In your experience:
Does it happen more often with a specific ruleset/version/edition?
Is it more common with low levels and then the risk of actual character death is less likely as levels go up?

Not enough OSR experience, so I can only base an answer on D&D experience (going back to 0e), but OSR rules trying to emulate a particular D&D edition should have similar results.

For D&D in any version, deaths are stacked toward low level characters, and I think that's almost intrinsic to anything you would recognize as D&D-ish:

• HPs scale up significantly with level, so that PCs are less frequently one bad combat roll from death;
• PCs acquire a variety of other resources (magic items, class abilities and spell slots) to avoid death or escape from a losing combat;
• players acquire more knowledge of the rules and campaign world, and are more cautious with characters they've invested a lot of time in.

Deadliness was certainly highest in my experience of 0e. To some extent later editions changed toward greater survivability (slanting toward higher ability scores, death saves and healing for characters who drop, fewer save or die situations). But I don't think it's as intrinsic a quality, since a given DM could make a given campaign more or less deadly with any edition, and the groups I played with generally shifted toward less deadly campaigns over time without changing editions.

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;966344In your experience:
Does it happen more often with a specific ruleset/version/edition?
Is it more common with low levels and then the risk of actual character death is less likely as levels go up?

From what I have played:

Basic - death is common
AD&D/2e/3e/PF/DCC/Low Fantasy Gaming - death is uncommon (post funnel for DCC)
4e/5e - death is very rare

It's less to do with exact system, house rules and character level etc, and more to do with player skill. I have seen 2 hit point and one spell magic-users survive while 16 hit point fighters with plate mail and 18/75 strength perish horribly.

When I start a campaign, usually new players will go through a few characters in the first weeks and then start smartening up and whichever character they have then survives indefinitely, barring horribly bad luck.

With BX Death was fairly common and in that you are dead at 0 HP.

With AD&D death was relatively common due to the frequency of things that could kill a PC flat out. 2e made survival a little easier.

Not sure about 3 and 4e.

5e is all over the place. Its either easy to get offed, or its hard to.

In every case and especially 5e it depends heavily on the DM and players and characters. One groups TPK will be anothers cakewalk simply due to variations in DM and characters and players.

A common factor is that its usually less frequent the further you progress as the PCs get better equipped and powered.

I think death is rare above 5th level in any edition I played: B/X, BECMI, 1e, 2e and 5e. Course there are the types who like to act that their particular edition of elfgame is for 'real' toughguys.

It depends more on the DM than the edition. My games are high kill / fast leveling so combat is deadlier.

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;966344In your experience:
Does it happen more often with a specific ruleset/version/edition?
Is it more common with low levels and then the risk of actual character death is less likely as levels go up?

Pre-3e D&D has lots of random death at low levels, getting rarer at high level with saves rarely failed and monsters not doing much damage.

3e/d20 seems the most brutal system, with weird random deaths from greataxe crits and failed saves until the caster PCs get to ca 13th level and can kerbstomp everything. In particular melee type characters tend to drop like flies while rarely being effective.

In 4e death is unlikely except as part of a TPK or near-TPK. IME 1st-8th level PCs are at fairly high risk of death but I never saw a permanent PC death after 8th level in my 1-29 Loudwater campaign. My new 4e game pushes Raise Dead back to 18th level, essentially unavailable, to create a fear of death while using less threatening encounters so that TPK is unlikely.

5e D&D has death be rare and occasional across all levels (except level 1 PCs vs Deadly+ encounters) within the encounter guidelines. By targetting fallen PCs I can occasionally take out a melee character but they get brought back by Revifify.

5e generally seems the best for maintaining a fairly consistent threat level across the levels of play, although I could challenge my Classic D&D party with squads of high level enemy Fighters, high level Wizards, and Mentzer's screw-you high level monsters like Nightwalkers. With 5e I can just take a bunch of monsters from the rulebook & challenge even high level PCs; generally an "Adventuring Day" worth of monsters in one fight can challenge any party.

Quote from: Spinachcat;966404It depends more on the DM than the edition. My games are high kill / fast leveling so combat is deadlier.

Agreed. I've played with some DMs who will kill everyone on a regular basis, others who hardly ever kill characters.

I think that the more time that goes into character creation, the lower the chance of character death. We could create OD&D characters in seconds (slightly longer for spellcasters) and they tended to die a lot, but as editions have evolved and character creation has become more and more complex so have the rules for surviving death.

Agreed that it will be very player and DM dependent. There is no system where you can't do something foolish and be cut off from your group and surrounded by enemies (who can trip up you escape tricks) and get slaughtered.

Quote from: S'mon;9664183e/d20 seems the most brutal system, with weird random deaths from greataxe crits and failed saves until the caster PCs get to ca 13th level and can kerbstomp everything. In particular melee type characters tend to drop like flies while rarely being effective.

At 13th level, when the casters start curb-stomping, CR-appropriate opponents also have level-appropriate responses, which are often save-or-dies. 3e is often called rocket-tag, and it's a pretty accurate judgment.

Quote from: S'mon;9664185e generally seems the best for maintaining a fairly consistent threat level across the levels of play,

5e I can just take a bunch of monsters from the rulebook & challenge even high level PCs; generally an "Adventuring Day" worth of monsters in one fight can challenge any party.

1: Been our experience too. That and most combats tend to be over in on average 5 rounds. Give or take a few when things go oddly or both sides have good ACs.

2: Also effective is getting the PCs in situations where a short rest isnt viable. Or only viable once at best. Such as situations where the party has to stay on the move. Or some factor like weather or environment makes resting a bad idea.

Quote from: finarvyn;966420I think that the more time that goes into character creation, the lower the chance of character death. We could create OD&D characters in seconds (slightly longer for spellcasters) and they tended to die a lot, but as editions have evolved and character creation has become more and more complex so have the rules for surviving death.

And games where this isn't true don't work well for me. I played in a Hackmaster game about a year ago. It was a fun game with a good GM. It was a very deadly campaign, but I am usually fine with that. The problem was the character generation was too involved and time-consuming. When I run B/X, there is a lot of death at low levels, but the player can be back in the game with a new character in five minutes.

Have run two games of Swords & Wizardry for my friends.  Both games ended in TPK's- one against rats in a basement the other against a goblin raid.  My dice were on fire both nights.

Agree that character death can be GM-dependent, but there are some systems with mechanisms to lower lethality, 5E's "death saves," for example," or The Black Hack's "Out of Action" roll. Dungeon World allows a death roll, but survival comes at a price.  On the whole, though, I think the GM plays the biggest part in that, outside bad rolls. My players know that, if the creature has it out for them, I'm going to try to kill them, through it. This includes playing dirty, and using all the tricks a player would. I run primarily simple systems, and since simpler systems **generally** have little to no safety net built in, characters die. Sorta makes sense, actually. You court danger as a lifestyle, you're going to get yours, if you keep sticking your nose in there.

You can die very quickly in Boot Hill. Or by OSR do you mean only D&D and its descendants?