Darkest Dungeon

[Amechra]

In my defense, I've never played Darkest Dungeon. I don't know for sure why I decided to take the name, come to think of it. :P

I highly suggest it if you're the kind of person who can take a loss with grace. Because boy howdy do you lose a lot in Darkest Dungeon if you aren't careful (and sometimes if you are!).

As for the three save thing... arguably 5e already does that, since death saves are a thing But I hear you.

...

Honestly, I have to ask... what's the goal behind adding a Stress system to D&D? Darkest Dungeon (look, I'm going to bring it up because you brought it up :p) uses it to prevent the player from settling on four characters that they like and sending them on every run — the math works out so that you effectively have a 1-2 run cooldown between using characters, unless you're willing to take a big risk by sending in someone with lingering stress. This works because you have a stable of characters (you're effectively playing an entire guild of adventurers), so swapping out isn't a big deal — it's part of the larger "know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, and when to walk away" ethos of the game.

Here... we're just grinding characters into dust for reasons? The problem with this kind of system is that it gives the players a reason to not engage with the game (because you're signalling that you're filling the "dungeon" with traps). Take the "you lose MH in darkness" rules — the actual end result there is that players are going to stock up on torches and light-producing spells to make sure that darkness never happens. Why try stealth when you're punished for trying to sneak around in the dark? Why not just run away from every fight that you can, because that reduces the amount of long-term damage you're going to take?