When bad things happen to good characters

[Captain Novaes]

Last night I was GM'ing yet another playtest session of LotR before my actual campaing starts.

The scenario was called "The Fall of Eregion" and revolved around the devastation wrought by Sauron in Erdiador in the middle of the Second Age, soon after he completed forging the One Ring.

In the very last combat scene, two PC Elves were leading a defense against the invading Orc armies. They were facing the great Captain of the Enemy, a "proto-Nazgûl", as it were.

One of the PC's engaged the Captain and soon lost his sword to a Bladeshatter spell. Two rounds later, the brave Elf was laying on the ground, a few health points from death. Now, the Captain still had two Armed Combat actions to go when he felled the Elf and I declared he was going for a killing blow.

The other Elf had acted earlier that same round and had spent all of his regular Ranged Combat actions. That player, seeing his friend was going to die, asked for extra actions so he could try to kill or disarm the Enemy Captain.

Since he had declared no extra actions on his initiative I ruled he could spend a Courage point and get some extra actions at normal penalties. The player had no points left, though, and I ruled the other Elf was killed by the Captain. Later, the Elf Archer nearly killed the Captain, who barely escaped.

An argument arose but I felt justified in doing so. And, as the Thread title suggests, sometimes bad things happen to good characters. They were given a fair chance of defeating the Captain, and I really wanted to enforce the tragic nature of the scenario.

Now, I don't want any such arguments once the actual campaign begins. Is there anything on the rules that state how a player can take extra or regular undeclared actions after his initiative? Is it reasonable to charge a Courage point to allow players to do so?

[Joe Dizzy]

I can only tell you how I handle situations like these. In my games, I avoid killing PCs as often as I can. Unless I know the player is ok with his character dying, I'll try to find another way to get the character out of whatever mess he's in.
That's because I think it is very frustrating for a player (and therefore bad for the game) if his part in the game is removed because he misjudged a situation or rolled badly.In addition to that there are much more interesting things you can do in life & death situations than killing the character.
Maybe he was maimed or otherwise injured in a way that will plague the character for the rest of the chronicle. Maybe the situation he found himself in was so humiliating, that his reputation is shot and he has become the joke of the group. Maybe he fell unconscious or even faked it to avoid certain death, and has now the stigma of a coward attached to him.
And as long as the characters still suffer from their defeats, they won't feel as if they have plot immunity.

As to your original question, I think it comes down to how you want to run your game. If you prefer to run your games closer to the rules, than yes.. your decision was perfectly alright. And the courage point rule is I think a very good idea.
Personally I'd put the players enjoying the game above whatever the rules say. If you still want to show the tragic nature of the scenario, then have NPCs die slow, agonizing and pointless deaths. That's what they're there for.
If a popular NPC dies it's tragic, if a popular PC dies (without the player's consent) it's just frustrating.

YMMV,
Joe

[Captain Novaes]

Very good points, Joe.

I do take player frustration in consideration -- that player in particular hates to loose characters in any way, shape or form. However, since that was only a one-shot playtest session, I didn't mind killing a PC, as they had every chance to defeat their enemy in single combat.

That game did teach invaluable lessons on how to run a proper campaign. It was always a philosophy of mine to know the rules of a new game before fudging them, hence the need of playtests. When the actual game starts - which may be soon - I'll switch to "campaing mode" and allow for that kind of fudging.