DM Q&A - On roleplaying death

[denvmag]

Maybe I should take a better look at the rules before asking, but it's mainly an rp question, so here it goes: A guy killed me on pvp. I got unconcious, and eventually recovered and got concious again. Now I know I should forget the last half an hour when I die and go to the Fugue, and in this case, a DM present at the time told me to rp as if I could remember only bits of what had happened. The question is: according to the rules, how should that be rp'ed? Do I have to always remember only bits if I get unsconcious and then stabilize and recover? Or does my char normally remember what happened if he didn't really die?

I hope the question is understandable... my english doesn't seem to sound that good for english speaking ears... ;D

[Munroe]

If you survived the encounter, you survived the encounter. If the roleplay was that you were killed but the other player took OOC pity on you and left you bleeding and/or Raised you OOC then you should also treat that as having died. If you died, you shouldn't remember anything. If you were only unconscious then you should not remember anything after the point where you lost consciousness.

Again, however, if a player renders you unconscious, the player could kill you with a Coup de Grace, an effortless attack. You need to be clear whether you lived IC or OOC before assuming you lived.

[denvmag]

Thanks for the answer. In fact the guy 'killed' me (left me unconcious) and then wasn't sure what to do about it. So he decided to leave me there to die, but I regained conciousness before he could leave, and he just said that I should consider that as a warning (all that IC). So my char DOES remember what happened, even if maybe he doesn't know very clearly what happened as to why he came back after being attacked. Hmm... that's a good thing. I didn't want to forget it all and not be able to hate the guy that attacked my char. (hate IC, that is)

[denvmag]

Then again, I was left thinking... even though the guy could kill me with a coup de grace when I'm unconcious, it's very unlikely that anyone would do that, because he wouldn't know the difference. At least in my point of view, no one can tell if you are at -9 hp or -10hp. So he would probably THINK I'm dead, even if I'm only unconcious. What do you guys think?

[DM Richard (Retired)]

denvmag said:

Then again, I was left thinking... even though the guy could kill me with a coup de grace when I'm unconcious, it's very unlikely that anyone would do that, because he wouldn't know the difference. At least in my point of view, no one can tell if you are at -9 hp or -10hp. So he would probably THINK I'm dead, even if I'm only unconcious. What do you guys think?

And there are some that cut your throat just to make sure you are dead even if you are already -23 hp. It is just a matter of how thorough they are. For all they know you could be at 7 hp and faking it.

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

A heal check of DC 15 (i think that is it off the top of my head) can result in the ability to apply first aid to a PC between 0 and -9 hitpoints to stabilize them. I would think that making a similar heal check would allow you to know whether or not the victim is alive or dead.

The heal check is taken from the 3.5 PHB.

[Munroe]

denvmag said:

Then again, I was left thinking... even though the guy could kill me with a coup de grace when I'm unconcious, it's very unlikely that anyone would do that, because he wouldn't know the difference. At least in my point of view, no one can tell if you are at -9 hp or -10hp. So he would probably THINK I'm dead, even if I'm only unconcious. What do you guys think?

Dead men don't breathe. Anyone that REALLY wants you dead should slit your throat to be sure. That's my opinion anyway. If you're unconscious, you're likely breathing. If you're conscious and holding your breath, you're not likely to stay still while someone slits your throat.

[galanodellaucian]

I would just like to state for the record that under normal circumstances he would have been totally killed... But since the dm told me that he would only remember bits and pieces.. Nothing enough to point any fingers i didn't see a need to "whack" Him totally.. Being the sympathetic man i am and all.. I believe the dm was ainur.. Not quite sure though... So, unless ainur has something to add, I would like to stick with what he said, about knowing you were attacked, and practically killed, but you don't know by who.

~Alex~

I would also like to point out that I should not have posted this in the DM Questions and Answers forum. This could have easily been handled with pms and other forms of discussions. Sorry for taking from your time.

[denvmag]

wolfmunroe said:

If you survived the encounter, you survived the encounter. If the roleplay was that you were killed but the other player took OOC pity on you and left you bleeding and/or Raised you OOC then you should also treat that as having died. If you died, you shouldn't remember anything. If you were only unconscious then you should not remember anything after the point where you lost consciousness.

Again, however, if a player renders you unconscious, the player could kill you with a Coup de Grace, an effortless attack. You need to be clear whether you lived IC or OOC before assuming you lived.

DM Richard, I hope you don't smite me for asking about this again, but I couldn't help thinking about the subject after what happened last night and I am confused about it.
What I understand of what Munroe say here is that if the player that left me unconcious killed me IG but didn't OOC so that I don't lose the xp, then I wouldn't remember the last half an hour RL time, as the rules say. But if the guy let me live IG (and that's what happened in this case), then I should remember everything until the point when I got unconcious. I don't want to 'ressurrect' yesterday's discussion, but should a similar situation happen again, should I remember or not? 'Cause with all respect, but you DMs don't all seem to agree about that. So I'm left kind of confused.

If anything sounds offensive or anything, sorry, I didn't mean it, english is not my first language.

[DM Richard (Retired)]

denvmag said:

'Cause with all respect, but you DMs don't all seem to agree about that. So I'm left kind of confused.

I'm going to try and make this perfectly clear. First off we did not disagree. I will highlight sections of this text to clear that up in just a moment but most importantly...

You should never have even bothered posting this thread in the first place. You were told that night by DM Ainur when it happened that you wouldn't remember who killed you. That should have been the end of this whole thing.

denvmag said:

... A guy killed me on pvp. I got unconcious, and eventually recovered and got concious again. Now I know I should forget the last half an hour when I die and go to the Fugue, and in this case, [glow=red,2,300]a DM present at the time told me to rp as if I could remember only bits of what had happened.[/glow] The question is: according to the rules, how should that be rp'ed? Do I have to always remember only bits if I get unsconcious and then stabilize and recover? Or does my char normally remember what happened if he didn't really die?

You didn't like his ruling so here you are asking for a different answer. You already had a ruling for [glow=red,2,300]THAT PVP![/glow]

Instead of accepting the decision you post here hoping to get a different one. You phrase it as if you are asking about other PVP’s …

denvmag said:

... Do I have to [glow=red,2,300]always[/glow] remember only bits if I get unsconcious and then stabilize and recover? Or does my char [glow=red,2,300]normally[/glow] remember what happened if he didn't really die?

… but then you turn it around and use it as an excuse to go against the DM ruling you have already been given. The answer we posted here was not to overrule DM Ainur’s ruling. And it doesn’t even disagree with his ruling that you wouldn’t remember enough to retaliate. Read below…

denvmag said:

wolfmunroe said:

If you survived the encounter, you survived the encounter. [glow=red,2,300]If the roleplay was that you were killed but the other player took OOC pity on you and left you bleeding and/or Raised you OOC then you should also treat that as having died. [/glow] If you died, you shouldn't remember anything. If you were only unconscious then you should not remember anything after the point where you lost consciousness.

Again, however, if a player renders you unconscious, the player could kill you with a Coup de Grace, an effortless attack. [glow=red,2,300]You need to be clear whether you lived IC or OOC before assuming you lived. [/glow]

DM Richard, I hope you don't smite me for asking about this again, but I couldn't help thinking about the subject after what happened last night and I am confused about it.
[glow=red,2,300]What I understand of what Munroe say here is that if the player that left me unconcious killed me IG but didn't OOC so that I don't lose the xp, then I wouldn't remember the last half an hour RL time, as the rules say. [/glow]But if the guy let me live IG (and that's what happened in this case), then I should remember everything until the point when I got unconcious. I don't want to 'ressurrect' yesterday's discussion, but should a similar situation happen again, should I remember or not? 'Cause with all respect, but you DMs don't all seem to agree about that. So I'm left kind of confused.

If anything sounds offensive or anything, sorry, I didn't mean it, english is not my first language.

What DM Munroe said was [glow=red,2,300]You need to be clear whether you lived IC or OOC before assuming you lived. [/glow] [/quote]

IC not IG!

Every last one of us said that if the guy took mercy on you OOC and didn't finish you off because he didn't want to cost you the exp that you shouldn't remember enough to retaliate.

Instead of doing that you claim that he let you live IG (which doesn't answer if it was IC or OOC). You ignore what DM Ainur said that night. You ignore DM Munroe's advice [glow=red,2,300]You need to be clear whether you lived IC or OOC before assuming you lived. [/glow] And you went after him anyways.

I fail to see where we DM's disagreed. The only bit of confusion I see is that you think not being killed OOC means he must have let you live IC. As I said last night if you were in doubt you two should have come to an agreement before attacking again.

Is it clear now? And no I’m not offended just unsure of how to make it any clearer.

[denvmag]

It seems every time I say anything it only makes matters worse, but well... Sorry to make you guys angry... I was just trying to understand the rule.

About Ainur's ruling: I know I had a ruling from him, but if he really did say that night that I shouldn't remember who had killed me, I misundestood it then, 'cause it's not what I thought he meant. I'M SORRY.

About IG: Guess I'm just kind of stupid. When I said IG, I meant IC. SORRY. Maybe if you read all 'IG' as if I had said 'IC' it would be a little bit clearer? Sorry anyways.

I know I should have talked to the guy and have an agreement about it before attacking. I was angry because I thought the fight wasn't fair. That was no excuse, I know. My bad.

Last of all: Sorry for taking your precious DM time to answer stupid threads like this, I was just trying to understand a rule...
Please don't get any angrier at me, I didn't mean to make anyone angry, I mean, yesterday's situation is over anyways, isn't it?
I know I made a lot of mistakes, so please forgive me.
They won't be repeated.

[DM Richard (Retired)]

*sigh*

I'm not angry.

We tried to answer the question you asked.

Yes, yesterdays situation is over.

[threeshadesofcolur]

If it helps lift the blow on him this post helped me out for future dealings.

[Please direct all future raining of blows to me. I like being beat up.]

*is confused* I don't remember putting this but hey it seems like something I might do lol

[DM Richard (Retired)]

threeshadesofcolur said:

If it helps lift the blow on him this post helped me out for future dealings.

There is no "blow" on him.