Bring out your dead.

[Arnwyn]

This is something I've been wondering about recently... havn't seen any threads about it, so here goes: What happens with dead PCs in your campaigns?

Never let a PC die?

Drop a level? What about XP they've gained in their current level?

Start them again at 1st level?

Live roleplay it and hide the bodies in the freezer?

New character, no items?

Lets not forget resurection magic...

What happens to the PCs toys? Buried with them? Sold for big $$$$?

- Yes, PCs die.

- If not raised (following the normal rules for raising), we have somewhat complicated rules:
a) If the lowest level of the surviving party member is 10 or less: the new PC comes in at one-half the level of the lowest level surviving party member [round up], but no higher than the dead character's original level minus 2.
b) If the lowest level of the surviving part member is 11 or higher: as above, but at three-quarters the level of the lowest level surviving party member [round down].
(Yes, I'm serious. It's goofy and tough, but it works for our campaign. However, I don't recommend it for others.)

- Bingo: New character, no items. Items in the group's inventory can be given to the new guy (this prevents the mass-proliferation of items that can result from characters dying and always coming in with new items. Not happenin' IMC!).

- PCs' toys are split up among surviving party members, or sold.

 

[MiB]

Coming back!

In my campaign, PCs die. If I am running a module, I usually do it by the book, causing quite a few player deaths. In my homebrewed campaign, I use faith points (powerful version of Action points) which decrease fatality rates, but do not eliminate character death.

If a PC dies, he can be raised if circumstances allow it (party members or NPCs available and interested in using the respective spells, money, etc.) My current game is mid-level (9-11), so raise dead is usually available. I do the spell by the book (loose a level, start at half-way XP). However, I also leave the player the choice of coming back or not (as in the spell descr.). If not, he starts a new PC at the same level but with minimum XP. Thereby, I seek to reward sticking with a character instead of changing every once in a while. I will give a new PC equipment, but will modify amount and power according to the behaviour of the party, to prevent "Stockpiling". E.g. if the routinely bury a dead PC with magic stuff (effectively removing it from the game) I will give the new PC more equipment then when they start looting their own dead.

I also set a minimum level for a new PC, which is usually the starting level for the module.

I will not make any exceptions with level, regardless of what the reason for character death/retirement/removal was. The only thing where I might be generous is awarding XP for the session before figuring level loss. So you can die in a combat-intensive session, gain a level and then be raised, without effectivly loosing a level (but also without gaining one) Saves my players the frustration of loosing 2 levels worth of XP.

 

[Wombat]

In my campaigns Death Happens.

Nah, not every session or anything, but PCs do die, especially if they are stupid. My players are very good with this and take appropriate precautions, always knowing that I also grant extra XP for acting heroic -- makes the chances and challenges all the more worth it.

Raise Dead, etc., is much, much more problematic. The games we play are low-to-mid range, highest we have run was one character who got to 12th level and many games are centered around 6th-8th level. This means only NPCs have the rezz power, and they are loath to use it on Joe Nobody. The mores of the culture restrict resurrection to "Important Souls" (aka nobles, high priests, and the very wealthy), and even then not all the time.

OTOH, we keep a "Graveyard File" of dead PCs (and NPCs) -- anyone can visit the "graveyard" and find nice "headstones" to various PCs that have passed on before. I adopted this from an Ars Magica campaign I ran, but it has a rather different effect, since there is less of a sense of community in my D&D game than in my AM game. Basically players leave behind money for classy tombstones and the like...

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

In the campaigns I play in and run, for low-level characters, death is usually final, unless you really want to continue to play the same character (or death was a very unlucky happening, totally independant from the player's actions), then the DM finds a way to bring the character back. There are penalties for death, of course.

For characters that have access to Raise spells for easily, then bringing back a character from death isn't usually a problem. Maybe it's too less of a problem. Again, there are usually consequences for death. We follow the PHB/DMG guidelines

AR

 

[just__al]

The last campaign I ran if you started a new character you were able to start half way though the level behind party average. You caught up quickly since I used the FRCS and now 3.5 way of awarding experience to mixed level parties.

I generally allowed them full gear, especially since the party was pretty good about burying any "big ticket" items with the body but they kept money and minor stuff like healing wands. If the new player and the old gear sent too much equipment into the mix well then the next few enounters would probably be on the stingy side reward wise.

Both of the players who had characters die decided to play a new character, this included the player who had his Figher / Rogue die at 2nd level and then lost his 7th level halfling wizard when she fled from a flesh golem to chase the escaping gaseous vampire and the vampire led her (and the other spellcasters) into a pack of wights. Awful, but I digress.

Personally, I am playing the first character ever that if he died he'd want to be raised. He is a former slave, turned slaver/secret liberator, that is currently trying to free his long time dwarf smith friend from enslavement in Archeron. He would rest very uneasy if the poor dwarf wasn't freed.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Death only happens by consent, much like on a MUX. I treat my campaign like a weekly fantasy adventure tv series, and most series don't casually kill off their main characters. Although I don't watch Angekl, my son does, and Doyle dying would be an excuse, and the player's choice, so he could then play Wesley. If a character does die in this fashion, there's usually something that removes the corpse, or its an emotional role-play scene including background music. New characters are introduced at the same level as the others, and owing me a paragraph of background and plot hooks, including vauge lists of achievements, per level.

 

[ejja_1]

I usually make my players create thier characters using point buy and the starting equipment table in the DMG for characters starting at higher than 1st level. As far as diving up the equipment of dead characters and such, I let the players make the decisions themsleves. That is if the equipment and the rest of the party survived whatever killed the player in the first place. If they seem to be garnering a little to much treasure then I bump up the encounters a little to keep it challenging, and create ways for them to loose a little treasure here and there. ( Rust monsters, things they have to run from that excess treasure would keep them from escaping etc...etc....)
Finding ways to introduce new characters to the party in the middle of an adventure is actually the hard part, everything else is cake.
It all balances out in the end.

 

[Ottergame]

That's quite funny.

Was there a shopping list involved at any point?

19 more vorpal katanas and I can get that small kingdom I always wanted?

Heh, sorta. If someone was rolling up a new character and was in on the plan, someone who really need a specific item would talk to the player into creating a throw away character with that item, and whatever was needed to keep the DM was getting smart on it.

Whenever we got a big budget item, we'd always joke that we spent a fortune on it and it didn't do us any good.

Normally I would feel bad about it, but since the DM was out to screw the players, we screwed him back.