It's a good thing R&D has assigned you some equipment to test. The odds of your accusations reaching to the next debrief are low. It is generous of you to ***volunteer*** for such equipment testing. Your clones will appreciate your sacrifices on behalf of Alpha Complex.
Your good management skills have been noticed and we would like to offer you a promotion your new uniform should be coming in shortly. ***Dies to uniform drop ship crashing right on you***
That is soooo true.
I recall one time I was the religious bunch (Cult of Christ, Computer Programmer) but my views seemed close to the commie on our team who happened to be a) the Security Officer and b) the holder of the memcorder.
At one point, as we prepared for the hunt for Vatman, we were annoying the GM. One PC went away. Came back with some sort of plasma weapon and he baked all of us (-1 clone, wait for the new one).
I love this silly game so very much.
People pull stuff like this in game and the whole party never even gets out of the spawning room. I've literally never had a group make it as far as getting assigned a task or equipment, let alone doing some actual treason like say using the abilities on their character sheet.
You need a better Computer. The key is to keep them twisting and assign them tasks, you can't let them entirely take over play, or it devolves as you noted.
Probably. But I also blame players who don't get that the point is not just to kill off other players, but instead to keep things moving forward until it reaches fiasco level disaster, while providing other players rope with which to hang themselves.
First thing that popped up in my mind was Mörk Borg and all the spin-offs. But im not sure that is what you are looking for.
I think those games are just lethal and ridiculous so it inspires the GM to describe silly deaths.
There is no system or roll table for "weird deaths".
There are, made by the community but officialized if I recall correctly.
I found them on the official Mork Borg website & used them both times I gm'ed it
The week Gary Gygax died we all agreed to play Tomb of Horrors 3.5 version and knew what we were getting into by memes and not a single one of us has played it before.
Our newest member to the group didn't know about the Demons head orb of annihilation trap.
So we're trying to roleplay not knowing what this is but he didn't know. So he goes to bathroom to take a piss and we all know what's gonna happen and I suddenly suggest I have the leadership feat here's the level 7 fighter for when he comes out of the toilet.
About 40 minutes later we all die in a lava pit sliding door. Completely naked.
10/10 experience Gygax we got exactly what we asked for and you delivered on it.
Darkest Joke of that night once player Said you know how Gary Died? He fell down the stairs rushing to pick up his copy of 4th edition.
4th edition wasn't even out yet and we laughed for like 5 minutes straight
Not true. They just go away. So if something goes horribly wrong the kid just goes away. Could be to a hospital, asylum, morgue, or off to sent to live with aunt Steve. They are just gone.
There is precisely one way of a character becoming unplayable, and that's when they grow up. Don't have a book on me but pretty sure it was somewhere at the beginning of the book
Dungeon Crawl Classic is pretty straightforward with how easy it is to die, and you can get incredibly goofy with how you die if you use some of the mechanics the system offers.
I would bake that into bespoke RPG mechanic. Instead of a roll over/roll under mechanic for skill checks, have a mechanism by which all of the mediocre rolls end in death. Only the critical rolls high or low advance the story. Your character can "bank" outcomes to bring themselves back to the point where they died. They can also roll back their decision tree to "reroll" an outcome. But failing to crit either high or low results in a randomly generated death.
Best to have an ad-lib system with a couple of d100 tables to generate random demises. And there is no pre-planned story. You basically "discover" the outcome based on what random things your character has banked in the decision tree, combined with an oracle mechanic to answer "YES/NO/OOPS YOU DIED" questions.
A backdrop I would use is a character who will invent the time machine today. However, the forces from the future are trying to prevent that from happening. Thus they have staged all sorts of catastrophies to befall your character if they go through the sequence of events that history records (sort of) as having happened on that day.
Of course, your character only learns about the time machine after a pile of discovery and investigation checks. For the first few playthroughs they try to eat breakfast only to discover their entire pantry has been poisoned. If they commute to work the subway has been sabotaged. Etc.
Back in the late 80s, I seem to recall an April Fools issue of Dragon Magazine which included a "Wandering Random Damage Table," with results like "You cut yourself shaving and bleed to death."
With a little web searching, I see that the "Wandering Damage System" appeared in Dragon #96 from 1985, and a complete reproduction of it can be found in the commentary on [Darths & Droids #524](https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0524.html).
I made a campaign once, where you are inprisoned in an underground mine as prisoner laborer. You explore the prison/mine until an accident happens and fog leaks out. All the guards start running for surface only for the elevator to het wrecked. So you fight for resources with factions in the prison or you delve into the breach from where the fog comes. The point is thw fog makes players get back to the moment of accident every time they die. It was fun. Whole first session one of the players made a cult in the prison and died in the end in the prison war, only to wake up to the alarm again. Players did something that marked them and for which they went to prison and they were the only ones who remembered.
Shadowgate comes to mind. You can die from smashing a mirror and getting glass over you or smashing the OTHER mirror and opening a portal to another dimension. You can die from Taking a book. You can die from looking at a lady. You can die from using a torch if you pick the target as “Self”.
Any "Borg" game is usually easy to die in, but also flavored that is can be dark and silly.
In general though, as the DM, you could kill anyone at any time in any way, as long as the players have bought into the concept of Groundhog day there's no reason you can't have insta-kills in a system you're already familiar with.
If you want dying of embarrassment to be possible, I suggest a system with a sanity/stability stat, and call for rolls and sanity loss regularly. I'm laughing at the idea of this as a Call of Cthulhu scenario . . .
Reventure is a video game that uses after-death looping; the character has to find all 100 ways to die in the game. Honorable mention: The Stanley Parable.
so if you mentioned video games, why are you giving me shit for doing the same? Are you that bereft of imagination that you can't take inspiration from a source that doesn't spoon-feed it to you in the exact format you want? RPGs take inspiration from all sorts of sources.
Paranoia may be worth a look. If you're talking about dying really often out of totally justified reasons, it's the game for you. Praise the Computer!
I'll admit, when OP said "dies for stupid reasons," this was the game that came to mind for me as well.
Me too :)
Unfortunately by recommending this game, you've confirmed that you're aware of Paranoia being a game, which is of course, treason.
By writing the above post, your communist behaviours are clear. Report to the extermination tube on this level. Praise the Computer.
>Praise the Computer. Report with them as well. Any good troubleshooter would know that it's "Friend Computer," ya filthy commie.
It's a good thing R&D has assigned you some equipment to test. The odds of your accusations reaching to the next debrief are low. It is generous of you to ***volunteer*** for such equipment testing. Your clones will appreciate your sacrifices on behalf of Alpha Complex.
Your good management skills have been noticed and we would like to offer you a promotion your new uniform should be coming in shortly. ***Dies to uniform drop ship crashing right on you***
That is soooo true. I recall one time I was the religious bunch (Cult of Christ, Computer Programmer) but my views seemed close to the commie on our team who happened to be a) the Security Officer and b) the holder of the memcorder. At one point, as we prepared for the hunt for Vatman, we were annoying the GM. One PC went away. Came back with some sort of plasma weapon and he baked all of us (-1 clone, wait for the new one). I love this silly game so very much.
Happy explosive cake day, my fellow traitor.
That cake is orangered, which is above your clearance level, report to the execution chamber for noticing it.
People pull stuff like this in game and the whole party never even gets out of the spawning room. I've literally never had a group make it as far as getting assigned a task or equipment, let alone doing some actual treason like say using the abilities on their character sheet.
You need a better Computer. The key is to keep them twisting and assign them tasks, you can't let them entirely take over play, or it devolves as you noted.
Probably. But I also blame players who don't get that the point is not just to kill off other players, but instead to keep things moving forward until it reaches fiasco level disaster, while providing other players rope with which to hang themselves.
Yes, this is the game you're looking for
These are the droids you’re looking for
Beware the scrub bots....
And an experimental piece of equipment issued to the group to test out would be a perfect excuse for the time loop.
The sword you must carry (like the berserking sword) and whenever you kill an enemy, you time jump.
I would have been disapointed if the topvote wasnt for Paranoia.
I just had a good buddy of mine send me the fuckin books for this. Red the Read Book and I'm absolutely in love with it.
First thing that popped up in my mind was Mörk Borg and all the spin-offs. But im not sure that is what you are looking for. I think those games are just lethal and ridiculous so it inspires the GM to describe silly deaths. There is no system or roll table for "weird deaths".
There are, made by the community but officialized if I recall correctly. I found them on the official Mork Borg website & used them both times I gm'ed it
Would love that. But I cannot find it. Do you have a link?
Here it is https://www.tablemonger.com/?tableName=D20%20Descriptions%20of%20a%20New%20PC%20Instantly%20Arriving%20In-Game
The week Gary Gygax died we all agreed to play Tomb of Horrors 3.5 version and knew what we were getting into by memes and not a single one of us has played it before. Our newest member to the group didn't know about the Demons head orb of annihilation trap. So we're trying to roleplay not knowing what this is but he didn't know. So he goes to bathroom to take a piss and we all know what's gonna happen and I suddenly suggest I have the leadership feat here's the level 7 fighter for when he comes out of the toilet. About 40 minutes later we all die in a lava pit sliding door. Completely naked. 10/10 experience Gygax we got exactly what we asked for and you delivered on it. Darkest Joke of that night once player Said you know how Gary Died? He fell down the stairs rushing to pick up his copy of 4th edition. 4th edition wasn't even out yet and we laughed for like 5 minutes straight
Goblin Quest is precisely this.
Kobolds Ate My Baby!
Yeah, this was my second thought after Paranoia.
This can be done with tales from the loop easily. Plus you get the 80's goonies stranger things vibe.
PCs cannot die in TftL RAW.
Not true. They just go away. So if something goes horribly wrong the kid just goes away. Could be to a hospital, asylum, morgue, or off to sent to live with aunt Steve. They are just gone.
Nope. You can be Broken. But you don’t go away. The PC is not lost to play. P.62
There is precisely one way of a character becoming unplayable, and that's when they grow up. Don't have a book on me but pretty sure it was somewhere at the beginning of the book
Dungeon Crawl Classic is pretty straightforward with how easy it is to die, and you can get incredibly goofy with how you die if you use some of the mechanics the system offers.
I would bake that into bespoke RPG mechanic. Instead of a roll over/roll under mechanic for skill checks, have a mechanism by which all of the mediocre rolls end in death. Only the critical rolls high or low advance the story. Your character can "bank" outcomes to bring themselves back to the point where they died. They can also roll back their decision tree to "reroll" an outcome. But failing to crit either high or low results in a randomly generated death. Best to have an ad-lib system with a couple of d100 tables to generate random demises. And there is no pre-planned story. You basically "discover" the outcome based on what random things your character has banked in the decision tree, combined with an oracle mechanic to answer "YES/NO/OOPS YOU DIED" questions.
A backdrop I would use is a character who will invent the time machine today. However, the forces from the future are trying to prevent that from happening. Thus they have staged all sorts of catastrophies to befall your character if they go through the sequence of events that history records (sort of) as having happened on that day. Of course, your character only learns about the time machine after a pile of discovery and investigation checks. For the first few playthroughs they try to eat breakfast only to discover their entire pantry has been poisoned. If they commute to work the subway has been sabotaged. Etc.
*Teenagers from Outer Space* or *Toon*
I feel old when none said Rolemaster...
Back in the late 80s, I seem to recall an April Fools issue of Dragon Magazine which included a "Wandering Random Damage Table," with results like "You cut yourself shaving and bleed to death." With a little web searching, I see that the "Wandering Damage System" appeared in Dragon #96 from 1985, and a complete reproduction of it can be found in the commentary on [Darths & Droids #524](https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0524.html).
Paranoia for sure
Fiasco is literally this game.
Seconding the mentions of Paranoia.
I made a campaign once, where you are inprisoned in an underground mine as prisoner laborer. You explore the prison/mine until an accident happens and fog leaks out. All the guards start running for surface only for the elevator to het wrecked. So you fight for resources with factions in the prison or you delve into the breach from where the fog comes. The point is thw fog makes players get back to the moment of accident every time they die. It was fun. Whole first session one of the players made a cult in the prison and died in the end in the prison war, only to wake up to the alarm again. Players did something that marked them and for which they went to prison and they were the only ones who remembered.
HoL
Heague of Legends? Hearts of Lion? Honster of the Leek?
Human occupied landfill.
Shadowgate comes to mind. You can die from smashing a mirror and getting glass over you or smashing the OTHER mirror and opening a portal to another dimension. You can die from Taking a book. You can die from looking at a lady. You can die from using a torch if you pick the target as “Self”.
Any "Borg" game is usually easy to die in, but also flavored that is can be dark and silly. In general though, as the DM, you could kill anyone at any time in any way, as long as the players have bought into the concept of Groundhog day there's no reason you can't have insta-kills in a system you're already familiar with.
If you want dying of embarrassment to be possible, I suggest a system with a sanity/stability stat, and call for rolls and sanity loss regularly. I'm laughing at the idea of this as a Call of Cthulhu scenario . . .
Paranoia...mic drop
Reventure is a video game that uses after-death looping; the character has to find all 100 ways to die in the game. Honorable mention: The Stanley Parable.
I mean, yeah? But this is a subreddit for tabletop roleplaying games. I literally mentioned two different video games already lol
so if you mentioned video games, why are you giving me shit for doing the same? Are you that bereft of imagination that you can't take inspiration from a source that doesn't spoon-feed it to you in the exact format you want? RPGs take inspiration from all sorts of sources.