For those who are unaware of the term or just have a certain red and black mercenary on the mind, a Dead Pool is a game where you take bets on who will be the next to die. There won't be any actual money up for grabs, of course, so the only real prize is bragging rights.
Whenever a character is killed off, we will begin a new round of betting. Anybody who had bet on that character's death will be awarded a point. Then everybody (even the people who didn't guess right), will be asked to make a new bet for the next round.
I'd like to set a few ground rules, though.
1. a) The character who dies generally has to have at least ten appearances in their name. For example, if the Order of the Stick were to suddenly come across a Cave Troll, you would not be allowed to bet on the Troll. The characters you bet on have to have some significance.
b) If the character happens to be very significant to the story and has had enough dialogue, I am willing to make certain exceptions. I will make it clear which characters qualify.
2. You can only bet on one character at a time.
3. You can not change your bet unless a character has been killed off. For example, if you'd nominated Belkar and a dragon were to swoop in and attack Nale, you wouldn't be allowed to suddenly change your vote to Nale.
3a. If you don't explicitly change your bet, you're assumed to have re-bet on the same person until you state otherwise. Explicitly stating that you're re-betting on the same person has no effect (i.e. you can still change your bet after doing this).
3b. A death only counts for these purposes if either someone has bet on the character or the character has at least 11 appearances. (Changed from 10 as of May 11 2018.)
4. You are allowed to bet on the same person more than once. For example, let's say that you had bet on O'Chul. If Lien were to be killed off, you would still be allowed to keep betting on O'Chul's death for as many rounds as you wish.
5. Characters who die in flashbacks do not count. For example, if the comic were to flashback to ten years ago and we saw Girard Draketooth dying of old age, then it would not count as a death. They have to die during the actual events of the comic.
5a. This only applies to flashbacks to before the events of OOTS as a whole.
6. Characters who are resurrected still count as having died. If Jirix were to be killed and then immediately resurrected by Redcloak, then it wouldn't change anything. The people who bet on his death would still get the points.
6a. Transitioning directly from life to undeath also counts as a death. Thus, if a character is found to have become undead, this counts as a death, regardless of whether or not he died before becoming undead.
7. Multiple people are allowed to vote for the same character.
8.a. If a character is put in a dangerous situation and then later discovered to have died off-panel, anybody who
most recently bet on that character will be awarded a point upon discovery of the corpse
(or undead body). For example, imagine if Belkar were to get lost in the forest. If the Order of the Stick were to stumble upon his corpse several strips later and learned that he had starved to death, then anybody who bet on Belkar would receive a point as soon as his death is confirmed.
b. However, if this death conflicts with rule 5 and a character from flashbacks is discovered to have retroactively died
(before the comic's timeline), then no points will be awarded. For example, if somebody were to bet on Girard Draketooth, and the Order of the Stick stumbled upon his skeleton, then nobody would get a point.
9. If two characters are killed in the same strip, then points will be rewarded to anybody who bet on either character. For example, if Blackwing were to be eaten by a dog at the beginning of a strip and then V were to be killed by the same dog during the last panel of the same strip, then anybody who voted for either V or Blackwing would receive a point.
10. If characters who can't be killed by conventional means are temporarily destroyed, it will count as a death. For example, if Xykon were to be destroyed, then anybody who bet on him will still get points, even if his phylactery survives and he regenerates a few strips later.
11. You are not allowed to bet on a group. You have to choose a specific individual. For example, you would not be able to say "I bet that somebody from the Linear Guild will die". You have to specify which member it will be.
12. Characters who die in supplementary material do not qualify for the Death Pool. They have to die within the actual comic. For example, if "Haleo and Julelan" were to feature the non-canon deaths of Haley and Elan, then it would be ineligible for the pool.
13. If a death is later revealed to have been an illusion, and no non-illusory deaths have since occurred, the state of the thread will be rolled back, with the following exception: Anyone who bet for the first time since then will not have their bet rolled back, but will be allowed to change it.
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Specific Rulings
-The Demon Roaches do not count on the Death Pool. None of them have any individuality or names.
-The flumphs are also disqualified for a similar reason.
New Rulings:
-If Xykon (or another lich) has his phylactery destroyed while his body is destroyed, this does count as a second death, so long as it occurs in a separate strip; otherwise it does not. More generally, if a character dies twice (according to any of the things that would count here as a death) in one strip, it counts as only one death.
-The character has to actually die. Dying in an illusion doesn't count.
-A vampire being reduced to 0 HP and forced to turn to mist and return to its coffin doesn't count as a death. (This ruling will be changed if something happens that shows it clearly should be counted as a death, like the vampire being shown with X-eyes.)
-Being unmade by the Snarl counts as a death.
-If two characters are revealed to be the same person, their bets are combined.
-Bets on Durkon and bets on the High Priest of Hel are considered to be the same.
-The death of the Vampire Dwarf with Blue Beard and Balding Head in #1119 counts, though I've changed the rules slightly to make this less likely in the future.
-For an inanimate "character" like Banjo, being destroyed will count as dying.