Your Days Are Numbered

Basic Information

Your Days Are Numbered describes a character who will soon die - perhaps because of a curse, a terminal disease, or because it is his destiny to die at a particular time. The death doesn't actually have to happen, but the character knows about this doom and likely believes that his fate is inevitable - with major consequences for his behavior.

See Also

• Characterization Tropes
• Death Tropes
• Deus Angst Machina
• Foregone Conclusion
• Like You Were Dying
• Sadness Tropes
• Soap Opera Disease
• Someone Has To Die
• Tear Jerker
• You Can't Fight Fate

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• While most players may be leery of taking such a flaw for their characters, many campaigns move through game time rather slowly - so a Doom that's a year or more in the distance isn't going to be affecting the campaign directly, but provides plenty of role-playing opportunity. And, of course, the Doom might be preventable after all.
• A couple of old school Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were set around this premise - that the character was racing against a death spell cast upon him, usually to break the curse or to complete a mission regardless.
• This can also work for those who contract a fatal condition in play (like a zombie-infectee) - knowing the clock is ticking for them should have a significant effect on their point of view and playing style.
• For degenerative conditions, the player may have to balance the PCs remaining capacity to act against time remaining: the zombie infectee, for example, may be looking at his remaining sanity tracker and wondering how many saving throws he has left before he becomes an NPC and starts chowing down on the rest of the party. In real life, this dilemma can be faced by those seeking voluntary euthanasia - usually made worse by state erected barriers that force them to access such services whilst they still have significant capacity remaining for fear that such routes might be closed to them later.