Question about Left For Dead

[Turim]

If a character is hit by an attack that brings him down to -11 hit points or lower, can he use a Fate Point to be Left For Dead? The RAW seem to indicate this can only be done at exactly -10, but I wanted to check this one just in case.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I would rule that ANY time the character dies he can use a FP to be Left for Dead. This does present certain problems, of course, depending on HOW the character died --

DM: You slip off the deck of the pirate sloop and into the water. Your heavy armor drags you inexorably to the bottom of the ocean where you become fodder for bottom-dwelling monsters of the deep.
Player: I burn a fate point to be Left for Dead.
DM: Er... uh... um... Okay, I guess you manage to get the armor off and your apparently lifeless body floats to the surface. Yeah, that's it.

The other problem, totally unaddressed by the rules, is that of scarring. If a character dies in a fire and uses a FP to be left for dead, would he really come out of it the same person he had been before?

 

[Grim Wanderer]

I would rule that ANY time the character dies he can use a FP to be Left for Dead. This does present certain problems, of course, depending on HOW the character died --

DM: You slip off the deck of the pirate sloop and into the water. Your heavy armor drags you inexorably to the bottom of the ocean where you become fodder for bottom-dwelling monsters of the deep.
Player: I burn a fate point to be Left for Dead.
DM: Er... uh... um... Okay, I guess you manage to get the armor off and your apparently lifeless body floats to the surface. Yeah, that's it.

The DM should use their discretion on the use of FP to be LFD. In your example Yuan-Ti, I would not allow the player to use the FP here. Any character dumb enough to wear heavy armour on a heaving deck, does not deserve to live.

That said, I would handle it differently, I would tell the player that if ANOTHER character wished to use a FP to rescue them before they drown, then they could live. This is a little more realistic, and it makes for some interesting role-playing.

Is it worth it to the party to save the character? And if so, will they repay the debt? Etc...

Grim Wanderer

 

[Yokiboy]

Both GrimWanderer and Yuan-Ti have it right. You can use a Fate Point to be Left For Dead anytime you would otherwise have died, but always at the discretion of the GM.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Anonymous]

I personally would include a gap of -10 to -15 for burning a fate point to be left for dead. Any lower would probably result in such a massive killing blow (decapitation, etc) that left for dead would not be applicable.

The basic mechanic behind left for dead is that it is used by a char whois between 0 and -10 hp, and is losing a point of hp each round due to certain actions, or is unconcious but not stabilised. Using a fate point merely stabilises said char.

 

[KiltieMacBagpipes]

I also don't think they could be left for dead if a spiteful enemy made good and sure that they were dead, i.e. nailing them to a wall and eviscerating them, removing their eyes and tongues.... (One of my players did that to another player, none of my doing.)

 

[Arkobla Conn]

But isn't that what being left for dead is all about???

USUALLY, the beast/bad guy/whatever does some gruesome thing to the 'corpse' and there is no hope of survival. But the expenditure of a fate point means.....

that the beast had to go to the bathroom at that moment....or

that the bad guys had more pressing matters...or

that a rainstorm kicked up and everyone ran for cover...or

SOMETHING that can be plausible to allow for the PC's body to be ignored.

(heck, it can even be ignored our of disrespect)

It's easy to come up with why's the body would be a corpse...the challenge is to support your player and come up with a plausible reason why the body isn't a corpse....

 

[slaughterj]

But isn't that what being left for dead is all about???

USUALLY, the beast/bad guy/whatever does some gruesome thing to the 'corpse' and there is no hope of survival. But the expenditure of a fate point means.....

that the beast had to go to the bathroom at that moment....or

that the bad guys had more pressing matters...or

that a rainstorm kicked up and everyone ran for cover...or

SOMETHING that can be plausible to allow for the PC's body to be ignored.

(heck, it can even be ignored our of disrespect)

It's easy to come up with why's the body would be a corpse...the challenge is to support your player and come up with a plausible reason why the body isn't a corpse....

Exactly. And that's why I won't set some arbitrary negative hit point range to apply either. Nor would I not allow it in the heavy armor off the ship situation - instead, the PC would have been able to strip the armor off but not before passing unconscious and luckily end up floating on the surface face up...or some "mermaid" intervened, taking the character to an underwater breathable bubble...or something even more fiendishly GM-inspired.

Don't disallow the use of a FP (except perhaps where the PC does something willingly stupid, like jump into the volcano for no apparent reason (as distinct from jumping into the volcano to rescue someone, hoping to land on a safe ledge below)). Instead, apply a more fiendish situation based on what resulted in the need for the FP expenditure.

 

[KiltieMacBagpipes]

the afore mentioned situation was not described fully until the messed up character had already spent his fate point and failed the following Fort save to stabilize, as noone found him until morning. Sorry 'bout the confusion.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

There can be awkward situations but I would never put a PC in a position where he could not use a Fate Point to escape death (or, better put, have an extra opportunity for the death which has occurred to not be final). That being said, I am not going to let my players walk around arbitrarily committing gruesome acts on major NPCs just to avoid having to fight them again -- but I will also only rarely bring an NPC back. After all, the game should be about the heroes -- the PCs -- and not the DM's pet NPCs.

 

[Anonymous]

I would suggest that narrators not be harsh on players. Even though combat in conana is grittier than in many other d20 books, remember that conan survived in all the books, after all he had been subjucated to.

Its ok for narrators to fudge rolls to ensure pc survival, even (especially?) in conan. The point is that combat should SEEM deadly. As a side note, if a pc deliberately keeps doing something foolish, and then ends up dying, with no fate points remaining, don't fudge rolls.

 

[Hyena]

I think no arbitrary limitation should be imposed to Left for Dead, be it the number of hit points actually lost or the way the character died. If necessary, players and GM should sit down and cook up some story to account for the PC's survival. As I see it, Conan combat should be handled with all the gloves off : no roll fudging, not much encounter balance etc. So, the only mechanic left to prevent campaigns from reaching CoC-like casualty rates is Left for Dead and it should not be tampered with.