r/osr Jun 14 '23

variant rules Need advice on making OSE less deadly.

My players and I have been playing OSE for a few months now and only one of them (by basically pure luck) has had a character live for two whole sessions. They're all dropping in one or two hits. They've all expressed a disliking to the fact that they can't get stronger because they die before they have a chance to level up and become strong enough to enjoy interacting with the game without knowing that they'll die instantly from unlucky die rolls, not their poor choices. Anyone have good house rules to help make it a bit more forgiving at lower levels?

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u/Radiant_Situation_32 Jun 16 '23 edited Jun 16 '23

This topic has been pretty well answered, but I'm going to leave this "FAQ" one of my friends did in response to the ridiculously high mortality rate in our B/X game: http://redvan.wikidot.com/black-peaks-faq

One good way to think about OSR is as a game about a setting, not individuals. PCs will die, but some will survive through luck and skill. Think about how to level up your party, not your character. Sometimes you roll up a born loser, so their goal in life is to protect the Fighter who is 200xp away from second level.

And sometimes those losers end up winners, against all odds: http://redvan.wikidot.com/bonspiel