Darn,

I remember reading a thread somewhere about the difficulty of casting “death scenes” and “last speeches” in RPG games, but I can’t find it.

From what I remember the basic assumption seemed to be that it is next to impossible because when faced by a dying NPC the party will immediately try to heal him with their magical bling, powers, medical skills, etc. The common rationale seemed to be “If he’s still awake/talking/kicking he can be saved.”

Yesterday I had an idea on how to solve this and incorporate these scenes into a game (assuming the group wants to) so here’s my thoughts.

I think the solution is, regardless of the system being played, to have a pre-accorded “point of no return” from which on a character (PC or NPC) will die; but not necessarily immediately right away.

Everyone in the group has to understand that sometimes, someone might be “dead” by the rulez (at –10 HP in D&D for example) but that does not mean he instantly must become a cold, unmoving, rotting corpse. He might be completely disabled but conscious, have one last heroic action before keeling over or even just stay there, half-dead until his companions arrive linger just long enough to say his goodbyes. The grim reaper has got a inescapable hold of him, but kindly allows for a few seconds more…

In settings with powerful healing magic or technology it need only be agreed beforehand that their effectiveness is limited. It won’t work on the –10 HP dude. Just because the guy standing over there, guts hanging out, but can still deliver a few words or even pull a trigger a final time, he might indeed be beyond any and all possible medical help.

The "lingering" might happen for dramatic purposes, to make the story go onward, to impart vital information to the campaign, because the player wants a cool death scene, etc. “Just because he is talking” doesn’t cut it anymore. A cure light wounds, a cure critical or even a ring of regeneration wont help.

In a word: dead…but holding on for a few moments more because of sheer willpower, dumb luck, a temporary miracle of biology or simply because the Gods will it so.

How to “explain” that the miraculous magic or technology does not cut it in this case? Simple, the very framework it has to work on (a salvageable living body) is not there anymore. Oh it’s still alive-ish, barely, but not salvageable. The guy is dying! Living on borrowed time. At the very best, the hocus-pocus stuff might be just be what allows the character to “come back” momentarily for a last line of dialogue, or puts him into a coma that last for hours (even days) before he perishes sometimes “during the night” instead of "in a minute".

A cure critical wounds spell or a Tech 11 medpac might be nothing short of miraculous, but that does not mean they are, or should be, 100% efficient 100% of the time. Heck, nothing is!


Consider the following examples that become possible if a game accounts for something like was described above:

1. Henchman Bob is helping out Sir Galladus in a fight by taking pot shots with his crossbow. A charging foe deals him a grievous blow with an axe that will outright kill him. The referee chooses to interpret the results thus:

NPC Henchmen Bob gets his arm chopped off, looks in horror at his bleeding stump and collapses. Next round he grabs his loaded crossbow with his remaining limb and takes a shot that (according to the dice) kills a random moob. He then keels over.

After the battle, the party binds his arm wound and tries to use whatever means they have at their disposal to help him. Bob regains consciousness and has time for a last hearth-warming farewell speech and making the PCs promise they will give his precious medal, which he got while serving under the King’s army to his infant son. He then fades away and dies peacefully sometime during the night while the party makes camp.

The referee might have chosen to have Bob simply die before he hit the floor. But he decided to extend his death for dramatic purposes. And who knows? The “give this to my son” line might be used as the gateway to the next adventure.


2. Sophie is running Alandra the warrior woman. She is hit by a thrown spear and like Bob above, suffers enough damage to automatically die. The referee gives the player the option for a last action after which she will fall and die but Sophie chooses to have Alandra fall right now, grabbing at the spear skewering her body, but remain aware of her surroundings.

In the very next round she sees an enemy creeping behind Sir Galladus to deliver a potential fatal blow. She screams “Galladus, watch out behind you!”. Since Sophie does not have the stomach for long-winded goodbyes she has Alandra perish right after this but not before seeing Sir Galladus turn around and dispatch his assailant. Alandra dies with a smile in her lips knowing her last action probably saved a friend’s life.


3. John OTOH, doesn’t have the patience for any of this crap. Dead is dead and he likes his characters to go down messily. When his character, a bulky barbarian named Brokus, charges up a stairway at the enemy leader, a huge darth-vader-like figure, he fails his attack roll and gets pushed into the low, low negative HPs by the villain two-handed blade. Knowing John’s preferences the referee simply describes, much to John’s delight, how the headless form of Brokus tumbles down the stairs in a veritable shower of blood.

But had he wanted to, John could have had Brokus fall down with a mortal wound and as a last action, grab at his nemesis’ legs and grant Sir Galladus, who was climbing the stairs right behind, a bonus to hit.


All sort of fun visual stuff may take place when someone crosses the threshold of death: holes in the body, limbs blown off,  profuse bleeding, etc. But as long as one does not get his head blown, or falls into a pool of acid, a lingering demise, a few last words or a final, perhaps even decisive, action are possible.

The beauty of this is that it makes possible having all kind of cheesy death-related clichés we love and hate from books, TV and movies. (again, not everyone’s cup of tea but many like it)

And the sweet bit for the referee, is he may describe all this, for any living creature in the game that the players cannot keep tab of hit points. The mechanics behind it become irrelevant. Until he turns to a player and flatly states “He’s dead Jim…” they will never know if the guy on the floor can be saved unless they try.

When the hidden sniper assassin shots the important NPC the party his protecting and he latter dies as a result of his wounds, the players have no way of knowing whether this was a pre-set scene, or if they just fucked up their bodyguard duties.

This might just be what changes a game dialogue from “How many hit points does he have?” and “How far down into the negatives is he?” to “How badly hurt does he look? Do we think he can make it?”

And that sounds like a good thing, at least for me. That's why I'm thinking of incorporating something like this into my campaign.


Feel free to dissect, comment and flame.

Quote from: Edsan"Just because he is talking" doesn't cut it anymore. A cure light wounds, a cure critical or even a ring of regeneration wont help.

But what about resurrection after he has perished?

I believe the thread you were looking for was this one.

Quote from: GrimGentBut what about resurrection after he has perished?

Well that will work, yes.

But the idea was coming up with a good system to permit the depiction of unavoidable death in all it forms.

If you got a corpse then you can bury it, burn it, donate it to science, bring it back as a zombie or even back to life depending on what is possible in the campaign world. But that is beyond the scope of what I was discussing.

Paul, kudos for the link. I have to go through the whole thing again and see if all I wrote has already been done there.