I have never been a fan of spells like Raise Dead or True Resurrection. In the past, I removed these from my games because I thought they minimized death's impact. How do players fear character death if they know they can cart their corpse down to the local temple and be up and walking again within a few hours? They don't. Removing simple magical means of resurrection presents its own problem: how does one return to the land of the living?
The DCC RPG recommends handling this matter with a quest. I think this is the right method. I've also been reading up on the megadungeon and am looking to combine these two ideas. I can't say too much right now because I'm still in the very early stages of figuring out what I want to do, but I will be working on this a lot in the coming weeks as one of my players lost his favorite character last session.
I sense his friends entering into a bargain with unseemly characters to find the entrance to the netherworld find Death himself and gamble for the soul of their lost friend.
ReplyDeleteQuest! Quest!
One things I've never seen in resurrection rules in the need to convince the soul of the dearly departed to actually return to the land of the living. The dead dude is hanging out in valhalla (or where ever) feasting and drinking ale but somehow still wants to go back to digging through dungeons and getting beaten up regularly.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually something I plan on dealing with in this megadungeon. This is essentially the land between the living and the dead and many demons, devils, angels, and archons are there to push you in one direction or the other. You may find yourself under their charms and see no reason to return.
DeleteAlternatively, if a player doesn't wish to continue a character, I see no reason to force this quest on them because it is really dangerous. Instead, their soul will become fodder for the dungeon.
I've once willingly sacrificed a very dear character to save the life of my IC wife. If I'd been brought back after that, it really would have cheapened the entire thing.
ReplyDeleteOf course, which is why it's always the player who gets to decide whether or not their character would want to be resurrected.
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