Unconscious/Dying

While playing D&D, I have never liked how the idea of falling unconscious is just "oops I'm no longer awake" and then cut to 1 hit point of healing later and they are suddenly awake and fighting with vigor. There isn't any real reason for the characters to be unconscious other than to provide a intermediate state between "alive" and "dead", and to prevent the character from trying to do anything that would require more rules(so they opt to just let them be unconscious). Fixing this to remove this silliness and to add another dimension to the game is actually not that difficult, and here are my rules for this:

Dying

When a character reaches 0 hit points, they are considered 'unconscious' for the sake of the standard rules but the in game fiction is that they are simply 'dying'. What this translates to is situation dependent, ranging from a character bleeding out on the floor, to a character burning alive. When a character is dying in this way, they can take one of the following three Dying Actions on each turn they make a death saving throw. If a character actually falls 'unconscious' (the literal term here, not game term) from succeeding their death saving throws or something similar, the fiction is that the character passes out after fixing what in fiction ailment they were suffering from.

Dying Actions

Talk: Through the pain, the character can speak a short phrase or sentence, but nothing of length.
Use Item: A character can use this round to use a mundane item. Things like striking a match to a cigarette, or popping the cork off a flask to take a final swig are valid actions. Using a weapon, scroll, potion, or complex items like kits and magic items can't be used this way.
Heroic Death: Using their dying breaths, a character can use all their remaining life force to perform a heroic feat. In doing so, the character will have achieved a worthy death.

• A character may get up from prone and stumble half their movement speed in any direction as their movement.
• A character can use a single action, no bonus action or reaction. If this action involves an attack roll against a single target, the attack is an automatic critical hit with the extra dice dealing max damage. If the action forces a saving throw against a single creature, it automatically fails its saving throw(if the creature has legendary resistances, they can still choose to succeed).
• At the end of this characters turn, they immediately fail all three death saving throws. They may speak a few last words, and then the character dies.
• Since the character chose to have this heroic death, they do not wish to be brought back to life. No magical spells or effects such as Raise Dead, True Resurrection, or even Wish can bring the character back to life.

The 'Wangrod' Provision

In order for these rules to work and be fun for everyone at the table, it's important for players to recognize that these rules are extra, beyond the base game, that allow you to roleplay your character more and have more control while also having the opportunity to be badass. If a player wants to argue about the items they want to use for the Use Item dying action, then simply say that they are actually unconscious as the rules as written say and they can't do anything. If a player wants to abuse the Heroic Death dying action by just suiciding subsequent characters, then they simply lose access to that ability. This rule is a loose and fast rule that has a particular spirit, not a specific letter, to use the common colloquialism.