Death & Dying

Overview

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The Dragon's Neck has a custom death and dying system. This page will cover:

• General Roleplay Guidelines
• Bleeding Out
• Grim Wounds
• Opting In
• Permadeath Rolls
• Reroll Rewards
• FAQ

Note: This article deals with the mechanics of death and dying. For details on PvP, please review the PvP & Conflict page.


In Summary:


See detailed mechanics below.

General Roleplay Guidelines

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TDN has a setting of low-magic, therefore resurrection magic is nowadays considered an almost entirely lost art.

Narrative wise, whenever characters "die" mechanically they are only to be considered Downed. Being downed means to be wounded enough to be unable to move or speak, but not being dead, such as being unconscious. It's encouraged to roleplay that your character has a foggy memory of what happened during their time Downed, from pain if nothing else.
Respawning to another location is a mechanical tool to save a character from a dangerous area and should be roleplayed in a low-key way that fits the narrative, such as being helped by one's party, aid by inconsequential, faceless passer-bys or a self-made narrow escape.
Grim Wounds represent tangible reminders of a close call with death and should be roleplayed with a gravity that reflects that.

Only permadeath is considered actual in-character death as far as the narrative and roleplay is concerned. All other "deaths" are to be roleplayed as someone being Downed.


Additionally, because of TDN's custom outlook of vanilla death instead meaning that a character is Downed, the health indicators text above player names (Uninjured, Barely Injured, Injured, Badly Wounded and Near Death) are misleading in their current description. Therefore, a character who is "Near Death" will not look near death. While it's reasonable to see that something is up with a character that is Badly Wounded or worse, please refrain from defining exactly how another player looks (aka power emoting) and allow injured characters to interpret their injuries themselves.

Bleeding Out

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• Player Characters will begin bleeding once they drop below 1 HP.
• While bleeding, the character have a 5% chance each round to stabilise and begin healing 1 HP per round up to 1 HP. The Struggler background receives a bonus to this roll.
• Characters that receives healing at any point during the "bleeding out" process will be stabilised to 1 HP.

• All silver is dropped from the inventory.
• The character receive a debuff called Grim Wound, see below.
• The player will be presented with an option to either remain unconscious at -10 HP, or to "Respawn", which will jump players back to the entrance of the Dungeon/Area.
  • If at least one other player is close to the player’s downed body when no enemies are present, respawning will allow them to rise where they died instead.

Grim Wounds

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Grim Wounds are remnants of a close call with death.

• 1st Wound: -2AC, -2AB, 25% Spell Failure, +20% Damage Received
• 2nd Wound: -4AC, -4AB, 50% Spell Failure, +30% Damage Received
• 3rd Wound: Permadeath, with no rolls involved

• Grim Wounds heal naturally with the rate of one wound every 20 hours.
• They can also be healed by an NPC priest at a temple for the price of 60sp / level. This can only be done once every 12 hours.

Note that player-cast Restoration does not remove the adverse effects of Grim Wounds.
Also note that obtaining wounds has a cooldown of 5 minutes to avoid scenarios where players get hit with back-to-back-to-back Grim Wounds.

Opting In

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Opting In for Permadeath on TDN means adding an element of risk to a character's arc.

It can be toggled on at will using the !optin command. Note that once this setting has been toggled on, it cannot be toggled off.

The following classes are automatically Opted In:

1. Warlock
2. Chymist

Additionally, in rare instances, characters may be chosen to be Opted In by the team. This can be the result of narrative choices, such as for example hiring assassins, and can also be chosen for characters outside of factions leadership positions who still exert significant narrative influence on par with high-ranking faction members, such as driving forces behind influential player groups. In cases such as the hiring of assassins, the DM involved may give a heads-up that being Opted-In will be part of the deal, and other times it can come as an after-effect of significant player choices.

If a character is Opted In by the team, the player will be notified. Opt-In status can be checked at any time using the !permastatus / !ps command.


Benefits of Opting In:

• +10% RPXP Ticks and RPXP daily pool (14,29% to 15,71%)
• Eligibility for High Faction Ranks

If you do not opt in, you will remain at a lower faction rank and cease gaining Reputation.

Permadeath Rolls

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The Permadeath Roll is a d100 roll made once certain conditions are met. It decides whether a blow is truly a killing blow, or if there will be a narrow escape.

• PvP: the last damage a character receives is from another player who is also opted in

• A High-Risk DM Event (This will be clear in the RP leading up to the event)

Dying from any other reason, such as PvP with a character that is not opted in, PvE or self-inflicted damage does not trigger a permadeath roll, it only applies a grim wound as usual.

Note that Opted-In characters who survive a permadeath roll are recorded to have "died" once. With each death, the character's chances to survive the next permadeath roll decreases in accordance with the table below.


Permadeath Roll Table

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Reroll Rewards

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When a character is permanently retired, whether through voluntary retirement, permadeath or something else, the player will receive a portion of the character's experience, silver, and crafting experience* that can be used for a new character. Please open a DM ticket on Discord to receive these benefits.

The rewards are as follows:

• XP: (Current XP / 2,5)
• SP: 500gp / New Level
• CXP: 50% of all CXP can be redistributed as the player sees fit & within profession guidelines. *

Note that the lowest level character that can be retired this way is level 5, and that will grant level 3.

* = The crafting system is still a work in progress. This part of the reroll reward can only be claimed once the crafting system is implemented.

FAQ

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Q: In what scenarios would the team consider overturning a failed perma-death roll?
A: There are a few foreseeable scenarios in which such a decision would be considered:

1. A DM made a mistake, such as accidentally missclicking resulting in the death of a player
2. A system error
3. Foul play and griefing

If a character has permanently died because of an error or because of being the target of unfair play, please make a report and the team will investigate it. Please provide screenshots and/or a log of what took place. A program called Log Rotator allows for the gathering of logs in NWN. Pull up both the combat and RP log when taking screenshots afterwards.