Different levels of death

I realize this may not be so easily done in the OHR as it is, but I thought in general, it might be an interesting idea.

Ever play a game where you can revive dead characters in battle, but cutscenes will leave them dead permanently?

I always thought of that as being a bit silly, and just had a quick idea on different levels of death.

For example..

Unconscious - This death status occurs when minimal damage is taken past 0 HP. Character is 'dead' until the end of battle then revived automatically at 5% health.

Coma - This death status occurs when moderate damage is taken past 0 HP. Character is 'dead' and unable to fight again until revived at a hospital or with a spell

Permadeath - This death status takes place when very severe damage is taken beyond the character's normal stats to handle it, even at full HP. This results in the character being permanently dead. There is no way to revive the character.

This wouldn't work for all types of games obviously, and it might not even be practical, especially permadeath except maybe in certain situations such as cutscene battles, where a character permanently dying would make more sense.

It could also be interesting for say, if you have a part in the game where they must venture through an area full of very strong monsters that can cause permadeath to your characters. This would heighten the sense of danger and make the player feel like they should be cautious and not be reckless about going through the area.

Anyway, discuss?

Have you played any of the Romancing SaGa games? I remember specifically RS3. In that game, each hero has a certain number of Life Points (usually 10, but some heroes had more or less)

When the hero dies, they lose one life point. While they are dead they can still be targeted by enemies, and each hit causes a dead hero to lose one more life point. If a hero reaches 0 Life Points, they become permadead, and you can never get them back.

You could restore Life Points by sleeping at an inn, but in long dungeons, death was a real risk.

Of course I was playing with an emulator and suing save states, so I never actually lost any heroes, but I think if I had not been "cheating" I would have lost one or two over the course of the game.

Life Points are in the Plan for more flexible stats

I like this idea a LOT! I have seen it used in tabletop and LARP games, but this is the first I've heard of it in this context. Sounds like a great concept though.

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