In my campaign I face the twin challenges of reinforcing the world's lore and giving my players something to do when they're knocked out. This is my solution.
It's not just in tabletop games. For viewers, watching a character's point of view fade to black is not something we dwell on for long. Inevitably, that point of view shifts. It can be a flashback, a flash forward, a prophecy, or a moment of insight, but whatever it is, I find those media tropes a great way to keep players engaged with the game. And if they learn something about the world while they wait, even better.
All of these options require some work ahead of time. I like creating a file of virtual index cards for each character so I'm ready when the inevitable happens. Being knocked unconscious happens more often at lower levels when characters are squishier, so this kind of prep is more important early in a campaign. It also is harder to do at first, because the players may not have fleshed out their characters nearly as much.
As characters gain experience and become more powerful, being knocked unconscious may be a less frequent occurrence. But there are other opportunities to use these visions through elven trances, the dream spell, and just regular dreams.
All of this takes work, but by preparing ahead of time it keeps the game engaging and gives players of unconscious characters something to do. They also tend to remember it when their life is on the line, a great way to nudge players into caring more about your world's lore.
Your Turn: How do you manage the play experience of unconscious characters?
Make a Death Save!
Dungeons & Dragons has always struggled with keeping players engaged when their characters are knocked unconscious. When a character is asleep or unconscious (by choice or misadventure), the player effectively loses control of their character. In a game where players use those precious rounds to try to do something, anything, having your character incapacitated can be really frustrating.It's not just in tabletop games. For viewers, watching a character's point of view fade to black is not something we dwell on for long. Inevitably, that point of view shifts. It can be a flashback, a flash forward, a prophecy, or a moment of insight, but whatever it is, I find those media tropes a great way to keep players engaged with the game. And if they learn something about the world while they wait, even better.
All of these options require some work ahead of time. I like creating a file of virtual index cards for each character so I'm ready when the inevitable happens. Being knocked unconscious happens more often at lower levels when characters are squishier, so this kind of prep is more important early in a campaign. It also is harder to do at first, because the players may not have fleshed out their characters nearly as much.
As characters gain experience and become more powerful, being knocked unconscious may be a less frequent occurrence. But there are other opportunities to use these visions through elven trances, the dream spell, and just regular dreams.
Near-Death Clairvoyance
In theory, the character is numb to the events around them. They cannot experience what's happening and thus have no idea what's going on while they're out. In practice, it's not particularly fun to order a player out of the room until they're awake again, unless there's something else for them to do (get snacks, play video games, etc.). For the most part, this means players know what happens while they're unconscious. You can make this a formal part of the game by describing it as near-death clairvoyance, but even if you don't, that's the default experience for most D&D games. Even then, it's still something that can be tweaked. Can they witness things others can't, like ethereal or invisible creatures (like how Frodo sees the ringwraiths in Lord of the Rings)?My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
This is the second easiest sequence for a Dungeon Master to create because it already happened, but it's the most common trope in fiction. Sometimes, it's remembering an event that happened, but with a different interpretation of the events (that villain was faking his wounds!). Alternately, it can be some part of a character's lore that never came up before ("so THAT'S why I'm afraid of the sound of crackling fire!").Adventures in Comaland
Unlike the above sequence, the character plays out the events in real time in an attempt to escape unconsciousness. This gets complicated because it essentially splits the party, but it gives the player more agency. With each death save (or loss of hit points, depending on what edition you're playing) the character navigates through another stage of their death experience. If they succeed, they wake up -- whether or not that plays out using the game's regular dying mechanics or if they just wake up by solving a puzzle, fighting a monster, etc. is up to the DM. Alternately, their rolls in the waking world determine the end result (fail three times and the monster wins in Comaland). It can also be as mundane as talking to an ancestor and grappling with a problem, with some sort of epiphany granted when/if the character wakes up.Dreaming of Things to Come
Instead of a flashback, this vision provides hints and clues about the future. It can be symbolic, or it can be specific to the adventure itself, or even far-reaching events in the campaign. These are the easiest to create because they're untethered from what happened before. The DM can make up whatever makes sense for the adventure at the time. That said, there's a limit to how long these pre-written dreams can be useful if they're prophecies of near-term events.All of this takes work, but by preparing ahead of time it keeps the game engaging and gives players of unconscious characters something to do. They also tend to remember it when their life is on the line, a great way to nudge players into caring more about your world's lore.
Your Turn: How do you manage the play experience of unconscious characters?
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