Death

Basic Information

Death is the end of all your biological functions. It encompasses the concepts of Clinical Death, Legal Death and Brain Death. The more our medical science and technology advances, the harder it is to put a definition on exactly when death occurs. Death becomes less of a condition or event, and more of a process.

It is estimated that 150,000 people die every day.

Causes of Death:

• accident resulting in terminal physical injury
• disaster
• disease
• homicide
• malnutrition
• predation
• senescence
• suicide
• war

Signs of death:

Strong indications that a person is no longer alive are:

• Pallor mortis, paleness which happens almost instantaneously (in the 15–120 minutes after the death)
• Algor mortis, the reduction in body temperature following death. This is generally a steady decline until matching ambient temperature
• Rigor mortis, the limbs of the corpse become stiff (Latin rigor) and difficult to move or manipulate
• Livor mortis, a settling of the blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body
• Decomposition, the reduction into simpler forms of matter
• Ceasing respiration, the body no longer metabolizes

See also Vital Signs

See Also:

• Afterlife
• Angel of Death
• Critical Hit
• Death Tropes
• Ghost
• Immortality
• News: 'Organ Printing' Could Drastically Change Medicine

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia

Game and Story Use

• We don't have to die. Twenty Minutes Into The Future, aging may be defeated - at least for the wealthy or the young. See Senescence, Biological Immortality, and Evolution of Aging for more information.
• Some games are play fast and loose with death, others are very precise. Some games define death very precisely, but then have lots of outs, such as healing magic.
  • Does Causality in your campaign flow from the rules to the setting, or from the setting to the rules?
    • If the former, even minor NPC Extras can only die if they take significant damage, and the PCs may have it in their power to achieve functional immortality even if they're still technically mortal. Regeneration, Immunity, Saving Throws, Armor and similar factors might make it impossible to kill a character, or at least extremely difficult to do so. See Critical Existence Failure.
    • If the later, it may be appropriate to use house-rules like the Chunky Salsa Rule, Comedy Damage, and other ways of manipulating damage to match a genre, setting or reality.
  • How your game approaches the after life can seriously influence the campaign. A setting where the Angel of Death or a Valkyrie shows up to claim the dead may be fundamentally different from one where life is just expressed in hit points. The cosmology and science behind death may determine whether or not Reincarnation, Resurrection, and Cryonics are possible in your campaign.