Death & Dying
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
-Isaac Asimov
In the world of Realms of Adventure, death is not always the end of the road. While some die never to return, some are returned to the world for reasons that can only be understood by the gods themselves. Death occurs often at RoA, and most times your character will be returned to the land of the living. When you play at Realms of Adventure you can expect that you will die, especially if you are involved in frequent combat. Eventually, your death may be your last.
When your health is reduced to zero or less, from a physical attack, spell or trap you will fall unconscious. To role-play this you must safely fall to the ground and pretend to be unconscious by keeping your eyes closed, lying still and staying quiet. You have 5 minutes until you have bled to death and your spirit departs from your body. The best way to time this is to count to 300, one second at a time. When you reach 300, you are dead. While you are unconscious, you are completely unaware of your surroundings and may not look around, speak or interact with anyone unless they interact with you in very specific ways (listed below this section). It is considered cheating to talk, cough or make any noises in the attempt to solicit help or alert your friends to where you are.
Very often you will be approached while lying on the ground and someone will put their hand near your wrist or neck and say “I check for a pulse.” You must tell them simply YES if you have not yet bled to death or NO if you have. (“Pulse.” or “No Pulse.” is also acceptable.) Usually this is a good sign, as it means some good samaritan has checked to see if you are alive so that they can get you healing. Sometimes, however, it means they were checking your pulse to see if they should administer a killing blow! If someone puts a weapon on your torso and says “Killing Blow 1, Killing Blow 2, Killing Blow 3,” you immediately are considered to have bled out and are dead. No healing can restore you. Sometimes a cleric will approach you and say “Diagnose.” If this is done you should quietly whisper to them the nature of your condition. Example:”Bleeding to death, 1 minute left to live” or in the case of other damage you might sustain, “Poison and damage, 2 minutes to live” or “Unconscious, waylaid.” Try to keep your voice down so that only the cleric hears the diagnosis. The only other skills or spells that can be used upon you are those related to death. Any further damage committed on your body has no effect, as 0 health is effectively the same as -500. A single point healing spell, a healing potion poured down your throat or a successful use of the “First Aid” skill will stabilize you and make you conscious again once you reach a positive number of health points.
If you are unconscious for 5 minutes and no one heals you, or someone administers a killing blow, death spell or other death effect to your unconscious body, you die. No healing, first aid or other means can bring you back short of an extremely powerful raise dead spell which is rumored to exist. You should wait another 5 minutes to allow any passerby to search your corpse. After this time you should stand up and put your sword or hand above your head to signal to others that you are a spirit. Proceed directly to Negoro’s realm, also referred to as Death (Negoro is the god of death in RoA, and Negoro and Death are used somewhat interchangeably). On your way to Death you may not talk or otherwise interact with anyone unless you are forced to do so through some special skill or magical means. Anything you see during this journey to Negoro’s realm should be ignored, you will not remember anything you see or hear, and using this knowledge is considered metagaming. Anyone who sees you pass will be able to see your spirit form and will recognize who you were in life. Once you arrive at Death’s door alert him to your presence but do not enter until they bid you to. You MUST be honest in telling Negoro the circumstances of your death, assuming that they are an omniscient being who will be aware if you lie! Negoro is a fickle being. They are sometimes nice and sometimes mean and can appear in many different forms, so you should be ready for anything. If you were lucky enough for someone to grant you “Deity’s Favor” or “Spirit’s Favor,” you should inform Negoro when you arrive. Often being granted this skill can mean the difference between life and permanent death.
Most times your visit with Negoro will end with you being returned to the land of the living with no memory of your visit. Death will inform you what you do or do not remember and will tell you how you are sent back into the world (i.e. all skills restored, a mere 1 health etc.). When you come back from death any spells and enchantments that were on your person dissipate, armor and broken weapons are not repaired etc. If you are especially unlucky, and Negoro has opted to keep you in their realm, there is still one way to return to life. By spending “Service Points,” which are earned by helping the game in various ways (like donations of props or time), you can purchase Tokens of Negoro. Use of this token allows you to pull yourself from the brink of death and return to the mortal realm once more. You may buy as many of these tokens as you wish, but you may only use 3 of these tokens in your character’s life, and no more. Death can only be cheated so often. These tokens are considered out of game and may not be stolen or sold, but may be given away if you are extremely generous. Tokens are considered property of the player NOT the character. Therefore if you die and do not wish to use your token to save the life of your character, or you have already used 3 on this character, you will not lose any tokens you currently possess.
Aside from the regular method of death, there are other ways that will kill you instantly with no death count and no chance of being healed. If you are hit with any spell with the word “DEATH” in the incant, and you are unable to resist it in some way (i.e. Spell Shield), you will die immediately. The same is true if you are administered a killing blow, struck with any poison or ability that has “DEATH” as a verbal component, or are struck with a “Deathstrike” or “Assassinate” skill. If one of the above things happens to you, you must still do a 5 minute death count to allow your corpse to be searched before proceeding to Death’s door.
NOTE: At RoA willful suicide of a character is considered a grave insult to the gods. If your character commits suicide it will be your final death! If the suicide was a result of your mind being dominated or your “suicide” was sacrificing your life for others (i.e. Trying to fight off 40 Orcs with 1 health left, most people would consider suicide!), this rule will not apply. Additionally if you commit willful suicide you will not receive the 25% of your earned points as per the rules laid out here.
A word on carrying others:
At various times throughout a weekend you may wish to move a fallen comrade or enemy. Perhaps you want to get your friend away from the battle so you can safely find a healer or you wish to roll a dead monster “into the bushes” to get its stinking corpse off the trail (Incidentally this allows that cast member to come back out as a monster or NPC that much quicker). All you need to do to accomplish this is crouch down near a fallen body and state “I carry you.” At this point the fallen person must stand up, you may put your hand on the arm or shoulder and they must follow you. You may not move any faster than a walk (NO SPEED WALKING!), as it is considered that the individual is over your shoulder or being carried in a similar fashion. You should never attempt to actually physically carry another person for safety reasons.
Final Death
Rules For Making A New Character When An Old One Dies
If you decide to retire your character, OR when your character unfortunately passes into Negoro’s realm for their final visit, you will be given the opportunity to make a new one. If you retire your character before reaching 400cp, you will follow the formula for final death, though narratively your character is still in the world. If your character has 400cp or more, you follow the second formula for retirement.
The formula for a new character’s point total after final death is 55 points + 5 if you write a background (for a possible 60) + 40% of all EARNED character points rounded up.
The formula for a new character’s point total if you retire is 55 points + 5 if you write a background (for a possible 60) + 60% of all EARNED character points rounded up. Additionally, you may pull 12cp from your bank every event.
Earned points are defined as any points gained for your character above and beyond the initial starting 55 or 60.
There are additional benefits beyond CP to retiring after 400cp - such as coming into game knowing additional spells and skills, as well as unique races to play. Please reach out to staff if you are interested in retiring your character. There are benefits at 400cp, 800cp and 1200cp.
Please note however that any BANKED earned points are not affected. In other words if they are banked you do not lose them. When generating your new character you may not access all of the banked points at once. This is done for game balance reasons. You may access a maximum of 6 points from your bank per event as per the normal rules of banked points, or 12 if you retire. The normal rules are only 6 points may be withdrawn from the bank per event attended and may be used in addition to any points earned that event including service point conversions. The ONLY exception to this rule is in the event a player wishes to purchase a second (or third) class OR SINGLE skill that costs in excess of 12 points. In this case they may draw up to the amount needed to purchase that class or skill. IE – if the player wished to purchase a skill that cost 20 character points, and had access to that skill, they would be permitted to draw 14 character points from their bank as opposed to the usual 6. This is the ONLY exception and it must be for ONE CLASS OR SKILL, AND ONE PURCHASE of said skill. In this way you couldn’t buy a 20 point skill 4 times in one shot simply because your bank would allow for it or buy a second class and several skills.
Some examples of how this might work out…
A) Character A dies and is a 200 point character with no points banked. 200 – 60 = 140 earned points. This leaves character A with 56 points (140*0.4) which will be added to their bank. The new character will start at 55 + 5 (if you write a background that is approved within 2 events of playing that character not including the event in which it was generated) + 6 = 66 points with 50 remaining in the bank.
B) Character B retires and is a 907 point character with no points banked. 907 – 60 = 847 earned points. This leaves character B with 339 points (847*0.6 = 508.2 rounded up to 509), which will be added to their bank. The new character will start at 55 + 5 + 12 = 72 points with 497 remaining in the bank.
C) Character C dies and is a 450 point character with 15 points banked. 450 – 60 = 390 earned points. This leaves character C with 171 points (390*0.4 = 156 + the 15 already in the bank for a total of 171), which will be added to their bank. The new character will start at 55 + 5 + 6 = 66 points with 165 remaining in the bank.