THE OSR IS DEADLY: But Not Deadly Enough To Kill Long-term Play

Purple is total generated; black is deaths (aka poor decision-making; get gud)60% of the time, your PC's 100% alive!I appreciate this video from Mystic Arts because it does a good job of addressing the OSR, contrasting the playstyle with 5e, and outlining what the MCDM's Crows brings to the table.But one thing in the video bothered me is the claim that OSR systems are simply too deadly for long-term play because characters would get killed too frequently. Now, I get that systems like Mork Borg might not be geared for the long-term, but there is really no way one can look at OD&D or AD&D or even BX with its 14th-level cap (OSE for the young crowd) and conclude never had longevity. But more to this blog's point, is that its just not my own experience.Look, we have the numbers! In Miranda Elkin's Nightwick Abbey, which has spanned roughly 138 sessions✤ with OSE characters, the death rate for the first 50 sessions was about ~40%. And when looking at sessions 51 to 100 (which I haven't put…