It constantly amazes me how easily a character can die in most, if not all, current MMORPG’s. Whoever originally thought up the system “Player gets to 0 hit points, dies instantly” system really must have worked hard on that one. Can’t an industry that cherishes creative thinking as it’s key attribute do a bit better than that? I think so.
I’ll use the Fallout series as an example here. Fallout implemented a system where a character was knocked unconscious, then bled to death over time (or died instantly if horribly injured). This is only a slight modification of the original D&D system where you were knocked out from 0 to -10. For some reason, the MMO market has regressed and not even taken this most basic mechanic into consideration.
And now, for our tentative ideas of …
Mommy, what happens when Daddy gets his ass kicked?
Here’s a scenario. Our brave vaulter has decided to go alone and take on some slavers. For some reason, he wants to go in and kill everyone of them at a certain location. However, our vaulter isn’t feeling well today. Maybe some bad rat-kabobs. Oh no! He pissed himself mid battle! He could be going… he could be… yes, he is… he’s down!
Now what can happen? Chances are, you were just knocked out or incapacitated. And that can lead to…
- Slavers take his valuables, and throw him in a cesspit.
- Slavers try to heal him, tie him up, and sell him as a slave.
- Vaulter was knocked unconscious. Nearby there were other vaulters, who bested the Slavers. Vaulter 1 is revived or aided up. Or he’s left to die. Whatever.
- Vaulter surrenders before. That’s right, surrenders. What kind of hero surrenders? Well, one thats going to smooth talk his way out of this mess, maybe?
- Bubo the slaver thinks your cute. He fixes you up real nice, and you get to be his bitch. Oh, and don’t worry: people will find out.
- Slavers kill our poor vaulter.
That’s only a simple scenario. There are so many different things to do in these situations. I think that’s a good sample of what *can* happen in a given encounter. The options should be numerous, good enough to keep you laughing, crying and praying for a while.
To maintain viability and overall realism, encounters should be made with this mentality in mind. Situations of what can happen should vary depending on what you are fighting (carnivore animals being less forgiving then say, some poor brahman you just got your ass kicked by) and intelligent encounters could really be “sky’s the limit”.
In conclusion: actual character death should be much more uncommon in any RPG. It should be more realistic. You should expect to be knocked out, held down, captured, surrendering, sold and beaten as your punishment for getting in over your head. This simple system of reaching 0 and dropping over dead is archaic and quite frankly a bit insulting to gamers intelligence. We demand more!
