How Deadly is the OSR, Actually?

Like many reasonable, smart, and beautiful people I was annoyed by this Youtube video Daði published a couple weeks ago. The argument the video presents, in short: OSR campaigns are short and comparatively infrequent. “One night a month or six times a year” Therefore, OSR games have to fit more drama into a shorter number of games. OSR games use high lethality to create that drama. Killing PCs removes the primary way 5e players get invested in TTRPGs. CROWS is introducing 5e players used to long campaigns into the OSR by adding base building mechanics that reward long term investment. Ben already bridged the cultural gap well in his reply video. It’s worth a watch, but I wish he’d taken a beat to interrogate Daði’s unstated assumption that the lethality of a campaign is primarily determined by the DM. It’s clear that Daði is used to play environments where the majority of conflicts encountered were premeditated by the ringleader behind the screen. Daði defends claim #4 by emphasizing…