Mortality and Single Character ~ Discussion

[Azerax]

I've always been against illness and other random events resulting in character death.

But if there were mortality for old characters, those infiltrator attacks on the 90+ old ruler of Foreverstan would become a powerful threat again...

It would be nice to actually fear infiltrators and not just consider them a 4 day nusance.

[Poliorketes]

We have that, it's called "age". The age attribute in BM does not represent calendar age, it represents physical age and you DO "age" when you get wounded.

Still, I do like the idea, and we could convert between the two.

I like the idea of mortality at 'old age' (from 60 to 90-100?) ! In RL, I often had meet people relatively young but totally 'worn out' (and the opposed). The only thing... maybe it would be good to show both ages, Chronological and 'vital'?

[Eirikr]

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,2793.0.html

Is it this one? Though this is for VOLUNTARY death.

I'm super late to the game, but I'm having a harder time keeping up with the forums now that everyone's focused on a few topics.

I just wanted to throw my solution in there again, since it got deleted (rightfully so) in the other thread. It's pretty similar to the one Jaron linked, though his was earlier. http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3904.0.html

Now, as this discussion has grown, I like the idea of just dropping it on elderly characters. Seems like a "golden ticket" if you will. As far as "Health" goes, though, I think it's still better as age... Functionally, the two are very similar anyway, and health seems to imply it should be able to get better. Age is a one-way road, even for the fictional Merlin (his is just in the other direction).

[Indirik]

Moderator note: Medieval life expectancy moved to a new topic.

[loren]

It will need some thoughtful tuning vis a vis infiltrators. We don't want to turn 60+ year old characters into fish in a barrel (though at the high end of the age range, it should start to get pretty hard to escape death). Some islands, especially the stable ones, have a large supply of very highly trained infiltrators; if the mortality formula is too aggressive, a lot of people will start getting stabbed to death.

It goes beyond that. If you open up actual death to anyone from infiltrators, an infiltrator caught attempting an assassination is immediate fair game for death themselves. Hell, if they're caught badly enough they should die in the attempt.

That said, I'd be open to the idea that people in Council positions and Dukes be fair game for death. I might rethink Gregor's taking the Judgeship some if only because he's by far my most favorite character behind Boeth and Giselle.

[Indirik]

It goes beyond that. If you open up actual death to anyone from infiltrators, an infiltrator caught attempting an assassination is immediate fair game for death themselves. Hell, if they're caught badly enough they should die in the attempt.

Indeed, if an infiltrator was wounded during the attempt, they should stand the same chance to die as anyone else their age taking a wound.