Death of characters?

[Itzquahpilli]

As we who live in the middle of nowhere like to say... eeeyep.
I know that this is freeform. And I love being able to do things that completely violate the rules from time to time, since they're more actual "guidelines," after all. So go ahead and do your free resurrections. I'm just sick and tired of people having no decent reason for coming back. Yes, people should focus mainly on just having fun, but for the love of all that is good in this world, there's no fun in winning a battle when the person you killed just comes back five minutes later without being any weaker in any way! Throw us a bone here, we need some sort of reward for victory! I know at least one person who stopped playing the game entirely due to this and similar things.
Plenty of revivals make complete sense and enhance the game. Just, once in a while... people need to stay dead.
And, just saying, every single one of the examples I used was a death/revival that effected at least one of my characters, almost every time for the worse. I'm not just picking at random things I heard about, or making this up off the top of my head - these are true stories. The names have been removed to protect the innocent

 

[Sir Dieterich]

Well, I know him as Krylos...

 

[Keon]

*dies* Happy?

 

[Itzquahpilli]

*blinks* Ah, crud... how will I explain this to Ramoth?

 

[Sir Dieterich]

*hugs the dead Keon* Yes! Finally someone has died! Oh, wait, why Keon?! WHHHYYYY?!

 

[Keon]

*comes back to life as evil undead zombie keon and rips out Sir d's juggular vain!!*

 

[Babylon Logos]

True Ressurection
Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Cleric 9, Healing 9
Casting Time: 10 minutes
As Raise Dead, except the cleric can ressurect a creature who has been dead up to ten years per caster level. This spell can even bring back creatures whose bodies have been wholly destroyed, provided you can unambigiously identify the deceased in some fashion (reciting the deceased time and place of birth or death is the most common method).
Upon completiong of the spell the creature is full hit points, vigor and health, with no loss to level (or Consitution point), or prepared spells.
You can revive someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed.
Even a True Ressurection can't restore to life a creature who has died of old age.
Material Componants: A sprinkle of Holy Water and a diamond worth at least 5,000 gp.

When it comes to ISRP, never challenge that no one will do something. Someone will invaritably do it. Please know, that's from the 3E Player's Handbook. I don't have the 3.5 on hand at this very moment to put the most current version up.

Now, in DnD terms, that 10 minutes is a highly variable time. The stanard 'minute' in DnD is the time it takes to complete each player and NPCs actions ten times over, (Ten rounds, therefore the spell in question takes 100 rounds to cast.) Each round could break down to six seconds, or each round coudl take one minute. Either way, that's a long time to be casting a spell.

However in ISRP, you have to add in this factor, "Let's just add in a time lapse, no one will notice" (this is how people have children the day after they're pregnant). However, people notice, and it's annoying as all hell.

I personally, couldn't give a kicks to a donkey's backside less if you bring your character back to life. As long as you do it right. And here's some simple guidelines.

1.) Unless you know the cleric very, very well, expect to dish out the cost of that diamond.
2.) Ten real life minutes for the spell itself. Expect to take at least a day to find a cleric, andmaybe two more before the spell can be cast. Clerics are busy people, you should assume you need to make an appointment, just like seeing the doctor.
3.)You will have a death scar. Plain and simple. Just because you came back full and grand, doesn't mean there are no ill effects.
4.) Outsiders, this is important. The resurrection of any character classified as an outsider. This includes, Celestials, Fiends, half-celestials, half-fiends, Monks of level 20 and higher, and Chosen of a god. You can only be brought back by the will of a deity. In otherwords, you're dishing out payment for Wish and Miracle to be revived, expect to be dropping a few hundred thousand gold for this.


I think that covers my ranting.

 

[Cael_DW]

I might have suggested http://www.d20srd.org for the spell that was posted.

As far as character death is concerned, it can be free form yes, but to the point.

To keep anyone from coming back, one simply needs to do a few things:
1) Rip soul out of body, or from random point in space
2) Put soul in soul gem
3) With soul gem in hand, make a bargain with a lesser demon, devil, what have you
3b) Shring item multiple times, take it out to a desert during a sand storm and toss it to the wind
4) Be happy

If the steps are followed it will take a while before someone is coming back, and if they have friends that like them well enough, it will be at least, at least, a couple of days before one can get their soul back...

Though, if one doesn't do the soul gem trick, a simple answer is clone, yes people clones, it is a spell, there are cheap items to keep it from rotting. And there can be more than one clone of a person running around doing their thing. Don't believe me about the clone business, its written in a book, so it can happen.

But I do agree, if someone dies, they should stay deadish and be kept in a cubboard for a week at least to figure out how they came back, just so they have a story, if no story is at hand keep the character dead..

And for oaths, have the character come back as a ghost about once in a blue moon..

All in all, meh.. give me rum and call me happy....

it's my rum after all, all of it!




......



on a darker note, if said character becomes a pain.. who said the nonelectronic character can come back...

I didn't say a word about it... so shhhh...

 

[Drina]

I'd say something here cause I know who Dieterich is referring to as in the way of death cause it was just two days ago.

Trena never died. Perhaps had you not pissed off the player and character, yes your OOC comments are a bit rude Dieterich. It may have been explained to you. But instead you being quick to jump to open your mouth caused you not to know. And no I am not Trena's player. I just happened to stop by her house when the event took place, hence why she went AFK in the middle of it.

Now the name of the character I'm posting this with, is dead and will stay dead, but I am not going to create a new name right now to post in a general section of the Messge Boards. But this name won't be popping up in the Chat anytime soon.

Now as Sky has said remember this is Freedom of Destiny here. No one can force you to do anything you do not want to do. You can't go up to some one stab them, kill them and not expect their friends to try to save them, because every action causes a reaction.

Now in the simple immature words of my little sister "GET OVER IT" sorry just felt I needed to say it.

 

[Alek]

In this sad little world populated by characters that stretch thin the concept of contexual realism to its breaking point, anyone has just as much freedom to not die in the first place, as they do to come back. The only reason for death to occur at all, is to create drama and attention. With each subsequent resurrection and return to life, this drama and attention is lessened.

To anyone who has not yet had/let their character die, read on: It is in your own interest to use the ever loved freedom of destiny to avoid death in the first place, and save Death and Resurrection for a truly momentus occasion, and not a minor squabble.

To the players with characters who actually fight to stay alive...Thank you.


By the way, Freedom of Destiny is a Concept, not a rule or law. The only rule here is that one must respect anothers freedom of destiny.

One does not "Invoke FOD" as a law and poof out of a fight. You kindly tell the other player that you do not wish to be harassed in such a way, *then* poof, OR and much better, is actually avoid what they did in a contexually realistic manner, and highten both of your rp experiences. I've seen people "Invoke FOD" three times now in fights or rp scenarios, only once against me, and in a non important situation, but I can only imagine how frustrating it might be for someone to try and think up a challange to present to another person in character, only to have them go "I dont like that, so it didnt happen".

Anyways Im getting very sidetracked, and Im not entirely sure if what I posted has any relevence to the topic at hand anymore, but I was bored....