So, I think I'm just about ready to run Storming the Wizard's Tower. I've got a town, an adventure, and I'm going over the rules. I should be running it pretty soon.
So, in the Monsters section, there's a note that even if the monsters win, they still die, just expensively. Which is cool. There doesn't seem to be any support for this in the combat rules.
So what happens when my super awesome Invincible Yama King enemy puts everyone into Endurance roll territory and they all fail? How do I handle him dying expensively?
The combat rules support it by being weighted toward the players. It's an observation about what'll probably happen in play, not a rule.
So, yes, your super awesome Invincible Yama King can, in fact, win. It's not likely - no offense! I'm certain he's awesome - but yes, it might happen. If it does, he remains a problem for the town, and the next session everybody creates new characters at 1/2 group XP, and maybe they'll have learned enough from their predecessors' sacrifices to defeat him now.
It's possible that he'll win again, though! Maybe he'll keep winning. Then, I guess the thing to do is say, "damn guys, you didn't save the world. The super awesome Invincible Yama King reigns in terror and death for a thousand years."
-Vincent
So, if I knock someone out, they're at my mercy. If I knock everyone out, they're all at my mercy (or lack thereof.) That sounds fair to me!
I played a game of Storming at Gamestorm Portland/Vancouver last month with just two PCs. . .we got utterly creamed by this giant Wendigo-thing. It was an interesting, "hey, them's the breaks" kind of experience, a departure from the more. . .I dunno, protected indie game paradigms out there. Of course as a con game we could just weak away and go "haha, we lost!" but even if it were an ongoing game, it seems pretty not-a-problem. 'Course it might be a bit more dismaying if the characters had been more developed and beloved.
It is a good point that the heroes are helpless, and not necessarily dead. In our case we would have actually awakened as flesh-craving Wendigo-spawn, and it'd be up to our replacements to put us out of our misery or try to break our curse. . .
Peace,
-Joel
PS. Vincent, Storming is hella fun with neat mechanics. I wanna play more!