Author’s Note: The following article is a study of the most common ways
in which players bite the dust, using statistics from the last few years from
our campaign here in Saskatoon.

The purpose of this article is to determine the most common causes
of character death in D&D (something close to the hearts of all refs). 

Our campaign is primarily a wildernes one (as the statistics reflect),
although huge dungeons do exist. The 600 deaths listed include deaths of
playing characters and their advanceable hirelings, not mercenaries or
other non-playing characters. We started compiling these statistics 2 to 3
years ago. In the 4 years this campaign has been running, I’d estimate that
about a thousand player/ hireling deaths have occured. Classification of
these deaths was difficult, as often they could be listed under several
causes (being stoned by a basilisk, for example, is listed under ‘turned to
stone’ although it could have been listed under ‘related dragon species’).
In many cases a player would be worn down (wounded) by one cause,
with the final blow being delivered by some relatively minor threat. The
list below shows both the number of deaths (in brackets) and the % of
deaths that each cause is responsible for.
 

Goblin races (61)	10.1%
Dragons (45)	7.5%
Giants (34)	5.7%
General Combat (26)	4.3%
Lycanthropes (24)	4.0%
Execution/ torture, sacrifice (23)	3.8%
Undead (21)	3.5%
Bandits/ pirates/etc. (20)	3.3%
Giant insects (20)	3.3%
Assassination/ treachery (18)	3.0%
Giant rocs (18)	3.0%
Fireballs/ lightning (17)	2.8%
Trolls (16)	2.7%
Turned to stone (14)	2.3%
Guards, military patrols (13)	2.2%
Evil high priests (13)	2.2%
Man-eating vegetation (13)	2.2%
Related dragon species	2.2%
Cursed items/ booby traps (12)	2.0%
Giant animals (12)	2.0%
Falls (12)	2.0%
Gnolls (11)	1.8%
Gargoyles (9)	1.4%
Hell Hounds (8)	1.3%
Demons (8)	1.3%
Elementals (8)	1.3%
Griffins (8)	1.3%
Kindred races (elves/dwarves) (6)	1.0%
Misc. spells (6)	1.0%
War (6)	1.0%
Misc. causes (85)	14.6%

General combat usually means fighting humans on a one to one
basis, as opposed to large battles. The Assasination-treachery category
includes being backstabbed by ones own evil ‘friends’. Guards-military
patrols are mainly responsible for keeping down our thief population.
Related dragon species include wyverns, basilisks, cockatrices,
manticores and hydrae. Falls cover the range from slipping off of a 10’
wall to tumbling off of a 3 mile high cloud.

Miscellaneous causes include fifty odd monsters and other means f
dying. Primary among these are liches, suicides and drowning (5 deaths
each), minotaurs, ochre jelly-type blobs and stakes in hearts for those
players who became vampires (4 deaths each), invisible stalkers, sea
monsters, lizard men, harpies, tigers, rockslides, starvation and freezing
to death (3 deaths each). Other interesting deaths are from Martians,
mutants, poisons, acids, plagues, dying of thirst, dying in a river of
boiling blood, run over by a coach (yes we do have traffic fatalities), done
in by a whore with a hat pin, having a castle dropped on one’s person, and
accidentally killing one’s self in an epileptic fit.

What then, causes the most player agony? It’s obvious that
environmental factors such as freezing, starvation, and drowning, which,
while making life interesting, are of minor importance, since they can be
easily prepared against. In encounters with creatures, there are 4 main
factors which make them deadly. First, there is the creature’s power, both
physical and magical. Secondly, the number of these creatures you are
likely to encounter is important. Thirdly is the creature’s willingness to
attack (you meet a patriarch as often as an evil high priest, but being good
he won’t be as likely to attack you. Patriarchs caused no deaths, while
high priests have 13 to their score, plus some under the human sacrifice
category). The last factor, while being an artificial one, is one of the most
important. This is simply how often are you likely to run across the
specific monster. Liches, while being very deadly and eager to kill, are
only stumbled upon rarely (and a prayer of gratitude for that!).

‘Goblin types’, while not being strong individually (although they
may have the occasional troll or ogre with them), are usually found in
large groups, eager to destroy, and can be encountered practically
anywhere or anytime according to the monster encounter tables.
Typically, you will come across up to 300 or 400 orcs or goblins, who will
proceed to pepper your group with a huge cloud of arrows, wiping out all
the low level players and hirelings. Very few higher level players ever get
done in by these creatures, however.

Actually, if you add up all the deaths by men-types (assasination,
pirates, spells, war, etc.) you will find that they are the biggest killers,
responsible for 20-25% of deaths.

The worst thing that can happen to any player is to be surprized,
even by a relatively minor creature. Even badly outgunned, you can
usually escape with enough warning. When on the road, our players often
have scouts out a great distances and to all sides to prevent surprize.
When in camp, perimeter camp fires surrounding the main camp will give
some warning (provided you can find volunteers to feed these fires). One
effective, if uncomfortable, method is to set up a false campfire a few
hundred feet from where you are sleeping (without of course, a fire). Most
monsters will usually make for the false camp, giving you time to
mobilize.

Players have gone to ingenious lengths to safeguard their persons.
Hiring doubles of themselves to avoid assasination, getting permanent
protection or detect enemy, spells, etc. One vampire, to avoid being
‘staked’, got ahold of a wish spell and transferred his heart from his chest
to his left foot. Another method is liquoring up the ref to get him in a good
mood (surprizingly effective when I ref).

One side effect of keeping death statistics is that it gives the refs an
objective in the game, either to become the biggest ‘ace’ or to cause the
most interesting deaths. Most players, however, take a rather negative
view of this sort of thing. (I can see where they might. ED.)