Re: Misc questions

From: steve_at_...
Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 15:57:05 -0000

> >Another scenario which presents itself is a man in the bush
> >encountering a snake. The snake bites the man, the man kills it
but
> >then dies of the poison before reaching help. Who won the
contest?
> >Was there even a contest? Any thoughts on rules for such delayed
> >kills?
>
> It depends on the contest, no? I'm loath to inflict random and
> frivolous death-threats on player characters, so if there was a
> contest where a player character died then he surely lost horribly
> whatever the contest was about.
>

2 points:
1) I think it's merely an illustration of a kind of contest where the 'winner' is neither immediately clear, nor obvious - in a sense, it's a mutual loss. You could just as likely have a mutual win, etc. I think that's what was being asked.

2) While I wouldn't object to some clarity (from comments here) I can see this being a very common occurrence in interpersonal conflicts, where (for example) you may have deeply offended someone or made a nasty enemy, but he/she doesn't necessarily have to make that obvious. Question for the list: have people done this much so far, or is it almost too much to keep in a DM's mind?