What Happens When Critters and PCs Die?

Tipping over the big bad’s miniature after landing that lethal blow is a cherished moment for many of us. It isn’t uncommon at our table for the DM to gurgle the monster’s last breath while artfully teetering the miniature off a nearby cliff, or slumping it over a table or red-shirted NPC.

(No, you’re the dork!)

Took a while to find a somewhat positive gaming image. Anyone going to PAX this year?

But then what?

I’d bet a hundred gp versus a bent electrum that the average gaming group takes that mini off the table and forgets about it (until it’s recycled, anyway). After all, there are more critters to stab and cursed rings to slip over the fighter’s fingers while he sleeps.

But Why?

I submit that you shouldn’t just take that mini off the table. Leave it there and treat the space as difficult terrain. Take it away and color the area where the hydra fell in concentric circles so you can treat it as a hill, cover, or as a hiding place. In cramped quarters the PCs (or NPCs) might work together to pile those corpses in a doorway or behind a door, creating a very difficult-to-navigate-barricade for the other team. Giants might substitute a fallen genasi or goblinoid slave for a throwing boulder. Be sure to note the effects on the corpse as AoE spells and items go off nearby.

This simple addition provides a lot of potential color, tactics, and fun to your battles.

Also, Sources say U20 is Great

Have you visited the Weekly Critter Crate lately? Want to see a critter that not only transforms mid-combat, but becomes a bubbling pool of hardening lava once it’s killed? Of course you do!

Thanks for stopping by.

Comments

[MJ Harnish]

I like the idea of using the dead critters like terrain - it certainly adds a bit more versimilitude to the game and also creates an evolving environment. My biggest difficulty is how to manage this practically - downed minis take up space and move around, while drawing on the map works only if you're using something that you can draw on. What we need are some simple tokens or cool, useable dead critters tokens.

[Ameron]

We encourage the DM to leave all fallen characters on the map so that we don't forget about them. On more than one occasion the dead creature has been removed from a complex battle map and then we forget to loot the body. After being denied our just rewards a few too many times we simply said to the DM, "If you're not going to remind us that he's there and we should search him for loot, then leave him on the map until we move on."

We don't currently treat squares occupied by the fallen as anything special, but I like your idea of treating it as difficult terrain. I'm going to monition this to my group at our next game. Thanks.

[RPG Ike]

Hmmm... sounds like a craft project, MJ. It might sound a little lame, but you could have inch-scaled cutouts with text on them describing the effects of that terrain. Almost all the terrain in my games is 2D anyway, and it wouldn't take much to add this to my session prep checklist. Of course, I'd be surprised if there wasn't someone out there who sells dead critter transparencies for laying over your battlemap.

Nice. A completely unanticipated (by me, anyway) perk of keeping those critters on the map once they die, Ameron. Good point, and I really hope your group enjoys the changes to the game if you decide to keep those corpses on the map.

Thanks for the comments!