As an operator, it’s my fault if people can do death saves (I’ve set the tilt too loose).

If I set the tilt tight to prevent death saves, then I’ve removed a significant part of the skill of pinball: nudging.

Of course, a ten cent rubber nub below the flippers can prevent death saves entirely...at which point the tilt sensitivity won’t matter.

It would probably make sense to use those in tournaments and then you can eliminate the no death save rule.

Also, “damage to the machine” is pretty weak. Six years of my games on location and I’ve never seen a nudging related injury to any of my pins. Honestly, a slide save or death save on a wood floor is probably less damaging to the game than people who rock the game back and forth to eek out ten extra pop bumper hits. Sometimes I just imagine the leg bolts boring ever widening holes...

When you tilt, games will also play funky tunes and display custom animations.

Death saves are illegal in tournaments because we don’t want games to go on forever if the tilt isn’t set tight enough or the tilt bob has fallen off.

Manufacturers can do whatever they want in the code, but I wouldn’t want those decisions to automatically override tournament rulings.

If Rick and Morty were to award you a free 1,000 points for restarting your game in the middle of it, that wouldn’t suddenly legalize restarting your game in the middle of a tournament.