The thought occurred to me today that many LARPs have a serious lack of those ‘last words’ moments. These moments in films where a wounded comrade shares a couple of last words with his friend before dieing. This could be a good way to give a character who hasn’t achieved all they wanted to a bit of a send off.
So, does a finishing blow have to kill someone instantly? Especially in systems where healing can involve ten-minute rituals, why not say that recieving a mortal wound will leave you with five minutes to live? A character can say goodbye to a friend, slowly die as healers desperatly try to save them as a friend begs them to try to hold on a bit longer, defiently get in a last insult, and many other of those classic situations. We miss out on these with every death being instant.
In setting where there are different tiers of healing you could prehaps have someone at the top tier who can heal people from mortal wounds, but generally the idea would be that whatever people do, they can’t save you. Just give your character and ending, and die.
I love this idea! I had a moment in Nightmare Circle where my character was mortally wounded and slowly dying of bloodloss. She could actually still be saved, but there was no healers left, the rules system had it to countdown minutes according to your HP number, so I had 8 minutes. About half of that time I spent lying down while others were finishing the fight, then they found me and tried to help. Vanya was holding me, desperately crying for a healer, I was moaning and telling him how much it hurts and that I am cold, asking to help me. When the time ran out I made one big sigh, dropped my head and stopped moving, letting the survivors grieve. It was a beautiful scene, and so was the little funeral they made for me after that.
Part of the reason I’m finishing someone off may be to silence them.
If my victim can blurt out sensitive information in their last words, like the fact that I killed them, or the information I killed them to prevent the spreading of, that’s a problem for me.
So, if the normal instant finishing blow were to take 5 minutes to take effect (so they can say last words), then I’d like to have another option of spending 30 seconds to really finish someone there and then, to ensure they are silenced.
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Part of the reason I’m finishing someone off may be to silence them.
If my victim can blurt out sensitive information in their last words, like the fact that I killed them, or the information I killed them to prevent the spreading of, that’s a problem for me.
So, if the normal instant finishing blow were to take 5 minutes to take effect (so they can say last words), then I’d like to have another option of spending 30 seconds to really finish someone there and then, to ensure they are silenced.[/quote]
Another good point After Andrew’s original post, I was thinking solely of its application in those climatic battles, out in the open against vast armies of minions etc.
It’s kind of a tricky area, with potential to add unwarranted complexity.
If dying usually takes a few minutes, why can’t you be healed during that time? Because it’s a mortal wound, a special kind of wound that can’t be healed… but the healer will try anyway, possibly expending some resources depending on the system. Some players, the ones who don’t like rules, will find this complicated and forget how it works.
Then there’s the usual issue of judging time passed. How long is five minutes when you’re in the woods with no watch? If it’s just a matter of whether you will get a chance to have a death scene, it doesn’t matter. But if you’re busting to tell people who killed you, whether you survive long enough for someone to talk to you matters. Same issue with my 30-second “you die now” attack - if I’m interrupted at around 30 seconds, who judges whether I spent enough time - me or my victim? We may disagree.
So as an alternative, how about if finishing blow leaves you with about 30 seconds to live. You can choose to die immediately, or any time in the next 30 seconds.
That way players will occasionally get the chance to say last words, if someone reaches them immediately. But it won’t happen every single time someone is killed, so it won’t become routine. That would keep it special.
Also, the chances are that the only people you’ll get to talk to are the ones you were with when you died, who probably already know who killed you. You might still be able to tell them something unexpected though, with your last breath.
Anyway, back on topic. I’d guess it also depends on where you were hit, to determine if you have any time at all?
Or perhaps a quick cut on the throat would quickly deal with the person, without him/her being able to do final words. In the midsts of a battle, this won’t be easy to do, as it leaves you wide open. However in an assassination attempt it might be possible (As long as it’s not public) Preventing said info to be leaked. Also, most people won’t even bother cutting someones throat I presume, as it’s time consuming, and useless if the person doesn’t know anything you don’t want others to know.
I think this could work more like you get hit and go down on 0 hp’s or negatives (taking 2hp attack when on 1hp), you could act out your dying moments, if theres no healer around, but if you get a ‘killing blow’ then you don’t get a death scene…
Maybe change “killing blow” to require a 5 second act like stabbing someone deep in the heart, or slicing their throat and ensuring they are dying, rather than allowing someone run around tapping people on the chest one after the other. Which im sure is how I died in the first Teonn game, purely by accident or sinister plot by a PC.
So many ways to do this in various different larping atmospheres.
Which could possibly cause an issue when one person sees fit to stumble around dying for five minutes while the other person sees fit to say “you can’t do that I killed you already!”
I like one of Ryan’s suggestions where you have 5 minutes (or so, does it really have to be timed down to the last second?) unless whoever administers the killing blow stays over you for 30 seconds or so to make sure you’re actually, really dead.
I have had a few times down at 0hp where I’ve thought “If I’m gonna die, it’d be nice to be able to say goodbye first” so I love the idea. I’ve been tempted just to stay alive and quietly OOC the “I’m dying, there’s nothing you can do” part. Given that part of the fun of larping is about starring in your own heroic adventure movie, the dramatic death scene is pretty integral.
I hadn’t thought of the identity of the assassin scenario. But there are not a lot of injuries that will kill you instantly. Even a cut throat takes a few seconds. Bad example perhaps, since, it’d be hard to get dying words out around that. Perhaps it’s not unreasonable that an assassin ought to have to stick around for 30sec or so to make sure the deed is done. You could even have a kind of cool scene there, “But…brother, WHY?!? cough”.
There are situations where the plot will call for the players finding a corpse rather than a dying man. If you’re assassinating someone chances are you’re far enough away from witnesses to spend a bit of time making sure they’re dead. A thirty second ‘kill’ time would work there. If you’re sneaky enough you could also do it on the battlefield while other characters are distracted. And if someone bumps into you within those thirty seconds they’ll probably have a good idea who killed them.
I think you can quite easily explain two kinds of finishing blow within a couple of sentances when it comes to rules. You’ll have a ‘kill’ wihch takes about thirty seconds and should involve roleplaying something guaranteed to do someone in quickly like slashing out the throat, or caving in their head with a mace. There’ll also be a ‘mortal wound’ which is a quick action and can’t be healed but will take up to five minutes to kill someone. That would be used mainly in battle or by really callous characters who really don’t care who knows they kill someone.
It does depend a lot on settings and systems, but I think having a limit to what someone can heal is generally a good thing. Can magical grow back someone’s finger? Why not? We’re not creating new tissue and bone out of magic, you’re accelerating the body’s natural healing process. I like little explanations like that, especially for magic.
And spending resources on a hopeless cause is also a good thing. It’s like that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the medic dies. They use up gauze and morphine, but there’s nothing they can do for him. So while one healer might do everything he can to attempt to save someone, another may have seen this kind of injury too many times before and simply say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do anything.’ Then you have the characters surrounding this healer. Those who try to get the healer to stop trying and let him go as it becomes clear he can’t do anything. Those who demand more, or accuse the practical healer of not caring. Those who don’t care.
EDIT: If anyone was wondering the thread title is a reference to Forrest Gump.
1 killing blow allows death scene - great for crew to use when killing a character in a massive combat.
5 Killing blows: Body totally chopped up bits every where very bloody mess - no life left in dead character.
The bleed out:
Your hp in mins or a flat timer for every one (dependent on larp and gm’s) at the end of which you die - no matter what even if you were not killing blowed - as long as you were taken to 0 and not stabilised / healed then you die at the end of the timer.
Reduce the duration of the timer by 1 min for every 10 seconds you spend destroying the body as you libereally toss limbs into trees etc.
Both options need a way for players to 100% garantie they are not identified by the deceased otherwise there is no incentive for players to kill each other. Admitedly if that is not the kind of larp you are running then fine leave it with no way for them to die but don’t expect any backstabbing as its not worth the risk.
Can I just express my concern about safety aspect of such option? While it would certainly make for a cool roleplaying, the potential for injuries is scary. Especially minding that guys often hit harder than girls just because they see it ok and don’t know it’s not ok for girls. Especially minding there are always newbies who get super-enthusiastic and may overestimate the safety of foam weapon. Especially minding that killings may happen in the middle of rush battle, or in darkness, or in any other situation that increases the risk. Roleplaying stabbing someone would require very precise physrepping of the act, and if you miss and actually stab them, that would be regrettable. They made an “all stakes are to be tested on their owners” rule in St Wolfgang for a reason.
Not saying it should all be just banned because unsafe, but if someone roleplays a cool killing on me that would do OOC damage (especially on the throat!), I’ll throw away the immersion and scream for time out, and by scream I mean it, as this is what I do when hurt, so the successful assassin would not only get revealed as such, but would run in a danger of heart attack before I can cope with pain and explain that I’m not yet dying 8)
How often do we actually have players killing each other?
Can I just express my concern about safety aspect of such option? [/quote]
I certainly didn’t mean that any actual stabbing or slicing to occur with weapons… since both instances would require you to be close, a quick whisper of “im going to stab you” / “I slit your throat” and mock having a dagger… or sword if thats how you roll… as long as you have such a weapon on your person.
In a country where mass resurections of ‘dead’ players is vastly common place - not often enough.[/quote]
PVP and PvE are very different things. I don’t go to a weekend game for a skirmish, I go because it’s ‘Live-Action RolePlaying’.
Dying happens, mostly at the hands of greeblies. If players kill each other, I only hope that it involves some majorly awesome rping. Can’t say I even vaguely agree with your ‘not often enough’ statement.
[quote=“NickPitt”]PVP and PvE are very different things. I don’t go to a weekend game for a skirmish, I go because it’s ‘Live-Action RolePlaying’.
Dying happens, mostly at the hands of greeblies. If players kill each other, I only hope that it involves some majorly awesome rping. Can’t say I even vaguely agree with your ‘not often enough’ statement.[/quote]
Each larp is different, some are more PvE and some are more PvP. The original suggestion was in broad terms, not just about Teonn which happens to be the big fantasy larp at the moment.
I dunno if Teonn has set any specific expectations about this, but there is a culture in the Auckland fantasy larp community that PvP killings happen sometimes, and while it’s unlikely to be a random mugging (at least, not at any fantasy larp that’s run in Auckland to date) it won’t necessarily be a big moment that fits into your character’s dramatic arc either and you’ve just got to deal with any disappointment that brings. The players are not always assumed to always be one big team, even though that is sometimes the case as at St Wolfgangs.
