That's not a valid reading of my comments.
Sorry, but I don't see how.
The question at hand is:
"Can a character at zero hit points SAY something - particularly in the context of a dramatic moment in the course of ROLE playing?"
This is not what you said in the post I previously quoted. Let me focus in on the quote a little more clearly (emphasis mine):
SO... I think allowing characters to keep fighting and doing (with minuses or whatever) until they fall into a coma is "Epic Gaming" - not the other way around.
That's a lot more than just saying you should be able to talk at zero hp and other posters have already given methods for how to do this; not to mention that criticals cover most of these issues already.
I then said that since the rules for that are not very realistic - it would seem perfectly reasonable to allow a character with zero hit points to talk, gesture or whatever if desirable.
If that's really your only issue, then switch the rules for falling unconscious from "0" hp to "-1" though I don't really see that how that makes any significant difference.
Jason complained that was too 'epic'. So I pointed out that it was the reverse of 'epic' since it was actually really life-like. Now, you are complaining that's it 'not epic' and somehow 'not epic' leads to long tedious encounters...
I'm not seeing the post where Jason said that. My post, which I thought was quite clear but I apologize if it wasn't, is that your "realism" isn't epic and that adding rules to have characters feebly flopping around adds nothing to the game and just draws out combats.
If you have seen anyone really tough take a serious, but otherwise non-fatal injury in sports, construction or an actual fight, they usually aren't able to do anything that would be germane to fighting either. Mostly, they fall down in a heap, then moan loudly and then occasionally try to get back up and stagger around but obviously would be no 'danger' in a fight. That's REALISM.
So, in fact, in RPGs, we epically allow characters to keep right on fighting despite multiple injuries, any one of which, that would have rendered them unable to continue regardless of heroic desire. I don't mind too much - RPGs are EPIC - that's the whole dang point.
Then why are you complaining about it?
Here's an alternate "realistic" system:
You get hit with a weapon, roll 1d10 and consult the following chart-
1-2: Weak hit, you tough it out
3-5: Strong hit, you're rolling on ground with broken bones and/or spurting blood crying for your momma; you're effectively out of the fight
6-10: You're dead. Deal with it
Others have already posted solutions that seem to deal with the problems you have. If this hasn't worked for you then you need to be more clear about what your issue is.
So, ironically, epic gaming tends to prolong combats and not realistic treatment of injuries.
No. Realistic treatment of injuries prolongs combats. As I said before, in real life you aren't fighting the way you are in an rpg. You seem to think that this is a grievous flaw. Long and short combats can exist in all types of games; the game being epic has nothing to do with it.
jolt