I suppose it always bothered me that most role playing games didn't seem able to handle the cliché "knife to the throat" (henceforth KTTT) dramatic situation.

With D&D, it was because I bought into the fallacy that hit points must be respected. Just like a coup d'grace, the KTTT is not regular combat, so hit points don't need to be respected.

Here's my current thoughts on how this might be handled in Classic D&D

The first thing to consider is how to get into the situation. This is generally not very easy. The standard way is sneaking up behind the victim. This will generally require being able to get behind the victim without be seen (or being very trusted) & then succeeding at moving without being heard. (Anything else? Perhaps.)

Once your in the situation, there are two ways out...

First: The knifer decides to cut. The victim should make a save (vs. death ray?) or he's as dead as if he'd been coup d'grace'd. If the save is successful, the victim succeeded in escaping in some manner, & we're probably now in combat.

Second: The victim decides to attempt escape. Time to roll initiative. (If there was ever a time to use the individual initiative optional rule, this is it.) If the victim wins, he's escaped. If the knifer wins, he may choose to cut, & it's time for the saving throw as above.

---

On falling
On thief skills in classic D&D
Classic D&D

last updated 2 years ago #