It seems to me (just my opinion, of course) that if you're going to take away their stuff against the rules caveat, then it should be a big, momentous deal. Something where the PCs would be, not necessarily ok, but philosophical about losing the stuff.

The examples you've given seem to me (and perhaps to me only) as a bit cheap. As in, the long coat is one of those choices the Skinner made during character creation, and the player would have agonised over whether to take the wickedly awesome tatts and piercings or the wickedly awesome coat, and then suddenly for something as mundane as a second-rate roll that aspect of the character is removed.

I don't know your crew, but I think if I was your Skinner I'd probably have a problem with that. It's one thing if it's a big Story event, but for a second-rate "success" you're taking it away? Hmmm...

(just my opinion, of course!)

Hi all,

New to AW, old to gaming and GMing.

The described scenario to me sounds like "suicide by cop". The key word in that phrase is "suicide". The MC isn't killing the PC (ok, NPC isn't killing the PC, world isn't killing the PC, whatever semantic you wish to use), the player is killing their own PC by taking that course of action.

If you walk your character (effectively alone) into a no-win scenario, then the best that can happen is that you'll be blown away, left for dead, and eventually die. Having some deux ex machina come along and save the unconscious character, unless it make the fiction HEAPS better, is a limp free pass that cheapens the experience and just tells the players their "reality" is weak.

In my humble opinion!