Simplified Death/Dying Rules

Unpopular Opinion: The Death and Dying rules in most RPGs really overthink things.

In a lot of RPGs, the Death and Dying rules take up nearly an entire page.  But death is one place where I really think the Player's Handbook should step back and let the story make the rules. 

This is all I need:

1. If you hit zero hit points, you fall unconscious.

2. At this point you are at the mercy of your enemies, who may use an action to finish you off.  There is no roll to finish off a creature that is at zero hp.

3. If no one bothers you, you regain 1 hit point after an hour.

Of course rule # 2 is the tricky part, and requires a DM who isn’t cruel.  But realistically, a monster isn’t going to waste an action to finish off a PC as long as other PCs are still a threat.  So by my rule, almost every PC death is a TPK, because if even one PC outlasts the monsters, no one will ever finish them off. 

The important thing is to figure out the enemy’s motive.  Are they fighting a mindless monster or a humanoid with an agenda?  If it’s a monster, is it fighting because it’s hungry, angry, scared, or territorial?  If it’s a human, is it trying to rob the PCs or does it want them dead?

A hungry monster isn’t going to stop and eat while it’s still being attacked.  Downed PCs are safe as long as one PC remains standing.  When the fight is over, it will eat until it’s full, finishing off one or more PCs depending on how much it can eat.  When choosing the PC to finish off, start with the closest, probably the last PC to fall.  If it’s a smaller monster that couldn’t even finish a single human, be nice and have it start with a leg.

Monsters fighting out of fear will probably back off once the threat is gone.  They won’t usually finish off PCs, because unconscious PCs are no longer a threat.

Bandits will probably let PCs live, but will steal their items.  Some might also tie the PCs up so they won’t be followed, but others will be in more of a hurry, and want to get out of there before more NPCs arrive.  The latter won’t steal all the PCs’ possessions, just the most obvious loot.

If the PCs happen to be the villains, the guards won’t finish them off, preferring to take them to jail instead.  Even if the PCs are wanted dead or alive, serious bounty hunters will usually prefer to take them alive, because it's worth more money.

Assassins sent by the story's Big Bad will finish the PCs off.  But as with everything, look at their motivations.  The Big Bad might send goons who just want to send a message, or recover an item the PCs stole, or capture them to learn some information.  Remember, death is the least interesting thing you can do to a PC, so try to give villains deeper motivations than "I want the PCs dead."

Of course, not everything that kills a PC has a motivation.  With my system, environmental damage would have to count as finishing a PC off.  If a PC is at zero hit points, and is then buried in an rockslide, that would probably have to count as finishing them off.  Or if you've already been downed by an enemy fighter, then you get caught in an evil wizard's fireball spell that was mostly targeting your allies.

In this respect, my system is actually deadlier than the real rules, because almost any post-zero damage is a coup de grace.  But the DM should still consider the type of damage, and whether it might work better to give the PC a lasting injury instead.  If they hit zero HP from falling off a cliff, and then a rock lands on their foot, that shouldn't be a killing blow.

But what about massive damage rules?  What if you have 25 hit points, and a monster does 60 hit points to you in one hit?  Well, if that happens, then you have a terrible DM.  Seriously, someone has seriously miscalculated the CR of the monsters you should be facing.  Remember that the players outnumber the DM, so consider tying the DM up and leaving him in the woods somewhere.  I think you'll find that solves a lot of the problems at your table.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating:  D&D is not a competitive sport.  It is not "DM vs Players."  D&D is a cooperative storytelling game.  The point isn't to kill your players, but to work with them to craft an interesting story. 

Ninety percent of the rules are there to keep things balanced, so that the killer DMs and min-maxing powergamers don't tear the story down around them in favor of self-indulgent power trips.  But the better the roleplayers, the fewer rules are needed.  With the right group, you barely need dying rules at all.