Burial Rights for Adventurers

[Quasqueton]

The bard/fighter of my group was killed in a fight with a grell. His body was taken out of the dungeon and buried by his comrades.

The cleric was saying last rights, and the wizard and druid were adding in their good words about the bard. It was a good role-playing moment.

Then the rogue (whose Player was looking over the bard's equipment list) comments, "He's got 50' of silk rope. Who needs some extra rope?"

Quasqueton

 

[Teflon Billy]

Unless the player has specifically defined his "Last will" I just generally ssume the rest of the party is going to be like ants on a carcass. It's in most player's mindset that more stuff=good, and the D&D rules as they stand now back that thought up 100%.

Someone over at RPG.net--in a thread about "one sentence pitches" (like for movies) about your favorite RPG's--said D&D was "Tom Clancy's Lord of the Rings"; and it was farily accurate: when played straight out of the book, success in D&D is all about your equipment...you can't expect players to ignore that.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I used to play in a game that tried to promote realism, but everytime a PC or NPC died, all their equipment "magically" disappeared.

 

[Zappo]

Considering how vital equipment is in D&D, reusing the dead characters' equipment is realistic, unless there are really stringent religious issues.

 

[babomb]

The bard/fighter of my group was killed in a fight with a grell. His body was taken out of the dungeon and buried by his comrades.

The cleric was saying last rights, and the wizard and druid were adding in their good words about the bard. It was a good role-playing moment.

Then the rogue (whose Player was looking over the bard's equipment list) comments, "He's got 50' of silk rope. Who needs some extra rope?"

Quasqueton

There's a scene exactly like that in <a href="http://deadgentlemen.com/gamers/media.html"><i>The Gamers</i></a>.

 

[Dirigible]

"Tom Clancy's Lord of the Rings"

Painfully accurate.

 

[el-remmen]

In my current game, dead PC equipment has been divided up based on who needs it the most basis, but usually some token (something the person cherished or used a lot) is buried or burned with the PCs as that is the custom in the "main" culture the PCs are from.

In a non-adventuring environment, unless a person leaves a will all his possesions would be buried/burned with him.

 

[frankthedm]

Players, when they can recover the body, take what they really need from the body and bury the comrad with the rest.

In all likly hood they will start burning the bodies once the next story arc begins [ it involves minions of orcus to a large degree]

 

[morbiczer]

How would you deal with this situation?

Let's assume I wan't to stick to the WotC rules about the suggested level of PC equipment.

A character dies, and his stuff gets redistributed amongst the survivors. Then the player brings in a new character, who would have new equipment according to his level. If this happens once or twice then there is most likely no big problem, but what if the campaign has a big bodycount and new characters arrive regulary on the scene? Wouldn't the surviving PC's have to much equipment after some time?

I don't know if this is really a problem, but it's something I am thinking about already for sometime, and I thought this would be a good thread to ask.

 

[LGodamus]

How would you deal with this situation?

Let's assume I wan't to stick to the WotC rules about the suggested level of PC equipment.

A character dies, and his stuff gets redistributed amongst the survivors. Then the player brings in a new character, who would have new equipment according to his level. If this happens once or twice then there is most likely no big problem, but what if the campaign has a big bodycount and new characters arrive regulary on the scene? Wouldn't the surviving PC's have to much equipment after some time?

I don't know if this is really a problem, but it's something I am thinking about already for sometime, and I thought this would be a good thread to ask.

In one campaign I had an easy out for this.the PCs all worked for an organization ..so their gear belonged to the boss, and had to be returned upon death....