That's just it, it doesn't. With modern medical technology, let alone far future medical technology, the final consequences of being dead is not always being permanently dead. So dead does not necessarily mean 'Dead (no Saving Throw)'.
No pulse and not breathing is not dead to me. With modern or future medical tech I'd think medical professionals do not go throwing the word dead around while they are still trying to treat someone.
So, before reading on, please think about and answer:
How often do you thing people are declared dead by a medical professional and then continue to get medical treatment?
How often do you think people come back from being dead? 1 in 100, 1 in a thousand, one in a million?
Is it over 2%? In a 2d6 system, the lowest % probability is around 2.8%. Below 2% while not impossible, is not probable enough to be addressed by the rules. Even if you don't agree, I guess Mongoose feels the percentage chance is too low for there to be any survival roll.
To me, dead = called time of death by a medical professional not just some untrained individual poking a body with a toe and it doesn't move "
looks dead to me". This isn't some ancient society with doctors that believe more in spirits than science and people are constantly coming back from what is declared as dead. In today's society if someone isn't breathing and doesn't have a pulse the average person knows that the person may not dead and they can try CPR until medical aid arrives. Even if they don't know CRP, they call for help and hope for the best and don't go saying they are dead. As you've said, the game is set in the future with future tech. Even the average person in a high tech medical society might see a severed head and say let's rush him to the hospital" instead of "he's dead" if the known tech is capable of keeping a brain on life support.
To me, someone is most likely no longer receiving medical treatment once they are declared dead by a medical professional, so how often do people really come back alive?
To me, any statement of death where there is recovery is just an error, usually by a non professional but also on rare occasions by a professional. Rare enough by a professional that there need not be special rules for it I believe.
In game, someone can call someone else dead based on appearance even if the stats do not represent it and thus you can easily role play near death and coming back from dead situations as often as you'd like.
By dictionary definition you get things like absolutely, completely, no longer alive but like most things there are multiple interpretations so you also have "having the appearance of death". So of course you are allowed to have your own opinion and there is even something in real life to back it up.
For the games perspective on it, perhaps the most telling thing is what you are complaining about
(they say the character is dead, but they don't explain what that entails)
No rules for near death experiences, bringing someone back from the dead, being left for dead... Just killed. Did the writer and editors really mean for death to be recoverable and then totally forget to put the rules in for it?
So in this case, perhaps the rules and you do not agree on the interpretation of "dead" (not that the rules used this term). It does not mean either is wrong, but as you have said you want to use the RAW, shouldn't you forgo forcing your interpretation of death onto the rules and use the interpretation that seams more likely the intent?
If Hans does not want people dying, then why does he not simply make a flat statement something like:
When a character's statistics are reduced to "0", immediate hospitalization is required, and character will be returned to normal, with no degradation of any attribute within "X" number of weeks.
He asked if he missed some RAW about recovering from death, but there are no specific rules just for this and I've already pointed out the rules for first aid and surgery that do not specifically say they can not be used once stats have gone below 0 0 0 so one could use this with Hans' interpretation of dead to have recoverable death within the RAW. Not sure what more he wants?
Perhaps he could clarify what further assistance he's looking for so that this Traveller community could better help him. Or are you just venting about something you don't like in the rules and not really looking for any further input?
Perhaps that should be another identifier for a post "just venting".
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