I like the games introducing the dying condition, particularly if you can increase the treshold (-10hp isn't enough for a 100-200 hp character) like in KotC 2.
Fuck yeah, agreed.
Most games just use stats so just have stat-based -hp as well.
Plus, it makes medic-type characters more useful and important.
I think it also goes well with a bleeding mechanic, so that someone can bleed until they start dying and then they can also bleed while on the ground, I can see some tension there in having someone dying in the middle of a fight.
You can also play with this mechanic a bit as well. Like having traits/perks/feats allowing for things being able to stay fighting at negative HP for a penalty (time/turn-based/spends extra fatigue or bleeds more/stat penalties), getting a "second wind" and rising back to fight for a few rounds, characters which can regen and perhaps even fast enough that "finish them off before they rise back" is a real issue, etc etc.
This mechanic should also allow an interesting edge to "Pacifist Play", in which instead of "No Fighting" it's more like "No Killing." Beat everyone to negative HP a bit, get XP, take their shit, patch them up, spare them. Maybe arrest/capture/slave them too. Which could also allow the flip side as they do this to YOU - like doing some crime, getting the shit beaten out of you by the police or waking up being interrogated, in the clinker - or in the coal mines/sugar cane plantation if you are unlucky.
RPGs really need less lethal fighting, not every fight should end in dozens of people dead just for the sake of it.
I couldn't agree more, tavern brawls should be just that and it would also allow for some more skills, unnarmed combat, brawl allowing for non lethal combat while armed combat could allow for non lethal wounds but could also "fail" miserably and cut an artery or an arm and kill your opponent, getting your party thrown in jail or having to fight off highly trained city guards.
Another thing that rattles my cage is how NPC and guards are so weak in most cRPG, you're the biggest bully in the yard and you're going to save the world!
It would be nice if many cRPG put you in your place at the bottom of the food chain with most guards, knights and NPC were twice the men you are, at least up until late game where you can somewhat catch up to most of them.
*shrug* window dressing aside, there is really only one fundamental question: does your combat result in meaningful long-term consequences, or not?
No consequences = unconscious characters recover after fight, raise dead is pretty cheap and plentiful, etc. Every combat happens in its own vacuum.
Yes consequences = unconscious gives debilitating injury until next doctor, character death is forever, etc. Attrition happens.
While the Yes route is obviously preferable, permadeath shouldn't really be necessary to achieve this. A fictional example would be a Gothic-like RPG where people regularly lose and regrow limbs a la lizard tails. Suddenly the meaning of crippled is different. Losing your arm against the enemy is common, but instead of reloading, you might now wish to regrow a different mutation there (e.g. a climbing hook arm, using a mutagen looted from a wall-climbing monster you just killed). Offended civilized folk? You ritually cut off a limb in apology and walk (/hop) away. NPCs regularly walk around with new/missing limbs, and it's easier for you to beat them up nonlethally as well.
Another way, more suited for a story-heavy game, would extend the PST design - e.g. a TNO-like guy that decides to abuse his strange powers for infiltration and sabotage. Pretend to die, get thrown into a dumpster to escape / enter guarded area. But they might take your belongings, or your alias you just used would be declared dead, requiring you to go ID frauding for a new persona.
Perma-death is difficult to manage for a RPG.
It all depends on the structure of the game, open world or not, new recruits available or not, new experienced recruits or not and how many? Infinite pool of player built recruits? Limited pool of dev's handcrafted companions? A bit of both?
I like PST's approach but I probably wouldn't if every other game used the same mechanism.
One thing that can be done with any system is a loading save count.
Save + exit wouldn't count, dying, quitting without saving, crashing the game would.
With this counter, you could do many things.
Reward the player with a lower count with harder encounters, more bosses and better rewards.
Lower the difficulty in some key encounters for the highest counters.
Or none of this, different systems.
If permadeath is a feature, in a cRPG, not a tactical where you can just hire another unit at will, it requires an acceptable penalty and a reward later for not reloading.
Because, as some players pointed out, the investment on a character in a cRPG with a small team and often limited resources is higher than in a tactical game featuring a huge pool of recruits and 2/4 times more fielded units in battle.
Edit: Almost lost the whole text, thank whoever is responsible for saving the text whatever wrong button you click and even if you quit and come back.
