F.F.S.

Rewriting the death page on my wiki, I ran across this:

In Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), death is a significant element of the game's mechanics and storytelling. D&D is a tabletop role-playing game where players create and control characters who embark on adventures in a fantasy world. These characters can meet their demise under various circumstances, and the game rules define how death is handled.

When a player character (PC) reaches 0 hit points or falls to a negative hit point total equal to their maximum hit points, they become unconscious and are considered "dying." At this point, the character typically starts making death saving throws at the beginning of their turns to determine whether they stabilize, continue to lose hit points, or die.

The key aspects of death in D&D include:

1. Death Saving Throws: A dying character makes death saving throws at the start of their turn. A d20 is rolled, and a result of 10 or higher is a success, while 9 or lower is a failure. A result of 20 counts as two successes, and a result of 1 counts as two failures.

2. Stabilization: If a character accumulates three successes before three failures, they stabilize and are no longer in danger of dying, although they remain unconscious. If a character accumulates three failures, they die.

3. Healing: Another character can attempt to stabilize or heal the dying character using spells or abilities that restore hit points, preventing the need for death saving throws.

4. Death: If a character accumulates three failures on their death saving throws, they die, and their character is considered deceased. The player might need to create a new character to continue playing.

5. Resurrection: D&D provides various magical spells and abilities, like "revivify," "raise dead," "resurrection," or "true resurrection," which can be used to bring a deceased character back to life, though these typically come with limitations and consequences.

Death in D&D is an integral part of the game, and it can lead to dramatic and emotional moments in the storytelling. It serves to add a sense of risk and tension to the adventures, as players must carefully consider their actions and decisions, knowing that their characters' lives are on the line. The handling of death can vary depending on the edition of D&D being played and the house rules of the Dungeon Master (DM).

 I'd like to propose another rule for Texas hold 'em in the same vein:

If there are two or more players remaining after the final betting round, they reveal their hole cards.  When it happens that the player with the worst five-card hand is revealed, then that person draws another card from the deck and adds it to the total number of cards in his or her hand, which applies only to that player.  If this isn't sufficient for that player to obtain the best five-card hand, then another card is drawn, and if that card still isn't sufficient for the best hand, then the player draws two more cards.  And if that isn't sufficient to win the hand, then the player with the original best five-card hand wins the pot.

But if any of the newly drawn cards do enable the player to have the best five-card hand, then the player who originally had the best five-card hand should now draw a card to see if that's sufficient to restore that player's lead.  If it does, then the original losing character should draw another card, and so on, until all the cards in the deck are gone or until one of the players, after drawing four cards in succession, fails to have the best hand.

What's really weird, is that in trying to discuss the concept of death with chatGPT, which wrote out the rules from what I presume is 5th edition, it kept saying that if the player couldn't bring the player back to life, then the game was over for the player:

"They may no longer engage in the game's events, respond to interactions, or contribute to the ongoing narrative. Instead, the player's role shifts to that of a spectator, observing the unfolding story and the actions of their fellow players."

It took bending over backwards to get the program to admit that players "might" begin the process of creating a new character to rejoin the game.  Like this is so anathema to the concept of the "unfolding story and the actions of their fellow players" that it's hardly worth considering.