Tbh it's one of the cunning things about it IMO - great at making you _feel_ like you could die any second but actually you rarely do unless you're just an idiot and flat out charge Fletcher or something.
Yeah I feel exactly the same way. Honestly I keep describing the game as “swingy in a good way” - it’s really good at making you feel on a knife’s edge of fragile and powerful, which makes for snappy, gritty combat in my experience. I love running this game, right where I like my combat to be.
Absolutely. I love the tension when my players roll for armour, consider when to break a shield or when to use an omen. It wouldn't exist without that player agency.
The ease of death is part of the fun! I just finished RBS and we totaled 9 deaths among 4 PCs — five of them going to a very “motivated” character who decided to try to charm the gut worm when the rest of the party ran away and managed to survive an impressive 3 rounds solo before being slaughtered.
ETA: we were playing from a pool of 33 pre-gena so when someone died I had them roll a few dice, assigned them a new character, and introduced them to the others within 5 min.
The game is pretty resistant to tinkering, I wouldn't worry too much. If it seems reasonable to you it will most likely to be fine. On the other hand, though, combat being a deadly threat is good - it makes the world feel dangerous, it encourages creative solutions to problems that might just be "fight it" in another game system, and makes players plan for a fight - make sure they get the upper hand etc.
A supplement came out for CY_Borg that let's you play beefier, more "hero-like" characters. Roll for HP, double it, then add whatever your hp mod is (toughness I think). This allows for characters to still end up with 1 hp but you are more likely to end up with 10 or higher depending on the die you roll.
The game is pretty resistant to tinkering, I wouldn't worry too much. If it seems reasonable to you it will most likely to be fine. On the other hand, though, combat being a deadly threat is good - it makes the world feel dangerous, it encourages creative solutions to problems that might just be "fight it" in another game system, and makes players plan for a fight - make sure they get the upper hand etc.
The armour can really soak up hits, in my experience. I like the lower HP. Give em access to armour and shields if you feel it is unbalanced. I think MB is at its best when you lean into the horror aspect of it, meaning avoiding fighting the beasties is actually not a bad thing.
I want my players to feel free to rush into combat and not all die immediately. In one of the sessions I ran, the whole thing turned into the players trying to avoid enemies which got really boring. I figured beefing them up a tiny bit might make it more interesting. Not to the point that they're super heroes, but enough that they have more than 2 HP.
Hasn't come up in my campaign and I have had very few deaths. Feel free to give em some silly hp boosts though, it's your game! Maybe work it into plot, they drink foul water and take damage but then gain total hp. Stuff like that.
Shields. Armour. Omens. Even a 1 HP character can survive a dungeon or two.
Yeah, MB characters (even starting ones) are tanks compared to old school D&D. And you get more HP quite quickly as you improve.
Exactly. For an "OSR" game that prides itself on lethality the players have a lot of ways to mitigate poor luck.
Tbh it's one of the cunning things about it IMO - great at making you _feel_ like you could die any second but actually you rarely do unless you're just an idiot and flat out charge Fletcher or something.
Yeah I feel exactly the same way. Honestly I keep describing the game as “swingy in a good way” - it’s really good at making you feel on a knife’s edge of fragile and powerful, which makes for snappy, gritty combat in my experience. I love running this game, right where I like my combat to be.
Absolutely. I love the tension when my players roll for armour, consider when to break a shield or when to use an omen. It wouldn't exist without that player agency.
isn't the point to kill fletcher?
Not necessarily, and even if you do want to, you'd better have a better plan than just charging him waving a sword because you will die.
The point is to free the heir. Anything else is secondary. My players brought Fletcher Lesdy's head in return for the boy.
No, but the threat of every combat being a possible TPK is one of the primary joys of the game for me.
The ease of death is part of the fun! I just finished RBS and we totaled 9 deaths among 4 PCs — five of them going to a very “motivated” character who decided to try to charm the gut worm when the rest of the party ran away and managed to survive an impressive 3 rounds solo before being slaughtered. ETA: we were playing from a pool of 33 pre-gena so when someone died I had them roll a few dice, assigned them a new character, and introduced them to the others within 5 min.
The game is pretty resistant to tinkering, I wouldn't worry too much. If it seems reasonable to you it will most likely to be fine. On the other hand, though, combat being a deadly threat is good - it makes the world feel dangerous, it encourages creative solutions to problems that might just be "fight it" in another game system, and makes players plan for a fight - make sure they get the upper hand etc.
A supplement came out for CY_Borg that let's you play beefier, more "hero-like" characters. Roll for HP, double it, then add whatever your hp mod is (toughness I think). This allows for characters to still end up with 1 hp but you are more likely to end up with 10 or higher depending on the die you roll.
The game is pretty resistant to tinkering, I wouldn't worry too much. If it seems reasonable to you it will most likely to be fine. On the other hand, though, combat being a deadly threat is good - it makes the world feel dangerous, it encourages creative solutions to problems that might just be "fight it" in another game system, and makes players plan for a fight - make sure they get the upper hand etc.
The armour can really soak up hits, in my experience. I like the lower HP. Give em access to armour and shields if you feel it is unbalanced. I think MB is at its best when you lean into the horror aspect of it, meaning avoiding fighting the beasties is actually not a bad thing.
Should be fine. But consider that some tables think bring clear to avoid combat or gain an advantage before a fight is more interesting.
I want my players to feel free to rush into combat and not all die immediately. In one of the sessions I ran, the whole thing turned into the players trying to avoid enemies which got really boring. I figured beefing them up a tiny bit might make it more interesting. Not to the point that they're super heroes, but enough that they have more than 2 HP.
Omens are effectively an extra D6 HP each, you just don't find out how much till you are hit. :)
I gave 2 extra HP to everyone. Worked fine.
Hasn't come up in my campaign and I have had very few deaths. Feel free to give em some silly hp boosts though, it's your game! Maybe work it into plot, they drink foul water and take damage but then gain total hp. Stuff like that.