A.N.D (Actions of the Nearly Departed)
Lylyth had heard tales about the ferocious last charges of dwarves and how they shouted obscene oaths while barreling headlong into enemies that towered above them. The stories were wrong though, Lorgrim had charged the cold-blooded mutants without a word from his lips.
She knocked an arrow and sighted in on one of the creatures. If this was to be their end she would follow the dwarf's example and meet it with grim silence.
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The problem: Death is an important part of Role-Playing Games and sometimes it's a sudden anti-climax: "the ogre hit you, you're dead, roll up a new character while the rest of the party has fun".
The solution: In my long-running fantasy notes document there's a bullet about how when something with a soul dies there is an extremely brief "psychic scream" as the soul is severed from the material realm. This is how I came up with A.N.D.
When a player's character dies they narrate their death throes. The player ends their narration by saying "AND...", then tells the table how their spirit leaves its mark on the world. This could be as mundane as them getting one last broadsword slash in or as grand as a previously stable boulder inexplicably rolling into a group of enemies. I'm leaving it intentionally vague as to what "leaving a mark on the world means".
Since drafting up this post I've seen a few posts across the TTRPG-verse with good suggestions on how to make deaths be more epic. They're all great. With so many cool options out there, maybe a player gets to pick their death mechanic at character creation?
Some example A.N.D's:
- "Raelia crumples to her knees with six arrows in her chest AND as her eyes glaze a hawk swoops down and gouges out one of her murderer's eyes!"
- "Though Jacoby saved the children by shielding them from the ogre's war club, even he can't rise from such a massive attack. He breaths his last AND the ogre trips over a large rock and into a thorny bramble, exposing itself to attack."
- "Violet swerves the interceptor attempting to dodge the missile-lock but knows it's hopeless. She glances at the picture of her sweetheart back on the carrier AND slams on the reverse boosters, giving the pursuing pilot no time to evade the fireball caused by their own missiles."
Potential Issue: The "mark on the world" can get fairly meta. But really, their character just died. Let the player have some fun.
The intended effect: Baked in cinematic moments for when characters die. No more anti-climactic, "Krusk is dead, trampled underfoot by the mob. Who's your new character?".
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Logrim Battlefury is a Reaper Miniature that I previously featured on the blog. I touched up his gold armor with a oil wash to give it more contrast.
The other character miniature is Lylyth, herald of Everblight. She previously had a hastily applied version of the same scheme so I decided to do her some justice. I really love the aesthetic of Warmachine/Hordes despite not being a huge steampunk fan.
The four-armed lizardfolk are "Leyline Phantoms" from the Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers game. To paint them as their name indicates would be a great disservice to their sculpts so instead they are mutant lizardfolk!
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