For those of you who play dead is dead, I can understand never reloading if you die in battle or to an honest mistake, but what do you do if you accidentally eat a poison apple, equip the blackwood ring of silence, or fall victim to a quest bug? do you ignore the death and reload, or count it as an unfortunate event and accept the character's death?

I've only just started playing dead-is-dead, and I have to say it is remarkably fun. Today, I almost died from a troll attack, and rather than thinkign "Oh, if i die, I'll just reload", I was actually concerned as more of my blood splattered around the place.

As for when to reload, I think it comes down to how hardcoe you want to play.

For instance, I quicksave every time I go inside and outside of a building. That way, if the game crashes during a load animation (it happens), I can reload.

As for the situations you listed.....well, I've never heard of the Ring of Silence, but if you die from eating a posioned apple.....that's just a stupid mistake. Look at the tooltip in the bottom corner before you chow down on something.

And as for a quest death....well, that's up to you. If I were to die from getting attacked by Mankar Camoran, well, I'd say -- "You should have levelled up more".
I don't think there is any situation where you would die and not be able to think "I could have done XYZ to stop that".

So, I would say, unless the game crashes obviously, or you encounter some kind of bizarre bug where a mudcrab manages to kill you instantly, dead is dead. That's as simple as it gets.

If its a situation beyond my control, such as a game crash or game error, then I'll reload. If it is due to my own actions, then I accept that my character is dead.

That being said, I've only ever played 1 "Dead is dead" character and it was a huge amount of fun, and VERY stressful at times.

^ That for me too. I've only played that way a couple of times, and when I did, "dead' only counted when it was due to a legitimate reason within the game, not if the game itself was at fault, like a bug or crash.

As far as doing something like eating or equipping a deadly object, for me it would also count. Be a dumb thing to do, but it'd still count :facepalm:

Damn it! My character just died!!! Damn dead-is-dead. :brokencomputer:


I realise I should have trained more........still svcks, but I'll live! (Ganon won't though )

Now looking at an assasin/thief build....

I tried one character like that. I made the mistake of doing it on an intentionally gimped roleplay character who did not use any form of magic aside from potions. I died once almost immediately out of the sewers and decided that since it was my first time, I'd let it go just once. I died again within a few minutes, deleted the character, and haven't tried dead is dead since. Next time I'll probably use an actually good character...

I've never played dead is dead because I know I'd be terrible at it. I would die and then take a sneaky look around and hit f9!

I also have a terrible habit of running into traps, which (in OOO at least) kill me instantly. Maybe if I train myself to look at the ceilings of the Corridors of Dark Salvation a bit more and to look out for tripwires and pressure plates then I could think about playing DisD - until then its f5f9 all the way.

I don't play dead is dead becuase I'm afraid I would take one of two approaches:
1. I would never let my character away from the safe hearth of her little home, or:
2. I would build her from a glass cannon into an uber all rounder like I used to build.


I know my fears are rather irrational, especially when I realize that my character is indeed a glass cannon with base endurance/strength yet, with 500 hours on her, she has never, ever died. Yes, we play cautiously and do not take death (hers) lightly.

So, sorry can't really help you in setting your boundaries for dead is dead.

Eating a poisoned apple is an honest mistake, IMO. If I die because of something the game did (crashed, locked up, whatever) then I'll load up an old save, otherwise it's curtains for that character.

if i had eaten an poisoned apple.... whell then i'm dead

My first four or five characters I reloaded at will. Then I noticed somebody referring to this dead is dead style and thought I'd try it. I LOVE IT! I've already had one guy die in the Arena after I played him about 10 or 20 hours. That svcked. He was a good character = lesson learned, don't be careless.

I tend to play when I get up in the morning as a way to get the brain running, and before bed at night. My wife is a readaholic and a hypersomniac so it works out pretty good for us both.

I agree that if it is an "honest mistake" I will reload. In this I include basically just playing when I should go to bed and am not concentrating and doing something stupid, which I avoid doing.

BTW the UOP has a "Poison Apple Warning" function. Does that not work?

I'll allow a reload if the game screws up. In other words, if I'm running from 3 goblins and my character gets stuck on a 6" high ridge or a small rock and she dies, I'll reload because it's dumb that our characters can't just walk over such a small obstacle.

I play dead is dead, but I have never had a character die.

Not to sound arrogant, but I can't remember a time I have died in Oblivion.

Mainly because I pick my fights very carefully, and run away if it looks grim.

I reload if something bugs, or if I want to check out a particular area again, but not if I die.

Hmmm...I've had 1 character retire, 1 character commit suicide (she became a Vamp and I couldn't figure out how to undo this!), 2 characters die fairly, 1 character get wiped out (I lost all her memory card saves).

Currently, I've got 3 extant characters, though. My elf-mage almost died (there was just a smidge of health left) tonite after getting in a 3-way surprise attack between a Dremora (sorry if that's spelled wrong) and a couple scamps!

I am sure I can play dead is dead succsefully, but my chars will start acting like total pussies as a result

Never play it. It′s just a game. No, really, it IS just a game

I try not to die anyway. I never think I just reload, I try all I can to stay alive if cornered by goblin warlords. I use magic and potions and if that fails I try to run away. My character′s life and story is important to me, so DiD is something I′d never go for

Lothran thanks me :foodndrink:

yeah, Dead is Dead is the only way for me too. I like the game to FEEL real, and in real life there's no reset button........

having said that, i will re-load if its a programme crash, or if that 'A Bomb' glitch starts up, freezing vital animations and preventing quest completions. Getting stuck on scenary - well, that depends. if its a glitch or bad programming that sees her stuck in a rock for example, then a re-load is in order, but if I got her stuck, say in a vee shaped rock crevice or where a steep slope meets a vertical wall, then thats MY fault and in real life, getting stuck in an unclimbable hole miles from help would of course kill you - so then Dead is Dead.

knowing how much effort and time has gone into nursing my level 33 char through tough battles and dangerous confontations makes me genuinly fear for her safety when exploring new dungeons - i always say that i just can't re-start and go through it all again for the umpteenth time - and yet, somehow, the oblivion addiction gets me and i do the whole darn thing again from scratch.

My current char 'Vulnavia' is an Altmer mage, so dangerously vulnerable to necromancer and battlemage destruction spells - but with almost 500 health and a range of spell resistant equipment she is getting much easier to play. she's been 'alive' since 3rd July . this is a dangerous time however, because easy kills and high protection lulls one into a false sense of security and an impression of invulnerability - thats all to easily proved wrong by careless adventuring and taking on too much at once. I am slowly learning the harsh lessons of playing Dead is Dead - strong self discipkine is vital if you character is to survive above the first few levels. But, the rewards are well worth the effort. Re-loading for me now simply feels like an easy cheat - ultimatly self defeating. Hell - to be brutally blunt here, any five year old can fully complete Oblivion if they can just keep saving and reloading around every dark corner.......

.....................Dead Is Dead is the only way to Live................

The only time I allow a reload is if I die to a chest trap that instantly kills me (OOO puts in chest traps). And only then if my HP plus my strongest healing potion is greater than the effect of the trap (I also drink the healing potion).

I always play dead-is-dead for single player games (or some kind of lives system, depending on the game). If there's no chance of failure there's no chance of true victory either

I don't play Elder Scrolls games for the combat so the dead-is-dead approach is pretty meaningless for me.

But if I did play dead-is-dead I wouldn't see any point in reloading except in cases of software or hardware failure.

Every time this thread pops up, I have the same thought, so it's probably time to express it.

I would think that even if one doesn't normally play dead-is-dead, it should kick in if you eat a poisoned apple or equip the Blackwood Ring of Silence.

And the game should give you a Darwin Award......

Not surprising, considering that all high level chars have 300-400 HP points at least, and some more that 1000...

My char has it's HP capped at 100. And yes, I die a lot, even at lvl 50. But I consider that's the normal value at normal difficulty, at least for experienced players.