Death's Door

A modular rule that describes how groups handle character death. Groups are encouraged to customize this rule to fit the story or group preferences.

Player death in the game is always a player decision. Normally, when a character's stress hits the maximum, they are taken out of the current scene.

It is important to remember that character stress represents the physical, mental and emotional health of a character. A character may reach their maximum stress points during a heated argument during a social encounter. Being "taken out" and exiting the scene could refer to rushing off in a 'huff after being humiliated in a failed social encounter.

If a character is taken out during combat, the director will narrate the details of the final consequence, but the player is responsible for narrating how they are "taken out" and their character exits the scene. It may be falling to the ground unconscious, dragging themselves to a safe location away from danger, or narrating falling over the railing of a bridge into the river below.

If the player determines that the story demands the character actually die, they can narrate their final death scene and proceed to design a replacement character.

Deady Encounters

Deadly Encounters is an alternative for groups that prefer deadlier combat and where death is determined by the rules rather than player choice. When a character reaches their maximum stress, the character falls unconscious and is dying.

The director starts a chance countdown with 3 segments giving other characters or allies a random number of rounds to reach the dying character and administer first aid to stabilize them. If the character does not receive aid before the countdown completes, the character dies.

Chance Countdown

A chance countdown combines Counters with Chance Rolls. The director sets up a counter with a number of segments until a specific event. At the top of the Turn Order, the player performs a chance roll based on a difficulty set by the director. If the player fails, the counter is increased.