In any roleplaying game, death is a constant reminder to players that no, they aren’t invincible. Whether it’s from an enemy, a fall, or poison, there’s a lot of creative ways for players to die. Here’s to hoping to coming up with as many strange, weird and bizarre ways to kill off PCs.
1: Food Poisoning
2: Lightning Strikes
3: Falls
4: Impaled on own sword
5: Crushed by drawbridge
6: Defenestration (Technically a fall, but I digress)
7: Brain impaled by a splintered javelin
8: Trampled by horses
9: Choking on food
10: Rolling into lava/a river/off a cliff while asleep
11: Healing spell backfires
12: Papercut becomes infected
13: Drowning in wine/beer
14: Bald head mistaken for a rock and an eagle drops a tortoise on it
15: Strangled by own armor during a polymorph
16: By Friend Computer
17: Self-cannibalism
18: Space Exposure
19: Electrical Shock from computer/television
20: Stolen for hair by a roc
21: Crushed by a vending machine
22: Hit by own stone while trying to sling it
Additional Ideas (1)
24. Realizes that there was some major paradox in own life, vanishes from existence with a look of vague surprise
25. Struck by a falling dwarf while walking in the mountains
26. Struck by a falling mountain while walking with a dwarf
27. Seduce / Seduced by a Minotaur
28. Tripping while picking blackberries, death from blood loss
29. Attempting to pitch a tent on a "hill", actually the belly of a sleeping giant. Not sleeping for long though.
30. Caught in the crossfire in a running battle between Gnoll and Hobgoblin skirmishers, quilled from both sides
June 1, 2008, 13:37
June 1, 2008, 21:44
June 1, 2008, 19:40
19: Death by Deep Fried Chocolate
20: Choked to death from a bug flying into your/their throat
June 2, 2008, 8:49
Sam and Tommy at the age of eight and nine might actually find this funny as they would grow tired of an RPG game after ten minutes. "Haha Tommy, you are eating yourself and DIE TROUGH SELF CANNIBALISM". Seriously, what is the meaning of this? This is in my opinion far from the standard of what is usually tolerated in the citadell. The way I see it you add free text silly and explain to us how this list might be useful and you finish the list or this should be deleted.
Sorry but this is my honest opinion.
June 2, 2008, 17:29
Ever wanted a spell idea? How about something that duplicates an item on the list (and you guys complain about a -scroll- which is supposed to be a community effort being too short- well, add to it!)?
Not all games have to be serious- having some random guy randomly fall from the sky can be a wonderful encounter.
This isn't about killing PCs. This is about absurd ideas that apply to other areas in the game. Yes it's silly. Yes it might not be fun to pull on the players. Worthless? Hardly. Humor is an integral part of the games I DM, and little touches like these (Haven't YOU gotten sick of "You kill it." "You stab it and it dies.") can add personality to a campaign- even serious Bushido followers can enjoy a quick, tension breaking moment.
June 3, 2008, 15:54
June 2, 2008, 9:59
Also like Micheal said, it's really too short, and seriously needs the silly free text to go along with it.
June 2, 2008, 14:44
Even better would be a scroll solicting the most outrageous/ingnomious TRUE PC/NPC deaths from your campaign.
I strongly suggest putting this into In-work Advice Requested - it is not ready in any case.
June 2, 2008, 16:37
Also, you might want to give some thought to freetexts. The "Death" freetext links you to macabre, death-themed subs like the Armor of the Last Stand and Never Ending Silence. The "Dying" freetext, though... not only does it seem redundant, but it links to absolutely nothing.
P.S. Self-cannibalism? How does the game get there? (The last time I saw autocannibalism mentioned was in a throwaway line in Transmetropolitan.)
June 2, 2008, 17:33
July 1, 2008, 1:52
June 5, 2008, 15:25
June 5, 2008, 19:42
- you could go the silly route, and collect the Bizarre Ways to Die, which could be an interesting list by itself,
- or you could really gather the Ways to Die, ordinary and bizarre. You would get more help from us, as it would make a much more useful list.
Note: starting it with talking about killing PCs is a sure way to draw fire, but such is life. Make this an interesting scroll, and you may even get that random generator.
June 30, 2008, 22:12
July 1, 2008, 1:48
My well known dislike for anything worthy of the silly tag means I am going to be another lower vote and a hard sell for anything better.
I never hold short against a submission, as a submission is complete when it provides all the information needed to use it in a game. And it is a scroll, which means we can add to it. The question we ask is... why?
Maybe I am old,(Okay, I am...),but I don't see the utility or the real humor on this one. It sounds like your game takes dying in innane ways like a bakka hammer in an anime. It doesn't really happen, but it is just a gag visual. That might work for you, but for the rest of us.. we are all going "huh?".
Too many whys for me. There is not enough reasoning for it. And the real killer, it is not funny enough.
July 11, 2008, 8:25
June 9, 2010, 9:12
October 29, 2010, 13:30
October 29, 2010, 15:53
This gets no love. I think we could rework this so that it could be more useful. Often times the gaming worlds we have are teaming with spirits. Very often the PCs have the ability to contact these spirits to gain information about a person, an item or perhaps just ask for directions. If you have this ability in the game you may never know for sure when the PCs are going to use it. An easy go to list of death stories may be handy to have around when you have to come up with a ghost on the spot. When you conjure a spirit you conjure both a life and a death. You also conjure up the past and get in touch with a lost time. The story of that person's death should be short but it should hint at a large amount of information and at a larger world. Each of these lines in this 30 hint at a story. I think there is use to this list of demises. I have five suggestions for what might be on that list. Check the forum.