I was just curious. How often do PK's die (other than of old age in retirement) and how often are do they suffer serious wounds? In my campaign neither one is that common, but I'm curious how others handle it.

In my current run-through of the GPC -

Player1 had a character die in the 2nd year (Saxon Berserker did for him) and then played his brother who is still alive as of 520 (in his mid 50s and still hale and hearty)

Player2 had a character die at Netley Marsh and then played his son also still alive as of 520.

Player3 had a character die while imprisoned after Netley Marsh and then played his son. He has not been around much recently so is only up to 512.

Plsyer4 had a character brutally murdered by mercenary knights due to politics and love. Then played a precocious 15 year old son who was inept but heroic. Now a badass and still alive as of 520 though he survived Badon noly by the skin of his teeth.

Player5 is still on his first character but only up to 510 at the moment.

Player6 is still playing the new Earl of Sussex. In his late 50s but thankas to outrageous Glory he has recovered from near fatal ageing (he was down to SIZ 7 in 510 but after 10 years of battles has raised SIZ to 16! His son has gone adventuring on a few occasions when he was injured or unavailable.

Player7 had his first character die at Badon Hill and is now playing his son.

No one has retired or died of old age.

As regards maiming, a year where no PK takes a major wound is an odd year

I am only up to 489 atm, but no fatalities yet. One character had a brush with death twice now. Both times against Saxons. The first was when he was still a squire. The last time was against Saxon Heorthgenaet. He got four wounds that brought him below 0, but an inspired brother in law helped him back on his feet.

Major wounds are rare, but happened from time to time.

I started my GPC in 486 run with a roster of five characters, we're currently at 508 on the eve of Netley Marsh.

Of the starting cast three have died in active play while two have been retired from active play but are still available for guest appearances.

We have had a further eight characters join the cast since the start, either as replacements or for new players; of these eight, two are dead and three are semi-retired (but might show up for occasional scenes) leaving three active characters at present.

So - 13 characters in 22 years of game time, of which five have died, three are active 'younger' knights and five are lurking in the background as 'older' knights (ie in their late 30s/early 40s).

Major wounds are fairly frequent - all of the dead knights took one as part of what killed them I think and certainly all of the older knights have taken at least one (Sir Cynhal - one of the most glorious knights of his generation, now Duke Corneus' judicial champion and captain of the ducal guard - has taken at least half a dozen over the course of his career). Of the current three active knights only one hasn't taken a major wound yet, but he has been a combination of (i) extremely deadly in combat and (ii) lucky - neither I nor his player expect him to make it into his 30s.

Regards
Luke

We do quite a lot of scenarios per game year usually, so as the consequence, death & major wounds seem to stalk the PKs quite a lot. Enough so that we have instituted house rules that by spending a saved Glory Bonus Point, you are able to cancel a critical hit from an enemy. Which seems to work well enough.

Lets see now, we re-started with the Roman War, so 526? We are now 542, and the death toll, if I recall correctly, is 5 in active service, 1 retired, 1 retired and died as an NPC. 5 players, and everyone has lost 1, except one guy has been unlucky and lost 3 (1 to retirement out of play, that character was more of an experiment). So about 1 PK / 15 years / Player. That is not too bad, now that I think of it. We do get about 0.5 Major Wounds / PK / year, although that is often where the glory point goes. Naturally, Major Wounds or the risk of them are more common when there is heavy fighting going on, particularly outside the battle system and using sharp lances. One of the original knights is still alive, having briefly been retired but returned when the spare died.

I ran the whole PGC. It cost the life of 32 PKs ... none of which died of old age. That may sound a lot, but this is with 3 to 5 players for 92 sessions, so one PK dead every third session. One third of the knights died before their 27th birthday, so my game was very hard for young knights. Major Wounds were frequent, but not every session. Since the game is lethal and I generally don't fudge the die rolls, I try to run every third or fourth session without any combat at all.

My campaign started in 510 and we (so far) have had a death in the second hour of Carlion. Sir Cian took a lance to the throat, and blood-covered splinters of it showereed the rest of the PKs. The rest of the eschille's actions have garnered them Hate: Lothinans passions.

We're on the second half of Bedegrane tonight and I'll update (revise) over the weekend.

I am following Greg's advice to roll dice in the open and not fudge rolls. I suspect that this will result in more deaths than the player's would like.

EDIT: No PK deaths, but Sir Blemine, the eschille leader, did fumble his Loyalty: Arthur roll and disappeared into the wilds during the night after the battle. Sadly, my players are learning the difference between Reckless and Valorous.

In 1-player games, I found you can expect the player knight to die every second to every third adventure. Life as a questing knight is harsh if you’re all on your own.

We've currently played from 485 to 506. In that times there have been seven players and thirteen played characters, of which three have died violent deaths and several more have come damn close. (One is alive only by the good grace of Ganieda, several more only because of a house-rule which slightly extends the line between 0HP and totally unhealable)

I did warn the group about the fatality and stressed I would not be intervening if luck turned against them: they rolled up two characters and some have alternated while others have kept their second character "in the bank". Despite that warning the lethality was a big change at first: on session 3 or 4 we had a player go mad through a passion while his secondary character died, plus several serious injuries. The second player death was particularly interesting for being at St Albans where he and his opponent (a Saxon giant!) critically hit each other and slew each other.

Major wounds have been reasonably common: very quickly the knights learned to be wary of fighting more than foe and the merits of fighting defensively, and those who chance it on these two issues very quickly find themselves injured or dead. The benefit of a good healing rate became especially apparent in 505 when three short battles back to back saw the highest glory character limping his way into battle three seriously injured. Like Skarpskytten, I've also noted that its younger characters who have died in their first couple of adventures: though part of that is random chance, it does seem that a few years experience to get a better armour score makes a big difference.

As I mentioned above I have house-ruled it slightly so that characters who drop to negative numbers are slightly more survivable than in core rules: I found the space between "upright" and "dead" a little too small for my personal liking. Despite that, however, it's still been a game with way more mortality than any other I've ran.

My campaign started in 510 and we (so far) have had a death in the second hour of Carlion. Sir Cian took a lance to the throat, and blood-covered splinters of it showereed the rest of the PKs. The rest of the eschille's actions have garnered them Hate: Lothinans passions.

We're on the second half of Bedegrane tonight and I'll update (revise) over the weekend.

I am following Greg's advice to roll dice in the open and not fudge rolls. I suspect that this will result in more deaths than the player's would like.

EDIT: No PK deaths, but Sir Blemine, the eschille leader, did fumble his Loyalty: Arthur roll and disappeared into the wilds during the night after the battle. Sadly, my players are learning the difference between Reckless and Valorous.


Bedegraine (day two) and Carohaise were deathless among the PKs.

Y511 had the PKs running a giant off the lands around Upavon. Forcing the giant to split its attacks worked well for a short period. As my players say, "Tink. Tink. BOOM!" Meaning the giant got a critical on Sir Arawydd for 15d6 x2 and a trip to the town's chruch for last rites.

3 weeks of play, 2 PK deaths, 1 bout of madness.

Jousting with King Pellinore! A famous honour forced (RP forced at least) Sir Primanus to take a second pass at an impassioned Pellininore and another PK went down. (GM note: I felt bad {yes, I whimped out} since this is the only player to lose knights {4 in 4 weeks} in the campaign and gave King Pellinore a just roll--which he criticalled to set his personal chiurgeon on the fallen.}

4 weeks of play and no real changes.

Here is our death toll, in chronological order. We have played for 3 years, once per week. We are currently in 535.

age, demise
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23, gored by a boar
24, in the battle of Bayeux
26, in the battle of Lincoln
24, escaped to Ireland after having helped Merlin to steal Uther's child
26, escaped to Ireland after having helped Merlin to steal Uther's child
27, dismembered by a redcap
32, in the battle of Windsor Inferno
43, in the battle of Windsor Inferno
22, in a duel for the Lady of the Stevington Well
29, in a duel of honor against his bastard cousin
35, tortured to death by Aelle while trying to rescue the Earl of Rydychan
24, in a duel trying to prove himself innocent to a murder
57, in a chance duel against disguised King Arthur
32, perished in a column of fire after donning the cape designated for Arthur
25, eaten by lions outside Dolorous Garde
39, hanged for assassination of the King of Sugales
54, disappeared while imprisoned for assassination of the King of Sugales
43, banished to Holy Land by Arthur after killing the Duke of Anglia in a duel
55, died of old age