Ruthlessness scale.

[Lincoln Cross]

So, next year I will be diving into DMing Mummys Mask and I want to devise a scale for how ruthless to be.

Something like
1. Candy land, all punches pulled, no fear of death.
.
.
10. Brutal assault, open dice rolls, no pulled punches, play to the enemies alignment, coup de grace always.

I need help filling out the scale and deciding how the players should choose their ruthlessness. Party average? Individually? Scale doesnt have to be 1-10.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Wheldrake]

I suggest:
Be brutal. Make all your DM dice rolls in the open.
But be ready to help facilitate PC resurrections, status effect removal and such like, either through appropriate items or access to NPC spellcasters.

Concerning coup de grace attacks... if the situation really lends itself to that, yeah, go for it. But don't go out of your way to target PCs with that.

Also, think ahead regarding PC death and the possibility of new characters, and exactly how you plan to manage them concerning starting xp and loot.

[TriOmegaZero]

I recommend letting the players set the ruthlessness themselves.

This variant has the best way with the Death Flag, as each individual player can choose when his character is at risk.

[Smiling Lion]

I agree with TriOmegaZero. Let the players determine it, I do not feel you should be setting this for them.

As long as you discuss all your "house rules" with your group ahead of time you should be OK. It should be the job of the GM to provide the type of game the players want to play in.

[blahpers]

Death Flag is interesting. The author recommends using it in no-resurrection games, but I wonder if it works just as well in a standard "resurrection is expensive but usually possible" game?

[Lincoln Cross]

Thank you all for the replies. I will absolutely be letting the players set the scale. What I was really looking for was help filling the scale in. Suggestions of what 1 through 10 should mean or should it be 1 to 5? Things like that.

[Pizza Lord]

4. No character dies until level 3 unless they do something blatantly stupid (jump off a cliff, declare the ocean or desert is an illusion when they fall overboard or get buried in sand and take a deep breath, etc.) This doesn't mean they always win, they just end up unconscious, in a cell, or back in the town temple or something with a bill for healing.

Even when a PC would die, if an ally reaches them within the round and attempts to staunch the bleeding, they are not dead (you can still have them go into - hit points lower than normal which will still need to be healed). Even if the ally fails a Heal check, you can have this buy one more round, once.

You may secretly reduce damage from heavy-hitting monsters when it would drop someone to -Con, just enough to put them into or midway into unconsciousness and dying.

[Ciaran Barnes]

There is a chart in Skull & Shackles for possible mutilations a character can end up with. Missing eye, missing hand, etc. It is also a pretty brutal adventure. I don’t think the chart says anything about this, but I thought it could be used as a midpoint between “make a new character” vs “spend all your money on raise dead and restoration”. Maybe if the character dies, but just barely, give him or her the option to live at the cost of rolling randomly on that chart or a custom one?

[Mike J]

I agree with letting the players decide.

My typical rule regarding some of the more unpleasant/un-fun things (coup de grace, feeblemind, etc.) is to let the players be the ones to "break the seal". Once they do, that thing is "on" and will be used to maximum effectiveness. So far, it has worked great.

Beyond that, I play the monsters based on their intelligence, etc. Animals are pretty one dimensional and simple. Dragons and Demon Lords, not so much.

If the encounters aren't a challenge, why bother playing them out? Of course, you need to know what will be a challenge for your group. That could mean fudging dice rolls to save them, or fudging dice rolls to finally get a hit on their munchkin, min-maxed, murder hobos, or something in between.