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Grizzly Rant: Dying as a Hero in RPG's

Hit Points, dying and death in table-top RPGs: it's an odd subject for a variety of reasons.

  • The "Meta" nature of hit-points, or HP, and what it means;
  • The sudden change from a god-like killing machine to a helpless pile of bleeding flesh;
  • The anti-climatic moment of a player character's death;
  • and much more.
Honestly, we're not going to get into the whole subject of Death in RPGs here. I am going to talk a bit about how to make the process of a Hero's death, well, heroic, and therefore (hopefully) alleviate most of the issues presented above.

Behold: GM Grizzly's Heroic Death! 

The Heroic Death

The Heroic Death is simple, yet (in this GM's humble opinion) beautiful. It is a House Rule on the ICRPG CORE Death Mechanics from RUNEHAMMER GAMES, LLC.

The Rules there are something along the lines of "at zero HP, roll 1D20. On a 20, pop back up at 1 HP! Otherwise, roll 1D6, throwing out a 1. In this many rounds, you are dead! On your turn, roll the D20 to see if you pop back up. Other players may Attempt to save you. If you are dropped to -20HP on a single hit, then you are Dead." That's a basic recreation, for exact verbiage please refer to ICRPG CORE.

My modification to this is simple. When a player reaches zero HP, it is at this point they have taken a Mortal Wound. The Hero is Dying. They roll 1D6 throwing out a 1. This is how long they have to live (at 0, they are dead. End of story.). Any additional hits they suffer do not do damage in HP, but accelerate the counter by 1.

The PC is still mobile and has a choice on their Turn:
  1. Continue to fight (penalties to all rolls and movement apply);
  2. Make the D20 roll to stop dying, coming back to 1 HP.
If you like this house rule, by all means use it! I'm even considering using this for my monsters. I would keep the -20 HP on a single hit rule, but only if it happened on the final blow that dropped the Hero or Monster to below 0 HP.

If you need more, then here are my reasons.

The Nature of HP

HP is a tough nut to crack. On one hand, it's an easy way to track how close something is to death in a game so heavily focused on combat. On the other hand, it makes no narrative or logical sense. What are "Hit-Points?" What does "damage" actually mean? When I strike something with a sword and take away 5 HP of damage, how is that different from punching it in the face and doing 5 HP of damage? What about setting it on fire for 5 HP of damage? What does 0 HP mean? That I killed it? What about wounds? Does damage mean I cut something and it bleeds 5 HP of blood, or that I winded it of 5 HP of... something that doesn't do additional damage over time?

This is the disadvantage of a "rules-lite" system, or at the very least, an HP-based combat system. It brings a ton of Meta questions into the game. However, I would take this over a "crunchy" system that tracked injuries on individual strikes and limbs like a mechanical and mathematical nightmare any day. 

The main problem I have is this: as a GM, when a PC or monster lands a hit, how do I describe it? Is each hit a visceral thing? Do I make any hit when under 5 HP a near-fatal hit? Or is only the final killing blow a thing of brutal violence? Against a creature of high HP, this can be a boring narrative fight. 

The Heroic Death helps solve this problem by replacing HP as a sort of "Vitality" meter. It becomes a sort of will-to-fight, a player's ability to defend themselves. Damage done to HP is minor bruises, knocking wind out of someone, small cuts and scrapes. At zero HP, Heroes and Monsters are too tired, winded or wounded to properly defend themselves. Mistakes are made and each hit becomes Deadly.

This brings us to the second bizarre point of HP.

Sudden Defenselessness of Heroes

What has never made sense to me in games is the "hero-to-zero" nature of HP. In literature, the Hero, and even villains, are often at their most dangerous, most heroic, most desperate when in the throes of death. Dropping suddenly at 0 HP doesn't match this parallel we are trying to make with the "player-driven story" aspect of table-top RPGs. Gameplay-wise, it also punishes the player for (usually) being unlucky or making a poor tactical decision by turning the game into a boring slog of death rolls. I've seen my players and fellow party members' eyes when this happens. It is never fun, and always ranges from boredom, to annoyance, to complete demoralization. 

Allowing the PC to fight when dying, at great risk to themselves, is when a true Hero is born, legends are written and songs are sung. At this point in the battle, the Valkyries are already descending to take the Hero home to Valhalla. How the Hero chooses to spend their last moments should be up to them. Are they going to plead to the gods, begging for their life? Or will they plunge into the fray, headless of the danger, knowing Glory awaits at the end of a sword?

Which brings us to my final point.

Hail, The Victorious Dead

The loss of a PC is always sad, especially if they have been around for a while. Players get attached to them. And they should; these are their creations. When PCs simply die because they were dropped to 0 HP and failed whatever "resurrection" rolls where required, it's anti-climatic and disappointing for everyone.

But what if they had the choice in how they died? What if they went out swinging? Died saving their friends? Made the ultimate sacrifice? Left this mortal coil as a True Hero, sword in hand or bolt of lightning through the heart of the foe? Taverns throughout the land sing songs of this Hero. Tales are told. The death is meaningful.

The Hero was victorious after all.

There are many ways to handle the character death at your table. This is the topic of not only another post, but an entire Grizzly Encounter ICRPG Supplement: Requiem. In the meantime, I hope something in this post inspired you as it has my table.

Happy gaming!
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