favor? I personally don’t know any adults who challenge toddlers to fights simply because winning feels good. And I doubt fair reader that you would fight a child for the thrill of victory.

The absurd aside there is an important question to be asked about the lethality of RPGs. I’m not holding myself out as an arbiter of what is best here. Lethality is like salt. You should add it to taste.

Brutal Fun

On the more brutal side of games I’ve run there’s Mörk Borg and B/X. These games are a total blast. Both facilitate quick and simple combat by using side initiative and low hit point monsters and characters.

In the case of Mörk Borg combat became an almost comedic sport in which the players started to compete for stabbing or breaking their weapon first. Though at times quite difficult the lethality of the combat is something the players were mostly able to mitigate by learning how to employ their omens. Getting better once or twice also helped in this regard. Though difficult character loss hovered below 50%.

Despite the grim-dark of Mörk Borg, B/X turned out to be the more lethal experience. At the start I advised my players to create two characters because one would surely die. Half listened but all watched in disbelief as they started to fall like flies in the first dungeon. After the initial shock wore off returning to town to recruit mercenaries and roll new characters became a sort of mini-game.

But were these systems too lethal?

Honestly we did tend to tone it down a bit back in my AD&D days if only to give the characters a shot at making it past first level. But the dice punished stupidity and door stomping was the fastest way to a total party kill.

Lethality therefore re-focuses the game. If the players want their characters to survive then they have to ask questions about the world. They have to know what lives on the other side of doors before entering. They have to ask about what lies ahead. In short they have to invest in the world.

In my experience a game in which the players care about the world around them is a superior game.