Dying In TFT

In real life it is far easier to fall unconscious than it is to be killed, but in TFT some one who is unconscious is automatically on the ragged edge of death. Apart from the realism aspect, a far more serious problem is that it limits dramatic possibilities in the game. The two biggest changes in these rules, are that it is harder to kill people (or knock them out), and wizards no long spend hit points to cast spells. (Every TFT campaign I've ever played in, uses the rule that the wizards who spend fST to power spells are not closer to dying.)
I suggest the following basic rules be used by everyone playing TFT. The alternate rules below, allow you to season these ideas to taste.

Basic Dying Rules in TFT:

These rules are intended to improve the logic, the realism and the dramatic possibilities of serious wounds in TFT.

Falling Unconscious When Badly Wounded:

ST 1:
Someone who reaches an adjusted ST of 1 (from regular damage, subdual damage and fatigue), may make a 3vs(ST+3) roll to stay conscious. If they do so, they stay up and can keep fighting (tho they are at permenant -3 adj DX for being at 3 ST or less). If they make this saving throw, they can keep on doing things with out further rolls, until they take another wound or lose further fST. For example, Mothhem has a ST 9 and takes wounds that bring him down to 1 ST. He must make a 3 vs an adjusted 12 ST, to stay conscious.

ST 0:
Someone who reaches an adjusted ST of 0 (wounds, subdual damge and fatigue lost), must make a 3vsST to stay conscious. They must roll again every 5 minutes of rest, or 1 turn of combat, to remain alert. At the first failure, they do fall unconscious.
If most of the lost ST is fatigue, the character should be reeling with exhaustion. If mostly from damage, the PC's roleplaying fighting kneeling, and the like is appropriate. The character is at the last extremis and is dizzy with pain and blood loss.

ST lower than zero but above the death number:
Below 0 ST figures stop fighting and fall crippled or helpless. However, they may roll to stay conscious. They must roll 4vsST with a -1 penalty for each point they are below 0 ST. (See below for the mortally wounded rules.) They must roll every turn if trying to crawl or do anything, or once a minute if laying still. For example, Mothhem takes another wound and collapses with a –3 adj ST. Hoping to stay alert to shout a warning to his friends who will be coming in a few turns, he plays dead and freezes wrapped around his wound. He must make a 4vsST at a –3 penalty. Since his basic ST is 9, he needs to roll a 6 or less on 4 dice. He needs an automatic success to avoid passing out.

For large or smaller creatures who want to remain conscous, decide if they are weak, average, or strong for their race and roll 3 (or 4) dice verses an 8, 11, or 14 respectively. (Basically think of how tough this creature is compared to an average creature of his size, and scale the ST to a 3 (or 4) dice saving roll.)
I tried a bunch of complicated rules which looked at ST and hex size but none were at all simple or nor did they work well for the huge range of large and tiny creatures I had. The simple idea above is easy to remember, and is fast. If a massive dragon (far stronger than most dragons its size) hits zero ST, the GM says it is like a 16 ST human compared to normal humans, and rolls 4 dice vs a 16 to see if it can keep flying to escape, or see if it crashes to the ground unconscious.

Once in a great while I allow my players say that they are 'fighting desperately for consciousness'. (Say once every dozen or so play sessions.) NPC's can use this anytime the GM wants them to, (usually when the GM wants them to gasp out some vital dying words). If the GM allows this, then the PC or NPC character ignore consciousness rolls and just stay awake. If their ST is well below zero, they still automatically fall helpless but can speak.

Revised Effects of Damage Table:

For large creatures, the To Risk Unconsciousness ST is a range. If in the top half of the range, the being gets a 3vs(ST+3), in the lower half they get a straight 3vsST roll. (Remember to scale down their ST to the 3 die range, as given in the rules above.)

For those who do not like table lookups, you can use these rules for large creatures. The amount of damage that a creature must take to be at -2 DX for the rest of this turn and next turn is 1/3 of its basic ST. To be knocked down, it must take half of its ST in one turn. To be at permanent –3 DX they must be at 1/5 of their hit points. To Risk Unconsciouness, they must be at 1/10 of their hits. So using these rules, a monster with 57 ST would be at –2 DX for the rest of this turn and next turn when it took 19+ hits, it would be knocked down at 28+ hits, and would be at permanent negatives at 11 or less ST. They would risk falling unconscious at 6 ST or less.

see: https://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/medicine/PareApologie1951.jpg

Dying Rules:

People will die when they reach negative 1/2 their ST (round off in player's favour).

A figure who is mortally wounded will slowly take damage until they die. They will take 1 point of damage every half hour if they lay still and rest. If they move, they will take damage more quickly, depending how rough their method of convience is. (Say, one point of damage every 10 minutes for being in a moving cart.) If they have a Bleeding Critical, (see below), they are in considerably more danger.

I use the Crippling Hits rules on page 21 of Advanced Melee. However, if when making the 2 die roll to find the location of a Crippling hit, an adjusted 7 (or 13 or more - thus head wounds are likely bleeders) is rolled, the wound is a 'Bleeding Critical'. A bleeding Critical will do one point of damage every 30 seconds, until the person gets magical healing or is treated by someone with First Aid, Physicker or M. Physicker talents. (No roll is required, it is assumed that any trained treatment, or any magical healing will stop the bleeder.)

Stablizing Dying Figures:

A mortally wounded figure who gets medical attention may survive, this treatment takes the same amount of time as a normal Physickering action (5 minutes). If you stablize a mortally wounded figure, they are no longer considered to be mortally wounded and no longer take one point of damage every half hour. (They may be still at negative hit points.) How every they are still critically wounded and any motion above laying still may reopen their wounds, and make them mortally wounded again. Laying still will allow them to regain wounds with bed rest. Once they reach zero hits, they are no longer critically wounded and are full expected to recover given time, and assuming no infection strikes.
Note that the Healing Spells I have put on the web, make it far safer to move people who are critially wounded and make infections a remote possiblity. Even if you do not know a high enough version of these spells to give back hit points, they will stabalize and make more robust mortally wounded people.

To stablilize the wounded figure, a healing spell must be cast on them, OR a healer must make a saving throw. Use the following rules:

Modifiers to the above rolls:
If the healing starts within 30 seconds (0 to 6 turns) of the mortal wound, the healer gets +6 DX. If it happens between 35 seconds and 3 minutes (7 to 36 turns) the healer gets +3 DX.
If the wounded person is conscious and trying to self-heal, they may do so but must roll an extra die.

If the above roll is failed, the subject takes one point of damage, (2 points on a critical failure). (Bandaging, stitching, extracting arrows, etc. is assumed to do some damage to the wounded figure in the course of treatment. If the treatment is sucessful, this extra damage is considered minor. Repeated attempts are allowed, but each try is at a cummulative –1 adj DX. However, a new healer with a higher skill in healing (e.g. a Master Physicker taking over from a Physicker), does not get this cummulative penalty.

If the above roll succeeds, the subject recovers damage depending on the level of the person helping, (0 points for someone unskilled, 1 point for someone with First Aid, 2 points for someone with Physicker and 3 points for a Master Physicker). If the subject is still at negative ST, they are stable but will not lose further ST. The subject is considered to be in critical condition and needs bed rest. Any travel, or violent motion may reopen the wounds and start the bleeding again.

Example:
Nerdeth is mortally wounded at –2 adj ST. His basic ST is 13, so he will die at –7 adj ST. The party has a Physicker with a DX of 14. It is five minutes before the Physicker can get to Nerdeth. The Physicker must roll 3 dice verses (14 + –2 x2) i.e. a 3 dice vs a 10. The healer rolls an 8 and Nerdeth is saved. (Coincidently he gets back 2 damage from the Physicker, so he is at zero ST and not even in critical condition. But even if he was still at negative ST, he would be stable and not taking damage every half hour.)

Second Example:
As above, but Nerdeth (who has no healing talents), is out of luck; the Physicker is killed early in the fight, and Nerdeth must try by himself. His DX is 15, but –3 because he is at perminant negatives, for an adjusted 12. However, he starts trying to heal himself at once, for +6 DX. As someone with no healing skills he would normally have to roll 6 dice, but he is self-healing, so he must roll an extra die. The roll is: 7 vs (Nerdeth's DX of 12 + Nerdeth's adj ST of –2 x2 +6) = 7vs(12–4+6) = 7 dice vs a 14. Nerdeth rolls a 26, and takes a point of damage. An hour and a half later (three more points of damage bringing him to –6), a rescue party arrives with a dozen healing potions and Nerdeth is saved.

It is suggested that if any magic potions are avalible, then they are used before this saving throw.

Someone with a healing talent (First Aid, Physicker or Master Physicker), may not try to treat the mortally wounded figure, but just put pressure on the wounds, give the wounded victim liquids and keep them warm to avoid shock. This does not risk the damage of a failed saving roll above, and slows the mortal damage. Doing so reduces the damage to one point to every hour to 1.5 hours (GM's option). This course may be taken if it is thought that more skilled help is on its way. Any movement of the wounded figure prevents this slower 'Support' option. This option doubles the amount of time between damage from bleeding criticals from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

If a mortally wounded figure takes more than 2 hours to die, it is possible that enough blood will clot to allow them to naturally sabilize. If a mortally wounded person lies still for 2 hours, they are allowed a 4vsST with a –2 modifier for each point of damage they are below zero. If they make this roll, they stabilize on their own. Only one such Natural Constitution Save is allowed, even it if takes the figure more than 2 hours to die.
(Gigantic figures should scale their ST to a 3 die range as described above.)

Some races are especially tough or easy to kill. Game Masters may optionally use this table:

Notice that after 2 dice, the auto-success number goes up 3 each step, and the auto-failure number goes up 4 each step.

New Talent:

This talent is not needed, but a GM who wishes to have a weaker version of Physicker may add it to his or her campaign.

FIRST AID (1) Very basic healer's ability. Someone with Physicker gets this talent for free. If someone is wounded, you may do basic bandaging which will heal one hit on any humanoid figure (wounds only - not exhaustion) after any combat or accident. You must have a first aid kit to do so. Efforts of more than one healer are not cumulative. It takes 5 minutes to heal one hit. This must be done within 7 minutes of the when the wound was made. This may only be done once per wound, and only on the most recent wound.

Base ST From:	-2 DX Until End of Next Turn:	To Fall Prone:	To Be At Perm. –3 DX:	To Risk Unconsciousness:
	(hits / turn or more)	(hits / turn or more)	(adj ST or less)	(adj ST or less)
--------------------------	------------------------------------------	----------------------------	--------------------------------	----------------------------------------
1 to 3 ST	1 point	2 points	1 adj ST	0 adj ST
4 to 8	2	4	1	0
8 to 29	5	8	3	1 or 0
30 to 49	10	16	6	2 to 0
50 to 69	15	24	9	3 to 0
70 to 89	20	32	12	4 to 0
90 to 109	25	40	15	5 to 0
110 to 129	30	48	18	6 to 0
--------------------------	------------------------------------------	----------------------------	--------------------------------	----------------------------------------
+20 ST	+5 points	+8 points	+3 adj ST	+1 adj ST
+100 ST	+25 points	+40 points	+15 adj ST	+5 adj ST