K Is for Killing, Softly or Otherwise
In most games that include hit points, character death occurs at something approximating 0 hit points. At 1 hit point, your character is live and kicking. At 0 hit points, your character is pushing up daisies. The Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT) doesn’t work that way, even if it can work that way at least some of the time.
With simple and extended actions, the winner of the compared dice totals gets to narrate the loser’s fate. In most cases, this fate won’t result in death. In other words, there are story limits on the narration. It’s not likely that winning a foot race will cause the loser to die, or that bribing a bouncer makes him your devoted henchmen.
This is especially in important in extended actions where hit points are at stake. One cannot win one round of an extended action, inflict only a portion of a foe’s hit points, and then narrate that the foe was sent flying by a spinning back kick off the top of the Hoover Dam to dash himself to bits on the way down. That sort of dramatic finish is reserved for when the foe’s hit points have been depleted.
Of course, there’s no reason in BKotRT for zero hit points to equal death. The loser may just be unconscious (and perhaps wake up hog-tied in the back of a semi heading for the border). He may be curled up in a corner, whimpering for mercy. This is especially important when it’s one of the heroes who has lost his last hit point. Even as simple as character generation is in BKotRT, it’s still not often fun when one of the heroes bites the dust.
When the heroes win, they should also consider mercy. BKotRT takes place in a recognizably modern setting, where the authorities (even those not in cahoots with the Man) usually take a dim view to killing, maiming, arson, et cetera. Other games encourage heroic murderhoboes. BKotRT doesn’t go in for that sort of thing. Sure, a game session may include lots of mayhem and violence, but it’s more akin to the A-Team than the Peaky Blinders.
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