Yes, I know this is a gory subject, but many games are based on conflict and empowerment. That often leads to some form of battle. So I tested an idea on some developers: “Design a new, unique weapon that has never been seen before in games; you have three minutes.” Many were stumped, so I let them read this chapter and did the test again. Suddenly the room was filled with ideas, many that we had truly never seen before. So that’s why I present you this work, even though it’s a bit gory!
Many video games default to simply “shooting” enemies, leaving creativity to what the projectile does in the air, how the gun fires, or what the bullet trail looks like, or the visual effect of the impact. Why is innovation in weapons so commonly neglected? I could get into the technical reasons, but the truth is there are many, many other (more interesting) ways to die, and those ways lead to more creative weapons, more creative enemies, and more creative battles. So read the following lists of ways to die, imagining a situation where these could happen in a game, or try to think of a weapon (or player ability) that could cause these to happen.
Note
Most of these methods, if done slowly and deliberately, can be a form of torture. For instance, in the end of Braveheart, Mel Gibson is disemboweled while still alive. Most of these methods, if done partially, can leave a person injured and disfigured or incapacitated. There are ways almost all of these deaths can happen accidentally. In situations where the enemy (or player) has certain psychic and telekinetic powers, then death can happen through “invisible” means. For instance, Darth Vader can strangle someone just with a thought.
In this chapter:
This section describes types of occurrences that can directly result in death. Note that some of these methods can also be indirect causes of death—for instance, through reduced capacity to defend yourself or to survive. Many of these categories, although they do lead to death, often involve another specific cause. For instance, being sat on by an elephant might be called death as a result of an animal attack, but it also would qualify as a crushing death or even suffocation/asphyxiation, depending on what actually caused you to die.
This is a deadly attack by any animal-like creature.
Attacked by killer bees (or other stinging insects).
Eaten alive by army ants or by piranhas or sharks.
Bitten by a deadly spider.
Crushed by a bear or a boa constrictor or python.
Savaged by wild dogs, wolves, coyotes, dingos, etc. Also by cats, lions, tigers, etc.
Eaten by rats and mice.
Nibbled to death by ducks (or other birds).
Swallowed by a whale.
Eaten or poisoned by fish or jellyfish.
Eaten by vultures while still alive.
This refers to immersion in heated fluids until the cells break down from the heat. In other words, being cooked to death.
Tossed in boiling water or other boiling material.
Boiled by cannibals.
Microwaved to death.
Suddenly immersed in some hot, clinging substance that severely burns you, such as tar, boiling oil, or possibly a vat of napalm.
This describes death as a result of an attack that uses a biological agent that attacks the system. (See also the “Modern Biological Weapons” section in Chapter 34, “Standard Modern Weaponry and Armor.”)
This is death as a result of blood loss. It can be fast or slow.
Wound or injury, especially to a major artery unless other conditions prevent stoppage of blood flow.
Something prevents the blood from congealing/clotting (such as hemophilia).
Vampire or other blood-sucking creature, or suicidal thirst.
Mechanical blood sucker.
Failed medical procedure.
Drained with a juice-box straw.
You catch fire and burn to death, due to any number of causes.
You burn up in flames.
You are chemically burned up.
You spontaneously combust.
You are burned by radiant heat, such as being in an oven or a superheated room.
You douse yourself in a flammable material and it catches fire. This could be intentional or accidental.
This is like explosion, but asymmetrical breaking apart from within. It’s usually slower than explosion.
Slow buildup of pressure within the body that eventually bursts it open.
Breaking of an organ, such as the appendix.
Aneurism causing a blood vessel to burst (also can happen with fast ascent and no decompression from deep under water when scuba diving).
An alien creature has been spawned inside you and decides to take a shortcut out.
This refer to being kept alive and slowly killed by someone (or something) that has control of you or who simply wants you to die slowly.
Aliens who suck your blood or energy.
Mad doctors who harvest your organs over time.
Sadistic villains who like to watch you die slowly.
Kidnappers who have you imprisoned and don’t care whether you live or die.
Prison where you are neglected (such as the old medieval prisons).
Buried up to your neck in the ground.
Made into a dispensable slave—such as a slave on a galley, in a mine, in warfare, or on a plantation where your health is ignored
Cannibals who slowly boil you to death in the traditional (if clichéd) big iron pot. Or, cannibals who keep you alive for a time and ultimately kill you for food.
This describes death as a result of a chemical attack. The actual cause of death could be from a variety of effects, such as poisoning, disintegration, asphyxiation, and so on. (See also “Chemical Weapons” in Chapter 34, “Standard Modern Weaponry and Armor.)
This describes being changed into something else that is no longer your living self, such as a rock or a donut that gets eaten by the police officer who was trying to arrest you.
This is getting hit in a location that causes instant death or that results in a mortal blow. This does not need to be especially high impact, as long as it hits a critical location, such as the carotid artery in the neck, the heart, or any other lethal location.
Getting hit in the neck by a fast-moving racquetball, bursting the artery.
Hit with force to the chest, causing the heart to stop.
A hit driving the nose bone up into the brain.
A lethal hit to any vital organ.
A hit in a part of the body that paralyzes critical functions—for instance, prevents breathing so that death results from asphyxia.
See also Chapter 15, “Character Abilities,” in particular the “Human-to-Human Vulnerabilities and Attacks” and “Fatality Systems” sections.
This refers to getting pushed by a heavy weight in any direction that is blocked or from several directions at once. It could be an excess of gravity, getting caught between two moving objects, or something or someone physically shrinking or constricting around you.
Constricted by a snake.
Crushed under a falling boulder.
Squashed between two moving walls.
Crushed under a huge pile of bodies.
Run over by a bulldozer or other heavy machine.
Trapped under an elevator.
Crushed in a bear hug (by a bear, human, or any creature that can exert deadly force).
Crushed under a huge statue that falls on you or under a giant tree that falls.
Crushed between two slow-moving vehicles.
Crushed by pressure deep under water.
Crushed by the gravity of a huge planet or dwarf star.
Crushed by some nasty gravity weapon.
Crushed under a 16-ton weight (as in cartoons).
Crushed in the wheel well of a 747 when the wheels retract.
Crushed by an excessive gravitational field. (See also the upcoming sections “Gravity” and “G-Forces.”)
Trapped under a falling building, cave-in, avalanche, etc.
Stepped on by an elephant or a brontosaurus.
Stepped on by a giant.
Trampled by drunk soccer hooligans.
Crushed by a giant animated foot. (See Monty Python.)
This refers to dying from the loss of liquids in your system. It is generally slow, but not necessarily.
Chemical imbalance.
Severe intestinal disease/nausea.
Excessive heat without liquid to regenerate.
Lack of water over a period of time.
Drinking saltwater.
Something physically or chemically sucks the liquid out of you.
This describes being eliminated as a data element in the world. (It could be caused by a computer virus, a random glitch, or intentional sabotage, for instance.)
Someone simply disappears, is never seen again, and is presumed dead. (The consequences are that the person is effectively, if not in every case literally, dead.)
Abducted by aliens.
Kidnapped and sold into slavery, ultimately killed.
Fell into a black hole.
Stepped into a different dimension.
Traveling in time.
Becoming invisible and unable to communicate or make your presence known.
You might contract a disease or illness that gradually kills you (including viruses, infections, parasites, and so on).
See also “Modern Biological Weapons” in Chapter 34, “Standard Modern Weaponry and Armor.”
This describes death as a result of inhaling liquid instead of air.
Kayaking or boating accident.
Falling unconscious into a puddle.
Falling into a well and drowning after suffering from exhaustion.
Falling (or being pushed) into water or into any liquid other than water and inhaling the liquid. The liquid might poison or kill you anyway, so your choice of death is drowning or poisoning (or disintegration if it is an acid or other caustic substance).
Succumbing to drugs/alcohol and drowning as a consequence of falling unconscious in your soup or other liquid.
Slipping in the bathtub and drowning while unconscious.
Getting a cramp or injury while swimming, causing you to drown.
Having a five-gallon jug of water strapped to your face so you can either die of suffocation or drown in the water.
Being held underwater by enemies or by a contrivance created by enemies to prevent you from breathing.
Falling into quicksand.
This refers to death as a result of weather and other natural events.
Earthquakes
Hurricanes
Lightning
Solar flares
Floods
Avalanches
Actual death is generally caused by something specific, such as:
Freezing to death
Burning up
Being crushed
Being impaled
Being electrocuted
Suffocating
Drowning
This refers to dying as a result of continual effort without enough rest.
You are a prisoner working in the mines until you drop dead.
You are trying to escape capture and ultimately drop from exhaustion. Either you die on the spot or your pursuers kill you. Either way, you’re dead.
You are kept awake for days until you finally succumb. (See also the “Sleep Deprivation” section later in this chapter.)
This is death as a result of a formal (or informal) execution.
Hanging.
Gas chamber.
Decapitation.
Lethal injection or other poison method.
Electrocution.
A hit man.
Organized crime.
Government agents.
Being drawn and quartered.
Being dragged behind a horse/vehicle until you’re dead.
Of course, the real form of death occurs as a result of the method used, but in terms of game design, the intention and agency of the death matters.
This is a pulse of expanding energy or shrapnel that is generated inside or outside the body. Explosion can be slow!
A bomb or other explosive (grenade, missile, mortar, or explosive recoilless rifle shell) going off inside or outside the body.
Magically created explosions.
Chemical reaction from something introduced into your system that causes an explosion (which could be a slow process or a sudden one).
A missile hits the vehicle or building you are in.
The gas stove has been on for hours, and you light a match (or any scenario involving gas, propane, and other combustibles prone to explosion).
You’re swimming, and someone throws a huge chunk of sodium metal into the pool.
You’re standing on a volcano when it blows.
A vehicle you’re in is hit by something that causes it to explode.
A furnace explodes in the building you’re in.
A gun backfires.
An armory burns and explodes.
You’re trying to make dynamite in your home laboratory, and BOOM!
You hear a high-pitched sound so loud and high that it makes your head explode.
You eat or drink so much that you explode or die of internal ruptures.
You die, directly or indirectly, of extreme cold.
You are hit by a freeze ray, slowing your reflexes and allowing your enemies to kill you.
You are quick-frozen, then cracked apart by a hammer.
You are cryogenically frozen, but the machinery fails. (See also the “Mechanical Failure or Malfunction” section later in this chapter.)
You get locked in a freezer.
You are in outer space and you have air and a suit, but it doesn’t protect you from the cold, and you freeze.
You get caught in an avalanche and buried in snow and ice.
You are sprayed with liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen.
Aliens suck the heat out of you to power their ship or to make cocktails.
You are shot/stabbed/poisoned/sabotaged/pushed off a cliff...accidentally (or not) by allied forces.
This describes pressure built up generally as the result of extreme acceleration or deceleration of the body, causing similar effects to that of spinning. Blood flow is interrupted and/or the body is torn apart.
A supersonic vehicle spins out of control.
A carnival ride goes berserk.
Aliens kidnap you, and the G-forces of their ship accelerating kill you.
An evil genius traps you in a contraption that spins you to death.
This is death by being crushed under one’s own weight due to very high gravitational effects.
Pulled into the sun.
Teleporting to a planet with 50 times earth’s gravity.
A gravitation ray.
A magic spell.
This is death as a result of outside abrasion.
A wood chipper.
Sandpaper.
Pushed up against a rough spinning or running surface.
Dragged behind a horse or vehicle along a rough surface.
Sent through a giant meat grinder.
Chewed up by a larger creature (giant, troll, etc.).
This describes a high-speed collision caused by a fall, a moving object (vehicle, falling boulder, and so on), or from enemy weapons or fists.
Deadfall trap.
Parachute failure or jumping out of a plane without a parachute.
Shot from a cannon. It’s the landing you have to watch out for.
Falling off a cliff or balcony on a high building or tower, etc.
Falling down stairs or down an elevator shaft.
Punched in a lethal area.
Hit with a bat, baton, fireplace poker, tire jack, mallet, hammer, mace, gun butt, baby, etc.
Smashed by a speeding car, truck, tank, plane, or boat.
Hitting a wall after being thrown from a vehicle that stops suddenly.
Crashing in any vehicle, including planes and helicopters, boats, and spacecraft.
Being thrown against a solid surface by a giant creature.
Whacked by a board on a construction site.
Obliterated by a falling meteorite.
See also the “Projectile Death” section. (Some projectiles can kill by impact.)
This is death as a result of something penetrating your body, such as a bed of spikes or some form of twisted metal.
Jousting lance.
Spear or pole arm (or any sharp stick).
Knife/dagger/sword (especially a rapier or other thrusting/stabbing weapons).
Rebar (after a fall).
Broken glass.
Ice pick.
Arrow or other penetrating projectile.
Sharp edges of twisted metal, such as an airplane fuselage after a crash.
Falling into a pit trap with sharpened stakes at the bottom.
Being placed in an Iron Maiden.
This describes a sudden inward collapse of the body.
Crushed by outside air pressure (or water pressure).
Having a small black hole appear inside the body.
Something is living inside you and either eating you alive or will burst out of you, resulting in your death.
An alien has hatched inside you.
You have some kind of super-mutant tapeworm inside you.
You have been infected by an experimental disease that grows inside you.
You have cancerous tumors that are growing and will ultimately kill you.
This is literally laughing at something so funny you can’t stop. Likely causes of death would be asphyxiation or convulsion, or possibly damage to internal organs.
You are given drugs that make everything seem so funny you can’t stop laughing.
Under extreme stress, you crack and laugh maniacally until you can’t breathe anymore and you die.
You suddenly realize that all of existence is absurd and begin laughing uncontrollably. In the end, you die.
Something sucks the life out of you.
Magic or sci-fi.
Extreme sadness, depression, or tragedy. (You lose the will to live.)
Alien creature or machine.
The body’s organs turn to liquid.
Extreme sonic weapons.
Magic.
Disease.
Corrosive agents.
Bones liquefy—something causes your bones to lose their strength or to become liquid. The body can no longer support itself, and death soon follows.
Whatever is unexplained is magic. But in games, magic and supernatural events are pretty standard and are often used to kill. See also the “Magic Abilities” section of Chapter 15, “Character Abilities.”
Death as the result of magical spells and/or supernatural entities or events (including witches, vampires, zombies, etc.). Examples are endless and can include most other forms of death.
Possession by another (demon, ghost spirit, etc.).
Some machine that you depend upon fails.
Vehicle malfunction, causing an accident.
Transporter malfunction, causing the scrambling of your atoms.
Life-support malfunction.
Weapon malfunction.
Lethal short circuit.
Radiation leak.
Robot(s) running amok.
Something fatal occurs during a medical procedure or as a direct result of medical intervention.
Failed operation.
Wrong medicine.
Wrong operation. (You go in for a Botox treatment, and they try a heart transplant instead...and it fails.)
You catch a deadly disease while in the hospital.
You have an allergic reaction to a medicine.
The docs killed you on purpose because you posed a threat to them or to someone who bribed or threatened them—making it an execution as well as a medical death.
This is death by excessive heat or corrosive substance. In the case of heat, it must be very intense, otherwise normal burning will occur.
This describes a contradiction between the physical and metaphysical realities, causing death.
End of universe.
Explained through logic that you cannot exist. (This might also fit into the “Fooled You!” list.)
Death of your god.
You become so spiritually advanced, you simply leave the body behind. In this sense, personality might remain intact, but the body is abandoned. (This is what some people call nirvana, Samadhi, or enlightenment.)
This describes being forced to kill yourself or to perform actions that ultimately result in death by an outside entity that controls your mind and will or otherwise manipulates or tricks you.
Walk off a high place and die in the fall.
Stab yourself with a sharp object.
Walk in front of traffic or other moving vehicles.
Walk into a dangerous setting—wild animals, gang territory, etc.
Think you’re eating and drinking, but you’re not—die of thirst or starvation.
Drink poison thinking it’s something else.
Self-programming to kill yourself on a special cue.
The molecules that make up the body lose cohesion, causing the bonds between them to break apart. Similar to being pulled apart, but on a much smaller scale.
Something causes you to mutate, and the mutation is not viable within the current environment, resulting in death. Alternatively, death could occur from outside forces if the mutation caused you to be less able to defend yourself or perceive danger.
Although there are real ways to kill someone more or less instantly using special martial arts techniques (see also “Fatality Systems” in Chapter 15, “Character Abilities”), martial arts lore is full of special, but presumably mythical, lethal blows with colorful names. Each causes death by the precise use of force to a critical location or by the application of supernatural energy to the blow.
Buddha palm strike
Five fingers of death
This describes death as the natural result of circumstances.
Dying of old age.
Starving.
Dying of thirst.
Dying of exhaustion.
Something causes uncontrollable nausea, ultimately leading to reduced ability to reason or defend oneself. It may lead to a direct death through convulsions or dehydration, or it could lead indirectly to death due to reduced capacity.
This describes death caused by attacks by numerous enemies or other forces too great to escape or defeat.
Torn apart by army ants.
Killer bees.
The Birds (Hitchcock).
Hordes of enemies (of any kind).
Cattle stampede.
Flash flood.
Avalanche.
Hurricane/tornado.
This describes pressure applied to specific areas of the body, restricting the flow of fluids in the body or ultimately breaking connections of nerves, sinews, veins, and/or arteries. This may be accidental or intentional.
This refers to the introduction into the body of a caustic or destructive agent. It generally causes damage over time, resulting in death if no treatment is applied.
Bite from a poisonous reptile, insect, fish, etc.
Poisoned weapon (such as a dart, arrow, or shuriken).
Hypodermic needle.
Poison gas.
Magic spell.
Ingested through food or drink.
Inhaled through the atmosphere.
Absorbed through the skin, eyes, or other orifices.
Intentionally passed by contact with an enemy agent.
Intentionally inserted into drinking-water sources or foods.
Intentionally placed on some object a character will touch or use.
Drug overdose.
This describes getting hit by one (or many) energy beams, shockwaves, or fast-moving, sharp, hard, or heavy objects.
Bullets of various kinds.
Cannon balls.
Missile warheads.
Rocks.
Shuriken.
Throwing knife.
A stick of straw blown at high speed by hurricane winds.
Spear.
Laser beam.
Plasma bullet.
Dart (poison or not).
Harpoon.
Sonic waves or pulses.
Getting hit on the head by a nuclear bomb that doesn’t detonate, but kills you.
Shrapnel from anything that explodes and projects damaging shards.
Meteorite.
A flying screw or bolt kicked out by a machine or vehicle.
Household objects, such as irons, kitchen knives, sharp tiles, etc.
Office objects, such as paperweights, letter openers, etc.
Sports items, such as baseballs traveling 90 mph, hockey pucks, polo balls, golf balls, etc.
This is death as a result of cell damage caused by exposure to radioactivity. Also, it could refer to slower death as a result of cancer or other disease resulting from prior radiation poisoning. (Radiation poisoning is situational—exposure to lethal doses can occur for a variety of reasons.)
Nuclear blast radiation.
Nuclear accident radiation.
Exposure to radioactive material in a lab, reactor, or other facility.
Terrorist dirty bombs.
EV activity in space.
Death as a result of radiation damage due to ozone layer depletion.
Spending too much time in a tunnel or mine containing natural radioactive materials.
Alien radiation ray.
Something causes the body to age rapidly. This could lead directly to death as the aging process continues, or it could lead to simply turning you into a very old person with reduced reflexes, brittle bones, and slow movements. In the old state, you would be easily killed by any number of other events or causes. Rapid aging can be a direct or indirect cause of death.
This describes death as a result of something frightening.
Being buried alive.
A horrible monster.
Psychological torture.
Magically induced terror.
Drug-induced terror.
Any extreme phobia in which the fear is unconquerable.
A sudden event that is so frightening your heart stops. [See also “Shock (Mental).”]
A threat—for instance, someone pointing a gun at you and threatening to shoot.
This is the passage of a high electrical charge through the body, resulting in heart failure or in superheating the organs, basically cooking you to death.
Electrocution (accidental or intentional).
Magical attack.
Freak accident.
A high-voltage wire falls and hits you.
You handle a machine or device that short circuits, and you die.
You try to fix a broken electrical device but end up electrocuting yourself.
Shock from an electric eel or other electricity-producing creature. (May result in drowning instead of death by electrocution.)
Something unexpected overwhelms you, causing some kind of system failure.
Extreme reaction to a surprising event that causes heart failure. Or, a reaction that causes a secondary event that kills you, such as losing control of a car and crashing or running away from something scary and falling and breaking your neck (or running headlong into something even more dangerous).
Overstimulation of your mind. The mind is overwhelmed by your senses.
This refers to dying as a result of lack of sleep.
As a prisoner, you are prevented from sleeping until your body rebels and you die.
You go crazy manic and can’t sleep. Ultimately, you die.
You are given (or take) drugs that prevent you from sleeping.
You try an experimental formula that ends up giving you super powers, but preventing you from sleeping. Ultimately, you die. (See also the upcoming “Sleep” section for indirect causes of death induced by sleep.)
This describes getting hit by one (or many) objects that are sharp or moving fast, or that are moving in opposite directions.
Sucked into a jet engine.
Sliced to bits by a sword or other bladed weapon.
Sucked into the propeller of a plane, helicopter, or boat.
Falling or being sucked into an industrial ventilation fan.
Tossed into a giant blender.
Sliced up by a power saw or meat cutter.
Many, many paper cuts.
Attacked by scalpels or razorblades.
Falling or being thrown into sharp metal or glass.
Falling or being thrown into a plate glass window, which slices you up as it breaks and falls.
Dying by guillotine.
Dying by pruning shears, kitchen knives, scissors, letter openers, and other household (or office) dangers.
Cut apart by monofilament wire.
This describes being whirled around and around until the centrifugal force of the spinning causes the blood to pool and stops the flow, ultimately causing death. The body may or may not be torn apart by the force. Some examples are similar to those for “G-Forces.”
Somehow your spirit becomes separated from your body, and the body is destroyed or made uninhabitable.
A magic spell.
Arcane ritual.
Failed astral projection experiment.
Alien intervention.
Demonic possession or other supernatural cause.
Somehow a character’s spirit is trapped, captured, taken over, or destroyed by something more powerful. It’s similar to “Spirit/Body Separation.”
Evil shamans contain your spirit, and the body dies.
Some mighty spiritual force takes your spirit and crushes it.
This describes tearing apart, generally from internal forces (as opposed to stretching, which can cause splitting from external forces).
Slow buildup of pressure that doesn’t burst, but splits the body open.
The alien creature from the previous example splits you open in order to escape.
Cut in half by a large axe. (External force splitting—also in “Sliced and Diced.”)
Sliced by a pendulum blade, as in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” (See also “Sliced and Diced.”)
The body dies from lack of nutrients.
Lack of food.
Inability (possibly due to a disease) to digest food.
Eating food with no nutritional content.
Hypnotized or controlled in some way to think you are eating, but you’re not.
This describes being pulled apart by opposing forces.
The rack.
Being attached to two or more points, at least one of which is moving away from another (such as a wall and a moving truck).
Being torn apart by having your limbs tied to horses.
Being ripped in half by a giant creature of immense strength.
Self-administered death, the real cause of which is dependent on the method used. (Note: In some cases, suicide may be assisted by someone else.)
Death by excessive drug intake—intentional or unintentional, legal or not—alcohol, heroin, sleeping pills, etc.
Shooting.
Jumping.
Hanging.
Poisoning.
Enlightenment—voluntarily leaving the body. (See also “Metaphysical Revelation.”)
This describes restriction of the ability to breathe or the absence of breathable air.
Hanging.
Accidental strangulation, such as a scarf getting caught in a car door or a tie caught in a machine.
In a vacuum (such as outer space).
Buried alive (by enemy action, cave-in, or avalanche).
Inability to breathe as a result of something that fills your lungs with fluid (which is similar to drowning) or that shuts down your lungs or the blood’s ability to process oxygen. This could be caused by biological (disease) or chemical agents.
Shot into outer space.
Auto-asphyxiation.
You try to eat something so horrifically bad that it kills you.
Someone develops something that is so bad that the very taste of it short-circuits the brain, and you die.
This refers to nitrogen narcosis, or the formation of bubbles of nitrogen in your brain, causing embolisms and death. It occurs generally as a result of a rapid reduction in external pressure, often caused by ascending from deep water too fast, but it could also (theoretically) happen in outer space pressure locks or from other more devious means. It is a relatively common problem among scuba divers.
Someone (or something) tickles you mercilessly, causing you to die, probably from lack of breath, but possibly from overstimulation or some weird science phenomenon.
You are traveling in time or between dimensions, and something goes wrong.
You accidentally touch a version of yourself from a different time period.
You accidentally remove an ancestor from the timeline, causing your birth to never happen.
This refers to being smeared or affected in some way that attracts predators, such as blood in the water around sharks. This could be accidental or intentional. The ultimate cause of death would be from animal attack (or whatever takes the bait).
You’re traveling in some kind of moving conveyance. How did you die?
Death while battling in a vehicle, such as an airplane, boat, underwater vehicle, car, tank, or space vehicle.
Accidental vehicular death, such as running your car into another car or into a mountain, or having a plane crash as the result of weather conditions or equipment malfunction.
Death as a result of sabotage to a vehicle, such as tampering with the brakes or planting a bomb that detonates upon ignition (or the first time the car turns to the right, etc.).
This is death as a result of extreme cyclical movement, shaking the body until the cells break down or the blood cannot circulate.
You are shrunk down to a tiny size and tossed in a paint-can shaker.
Your interstellar vehicle begins to shake in a cosmic storm, and the vibrations ultimately kill you.
This refers to death or ceasing to exist all together as a result of ironic, comical, or convenient intervention by a writer, director, storyteller, creator, and so on. This is a unique subset of “Fooled You!” deaths.
The animator suffers a fatal heart attack and, being an animated character, you cease to exist.
The writer turns you into a trite metaphor and explains you away.
You become inconvenient to the story, and the director removes you.
The story in which you exist is forgotten, and all written, printed, or electronic record of that story has been lost.
Something makes the idea of death irrelevant, invalid, or unimportant.
You are already dead. (You discover that you are already dead, ergo you can’t be killed...but then, you’re dead anyway.)
You can’t die...you’re immortal.
Death only leads to an afterlife, anyway.
You were an illusion, so you couldn’t really die.
It was all a dream.
Death can also occur as an indirect result of something that happens. For instance, while hallucinating, you might walk off a cliff, drive into a brick wall, or ingest something poisonous.
Some part of your world doesn’t react in the normal manner, causing death (by falling, G-force, gravity, crushing, and so on).
This is death as a result of misfortune. This might be the result of a curse or other outside force or just an unlucky occurrence.
Could be the result of a curse or spell.
Could be simple bad luck.
Could be some supernatural creature or force affecting you.
Could be the will of the gods.
A roll of the dice.
Your “luck” statistic is set very low or even in negative numbers.
This is death as a result of being blinded. It is probably an indirect death caused by blundering into a situation that causes death due to the inability to see the danger. Any number of events could cause the blindness in the first place.
Congenital.
An accident.
A disease that attacks your eyes or that affects the visual centers of the brain.
Someone intentionally blinds you.
Temporary blindness due to a blow to the head.
You stare into a bright light (such as the sun) for too long.
Someone sets off a Flash Bang grenade, and you are temporarily blinded.
You step out of a brightly lit room into the dark, moonless night, and you are blind until your eyes adjust.
Someone turned out all the lights.
Some magic or curse caused you to go blind.
This is wasting away as a result of extreme sadness/depression caused by some loss.
You lost the love of your life.
You lost a child.
Your life’s work was destroyed.
You are the victim of a gypsy curse.
You have been made to believe that everyone you love has been destroyed (true or not).
This describes death as an indirect result of hallucinations. They could be intentionally administered, accidental, or self-induced.
In a drugged state, you think you can fly.
You see something that is there, but you see it as something nonthreatening. For instance, you walk in front of a bus thinking it is a loaf of bread. Or you see a deadly alien as your mother.
You choke on your own vomit (very common).
You try to drive, with unfortunate and fatal consequences.
You walk off a cliff or fall down a few flights of stairs, and so on.
This refers to being driven insane and dying as a result of diminished capacity to detect danger, inability to defend oneself, or directly by internal pressures ultimately popping the blood vessels in your brain.
Someone successfully drives you crazy.
Someone is using mind-control techniques on you.
The events of your adventure simply overwhelm you and cause you to lose touch with reality.
You took too many drugs or the wrong kinds of drugs.
Your brain chemicals just decided to go weird on you.
You passed through a cosmic cloud that left you deranged.
You have a congenital condition that suddenly kicked in, and you went crazy as a result.
Through loyalty to some person, agency, government, or cause, you will do anything, including risk (and lose) your life.
Committing ritual suicide (like seppuku).
Suicide bombers (like kamikaze pilots or modern terrorist bombers).
Following orders, you commit acts that are likely to get you killed.
You “take the bullet” for someone else.
You are someone’s food taster.
You take the rap for someone and are executed.
This refers to death because someone (including yourself) didn’t care enough to maintain your life.
Another person neglects you until some other ailment kills you.
You neglect an aspect of your well-being and die from it. For instance:
An infection grows until it poisons your blood.
You eat food that doesn’t nourish you, and you slowly starve to death or contract a disease or condition that ultimately kills you.
You sleep until you die (by starvation, old age, and so on).
The Rip Van Winkle effect.
You are drugged.
You are in a coma.
Magic or curse.
Really extreme depression.
You dream of death.
This is death as a result of some powerful scent. It is probably indirect death, such as being caused to gag and have difficulty breathing and then blundering into a deadly situation because of it.
Dropped into a vat of raw sewage or excrement.
Breathing a stinging agent that burns your sinuses.
Blinded by pheromones into doing something unintentionally suicidal.
Eating something that smells really tasty but is in reality highly toxic.
Someone develops a toxin, virus, or other agent that attacks or does something to the brain when you smell it, causing death.
Inability to smell a dangerous gas before lighting a match.
You do something so dumb that you die, or you are so stupid that you cannot (or don’t) defend yourself.
You wonder what cyanide tastes like if it smells like almonds.
You didn’t know it was loaded.
You challenge a kickboxer to a fight.
You date the mob boss’s daughter, then dump her.
You try to juggle balls filled with nitroglycerin.
Stop hitting yourself! (But you don’t.)
Death can come from many sources, including accidents, complications from injuries or disease, and direct conflict between someone and an adversary. But, in addition to death by all the means already mentioned in this chapter, there is the issue of torture, which may or may not result in death. As such, torture is a category of its own.
Torture methods vary greatly and can include physical and mental means as well as the torture of denial or deprivation.
Note
Picket: An early English punishment was called the picket, in which the victim was hung by the waist from a high post with his bare heel resting on a blunt, pointed stake driven into the ground. This punishment was used up until the late 18th century.
Drawn and quartered
Flayed alive
Bamboo under the fingernails
Beatings
Whipping, flogging, flagellation
Electrical shock (strategically placed)
Disfiguration
Amputations
Elemental effects, such as heat, cold, immersion in water, etc.
Suffocation and strangulation/garroting
The rack
The Iron Maiden
Hamstringing
Hanging
Crucifixion
Impaling
Iron boot
Oubliette
Note
Riding the Wooden Horse: An 18th-century punishment in the English military that involved tying a man to a horse-like cart (with his hands and feet tied together) with a sharply angled wooden back (the head and tail were just decoration to complete the effect). This punishment was abandoned after it was decided that it did too much permanent injury.
Pillory/stocks
Pulled apart by horses
Pulley (pulled apart joints of arms and/or legs)
Incessant water dripping on the head
Chemical agents, such as pepper spray or pepper swabs on the eyes or genitals
Branding and burning
Scalding
Boiling
Blinding someone by destroying or plucking out their eyes
Causing someone deafness by attacking the ears
Non-lethally removing parts of the body, such as ears, nose, fingers, etc.
Intentional infliction of disease
Drugs administered to cause pain, fear, or compliance
Whipping, caning, and other flagellation
Rape and sexual abuse
Dunking in water
Disemboweling
Breaking bones or cartilage
Waterboarding
Although denial and deprivation could be considered mental tortures, I’ve put them in a category of their own because of the specific nature of these methods. There is a difference between punishment and torture. For instance, if an inmate gets in trouble, taking away the TV set in his cell may not be torture, but depriving him of food and water would be.
Solitary confinement
Deprivation of light
Deprivation of food and/or water
Deprivation of the ability to move—such as the bamboo cages used to confine Vietnam POWs
Deprivation of darkness—24-hour light
Deprivation of diurnal rhythms—changing light/dark cycles irregularly to disrupt a person’s equilibrium
Deprivation of sleep
Deprivation of privacy (can be torture for some)
Deprivation of facilities (bathroom)
Banishment
Excommunication
One main tool of mental torture is fear. Playing on people’s fears and beliefs can cause a breakdown in a person’s resistance. Another kind of mental torture is mental overload, as in the Chinese water torture, where repetitive sounds of stimulants (such as the perpetually dripping faucet) can cause ultimate insanity. Of course, some deprivation tortures are primarily mental, as discussed in “Denial and Deprivation” a moment ago.
Any of the denial and deprivation methods
Threats of violence
Sexual threats
Threats to harm or remove sexual organs
Threats to blind or deafen someone
Excessive and incessant interrogation
Exposure to something they fear or revile, such as rats, snakes, feces, etc.
Forced to eat food against moral, natural, or religious principles—such as a Muslim forced to eat pork or anyone forced to eat excrement
Forcing drug dependency/addiction on someone, then presumably withholding the drug at will
Exposure to endless propaganda
Exposure to repetitive sounds, such as dripping water or excessively loud noises
Defiling of holy objects
Constant, irregular interruptions of a person’s concentration, either by physical, visual, or auditory means
Waterboarding
Forcing a person to make an impossible choice (such as choosing a family member to die)
Use of hallucinogenic drugs or other tactics to confuse a person’s sense of reality
Chapter 26, “Traps and Counter Traps”
Chapter 25, “Barriers, Obstacles, and Detectors”
Chapter 34, “Standard Modern Weaponry and Armor”