Acceptable Breaks from/Fiddling with Mechanics

[Zhaleskra]

Role playing games already cater to many acceptable breaks from our reality. What situations would you find it appropriate to either just say "for this I'm going by what would really happen" or "yeah, you've got a shot to do it, but you better do it fast because you only get one shot at this"?

 

[The Shaman]

What situations would you find it appropriate to either just say "for this I'm going by what would really happen" or "yeah, you've got a shot to do it, but you better do it fast because you only get one shot at this"?

For example?

 

[Zhaleskra]

Let's say a party member has been sentenced to death, by, let's say . . . hanging. It's time for that party member's execution - he's on the gallows and about to be dropped. How much time do the rest of the PCs have to save him (even becoming outlaws in the process)? On the other end, how quickly does he die if they fail?

 

[the Jester]

Let's say a party member has been sentenced to death, by, let's say . . . hanging. It's time for that party member's execution - he's on the gallows and about to be dropped. How much time do the rest of the PCs have to save him (even becoming outlaws in the process)? On the other end, how quickly does he die if they fail?

If they're smart, they broke him out of jail before this.

If he's a jerk, they watch him dance on a rope.

If they must break him free here, how much time they have depends on them: when do they make their move? If they wait until the last moment, they only have a round or two. If they strike before the executioner has put the noose over their pal's neck, they're in much better shape.

If the character drops and hangs, I'd probably do something like inflict his bloodied value + some large amount on the first round (the drop) and his bloodied value again each round thereafter, giving him about 1-3 rounds to live without intervention. A rescue attempt might well include the party cleric trying to throw all the healing he could at his dangling friend.

 

[Rhun]

That would depend. Can they delay the executioner, and keeping him from pulling the lever? If so, they obviously get more time. And most games seem to have rules for suffocation, so I'd follow those for the hanging.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Is the executioner competent, such that the neck breaks immediately, or is he a sadist, such that the hangee slowly strangles to death?

 

[Umbran]

Depends in part on the game mechanics.

If mechanics for this situation don't exist, I'd make something up that's in line with the game's genre. If I'm playing something grim and gritty where life is cheap, it is probably a coup de grace, and if the hangman pulls the lever, it's done. If I'm playing 4-color superheroes, being really most sincerely dead so that the character never shows up again is nearly unthinkable!

 

[The Shaman]

And most games seem to have rules for suffocation, so I'd follow those for the hanging.

Except that hanging isn't intended to suffocate the condemned but rather to break the condemned's neck, at least if it's done by a proper executioner.

Which I think is Zhaleskra's poiny: if this is a proper gallows and the hangmen is competent, does the adventurer's neck break on the drop or does the adventurer 'hang around' awhile while the others have a chance to save him?

The most likely "what would really happen" answer is that the adventurer's neck snaps and the adventurer dies, with maybe a slim chance, like a very high DC Fortitude save, to avoid the broken neck and instead begin asphyxiating instead. The "you've got one shot" answer might be, "His neck doesn't break, but he's hanging there choking - you've got one shot to bribe the warden to cut him down," or, "The trapdoor opens - you've got one shot to throw you sword into the trapdoor for him to land on like a step so he doesn't break his neck."

 

[Mallus]

Attempted realism, be it in fiction or gaming, is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. So the question becomes, "what are you (collectively) trying to achieve?". In most genre fiction I'm familiar with, and thus in most role-playing game campaigns, the answer is "a world of high/cheap/improbably melodramatic adventure".

So I try not to let a surfeit of realism interfere with that.

A prison in a game is not a meant to hold a PC for any length of time; it's meant to be escaped from. Likewise, the hangman's rope isn't meant to break a PC's neck, it's there solely to afford the other PC's the chance to shoot it in two.

edit: which isn't to say PC's can't fail in a given escape plan, or fail to free a comrade about to be hanged, just that these bad ends should never be a fait accompli. They should be game-able situations, or else they shouldn't be part of the game.

Also, if I wanted some kind of forum with which to work out my personal ideas concerning the relative plausibility of various scenarios, the last one I'd choose is a role-playing game.

 

[the-golem]

Or, you've got one shot to send that arrow flying towards the rope (or executioners head), hoping to sever it before the lever is even thrown. (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, anyone?)