Yeah, it was a rough session. Amazing that none of the party died (it was close). I’ve made a habit of rolling everything I can (i.e. rolls not containing hidden information) in the open, so they know it’s all on them. I am a cruel, but fair, Overlord. Actually, it’s been really fascinating watching them, in effect, learn to play again! Several of these players are people I played with back in the 80s, so I know they were once used to the unforgiving nature of AD&D and BECMI (we still tell stories about particular TPKs), but a lot of that got lost through the 2000s.
This was the same group. It’s an open table, so players show up for sessions, or not, as they’re able. Belgarath had to work (his player and Kane’s player are both pilots, with highly irregular schedules). I do my best to keep the sessions self-contained, so there’s rarely a problem with a player being present for a session, then not showing up for a few weeks. There’ve even been some sessions with people using secondary characters to run with new players at different in-game locations. I expect more of that if I manage to grow the player-base; we’re at 7 players now (all new converts to ACKS, I might add), with an eighth player contingent on him finishing his PhD.