Killing them or pampering them?

[ItalianinCambs]

Forgive me for my crass ignorance, but I do not understand what "indie games" is. Can somebody explain?

[dr_mitch]

Forgive me for my crass ignorance, but I do not understand what "indie games" is. Can somebody explain?

I'll give it a go. Roughly speaking, an indie RPG is a game that's owned by its creator, is self-published, and is under it's creator's control. Exact definitions vary.

However (and bolded because it's a big however), the term Indie RPG tends to be used in discussions for games which do something different to the "trad" RPG model in which the players control individual characters in a world where the GM controls everything else. They give players as well as GMs some narrative authority over the world, and can be more about the group creating a shared story than playing an individual character. Some indie RPGs do away with GMs altogether.

Many of the prominent indie RPGs in the first sense are also indie RPGs in the second sense. Personally, I don't like the terminology Indie RPG for the second type of game (I prefer Storygame), but it's commonly used and we're probably stuck with it.

[hectorgrey]

When it comes to killing characters, for me it depends on the situation and the feel of the campaign. Character death should always be a risk - being on the winning side of a curb stomp battle can be entertaining the first couple of times, but it starts getting boring quickly (unless of course the players actually planned out how they were going to engage the enemies, on the players terms, specifically to get that kind of outcome). On the other hand, being on the wrong side of the stomping is never entertaining, and should only ever be a result of bad decisions (like deciding that your freshly made character can absolutely take the captain of the guard and the five men he has with him at the same time).

Funnily enough, my two favourite systems (Riddle of Steel and Crimson Exodus) both have plot armour for the PCs written directly into the system. They also have plot armour for major NPCs written in, meaning that player death is only a substantial risk if the players deliberately go and pick fights they've no business being involved in (i.e. bad descisions, or if they're up against an equally powerful enemy; likely an end of campaign scenario anyway. Also, in both games you can take some pretty nasty wounds that'll take you out of the fight, but with medical treatment and, in extreme cases, magical healing, you'll generally live.