PC mortality and revival

[Bullgrit]

Which of the above options makes for a better RPG system? Why?

What RPG game systems match each of the above options? How so?

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

None are objectively better.

None are even overall better for my personal purposes. These options are all useful for helping to produce particular game flavors. Sometimes I want one flavor, sometimes I want another. I choose the combination independently for every campaign I run.

But then, I'm not a "one game, and only one game" kind of guy.

 

[frankthedm]

Easy to die, hard to come back. If a path of violence is taken, death must follow.

 

[The Shaman]

Which of the above options makes for a better RPG system?

None of these are "better" than the other - they're just different from one another, and I could see any or all of them working in a game. It's simply a matter of preference.

With respect to the games I play most often, depending on the system it may be easy or hard for a PC to die, but in all of them it is impossible to be revived, so my preference with respect to the poll is, none of the above.

 

[Guest 85555]

I think they are all valid and fun approaches. Which one I'd prefer depends on what kind of game I am in the mood for. If I want something gritty and naturalistic, then easy to die hard to revive is something I'd go for. But if I want something more heroic where the characters are larger than life, then hard to kill easy to revive. I don't think there is one ultimate game out there. It really depends on what the game is tryihg to do.

 

[Bullgrit]

What RPG game systems match each of the above options? How so?

Anyone want to address this?

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

Anyone want to address this?

I think that's a little difficult - unless the game has an intrinsic power-leveling for encounters (like later D&D editions), then how difficult it is to die is pretty strongly in the hands of whoever did the adventure design.

How difficult it is to come back is also implementation-dependent in many systems.

For example: Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP version) - it takes a lot to kill a character here. A villain generally has to beat on a character while he or she is down to end their life. The system itself has *no* explicit rules for bringing a character back from death. However, the genre expectation is such that I've never seen a GM using the system who balked at justifying it.

Classic Deadlands - with exploding damage dice, combat can be risky stuff. A good damage roll when the PC is low on Fate Chips, and it's off to Boot Hill. The game has one way to bring characters back from the dead, sort of, but that way is not in the PC's hands, and it has consequences.

(old) World of Darkness: Power of adversaries is entirely in the hands of the GM, as it is a point-buy system with only the vaguest of power measures. I didn't play enough Werewolf or Vampire to recall if they had explicit systems for recovering from death. How it worked in Mage depends on GM's interpretation of the Spirit Sphere (it was possible in the campaigns I played, but few could pull of the trick, as it required high levels of the magic).

 

[NewJeffCT]

Which of the above options makes for a better RPG system? Why?

What RPG game systems match each of the above options? How so?

Bullgrit

What do you mean by revive? Like revive them back when they drop below 0 hit points, but aren't dead? Or, revive after they are dead, deceased, kaput, joined the choir invisible, pushing up daisies, etc?

I'm assuming the second, but I think PCs should be hard to kill, but any sort of raise dead/resurrection should be a special situation.

 

[RedTonic]

For me, which is "better" depends on the desires of my players. Personally, I would love to kick it meatgrinder style and kill all of our beloved ones for the resulting, hysterical bathos--at heart, I'm a take no prisoners type of planner. My usual group, however, gets angsty whenever a PC dies, and hell, when some NPCs die, too--so I try to take things easy on them, so to speak.

Of course, my easy involves all resurrection-style magic besides revivify being illegal, heretical necromancy that almost no NPCs know and the PCs are extremely unlikely to get access too, and my alternatives to death include the negative outcome end of the Sanity system (though Heal and such are easier to come by in my current campaign). On the other hand, I'm completely willing to wrangle a Ghostwalk style adventure if the party suffers a TPK.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

There's nothing wrong with resurrections, but generally dying should be penalized to simply encourage dying. Of course the word "penalty" always sounds harsh in a collaborative, fun game but if dying means nothing then the game gets much less exciting.

In my D&D 3.5-game I was trying offer my players a Reincarnate scroll, but they passed it because - and I quote - "When you die, you die". I think my players like creating new characters every now and then.