Casualty Report

My Swords and Wizardry PbB Campaign has been running just over a year now. We've completed three separate adventures that would each have taken about one session each in face-to-face play.

None of the PCs have died yet, though two of them – Gaven, the party's cleric, and Varros, one of the fighters – have come very close. Gaven was dropped to 2 hp in one fight, and Varros escaped death by the skin of his teeth twice in one adventure, coming out of one combat with 2 hp, healing up, then staggering out of another combat with 1 hp. I should add that I have been scrupulous about not fudging a single die roll.

The NPCs, both friendly and enemy, have not been so fortunate. Part of that may be due to the fact that PCs get max hp, while the NPCs don't. Part of it is also certainly due to clever play on the part of the players. Here is a list of the fallen, both friend and foe:

Bill Barley: (human male) the Fairbrook stable master's son, a young "lothario" fallen upon by goblins when on a date outside of town with young Elsie Miggins; killed by goblin scouts before the party could resue him (the party did manage to rescue Elsie though). EDIT: Bill was dead long before the party could have gotten there.

Grimtooth: (hobgoblin) leader of the goblin scouting party that kidnapped Elsie Miggins; killed in grisly hand-to-hand combat with the Free Company.

Dirtbag: (goblin) one of the band that killed Bill Barley and kidnapped Elsie Miggins; charmed by Oloc (the party's M-U), then killed outside of Fairbrook as the party returned from their adventure. The town guard asked why the party was bringing a goblin into town, and Gaven (the party cleric) promptly crushed Dirtbag's skull with a mace – problem solved.

Bloodfang: (hobgoblin) according to a discovered dispatch, the leader of a marauding band of goblins from Stagwood; killed by his own Fire Elemental when he lost control of it during the Battle of the Coldstream (July 1280).

Flox (human male): Red Serpent bandit, charmed by Oloc (the party's M-U), subsequently crushed to death by falling rock from a trap guarding the entrance to the bandit lair.

Sinder (human male): Lackey in the Red Serpent bandit organization; tried to impress the bandit leader by capturing one of the party's porters who had gotten separated; the porter fought back, wounded poor Sinder in the leg, cutting an artery; the party found him (and their missing porter) as he finished bleeding out, calling for his mother.

Swede (hobgoblin male): Bounty hunter encountered outside the Red Serpent bandit lair; joined the party after a misunderstanding (which killed his own three men); killed by a vicious bite to the throat from a giant red serpent that nearly severed his head.

Mackey: leader of the Red Serpent bandits, working the Ham's Fork road out of Blackleaf; peppered by arrows from the party.