Help with interesting death encounter

[Dunjin]

The PCs in my game are secretly the scions of a mad god of anti-time that lives entirely outside of the time stream as we know it. In addition to giving them certain abilities involving time (such as travel to specific times for which they've found runic stones) and the like, this also gives them certain access to the god's realm upon death. I wanted to introduce this as an alternate to real death, since they are the direct offspring of the mad god.

Basically, when the first PC dies in my game, I planned to whisk the player off to another room and explain the following:

You find yourself in a strange area that lies outside description. As you stand there, you watch as every possibility of the moment fills the space, and your senses are filled with every possible event, sound, item, and happening that could possibly have ever occured here and could possibly ever occur. The din, the sensory overload of all things entering your mind at once threatens to tear apart your sanity as all moments become one and, at the same time, none. In the center of this exists an unknowable presence, living, dead, and pre-living, existing in a state in which time can never touch it. As you realize this, you realize that you realized it before and will realize it again, forevermore.

Something to that effect. Essentially, the PC, as the son of the mad god, has found himself pulled to the god's side in the realm outside of time. Without the filtering effects of time to separate events in a linear fashion, the PC's mind cannot take the overload.

I need help with several things:

1) How could a character return from this? My group enjoys knowing they can die, but not necessarily losing their characters forever. I don't want resurrection to be like buying a bag of Doritos, so I figured this could be a gateway to a solution--the PCs don't pass on for real, but are somehow taken and released by the mad god himself.

2) I need an option for what happens to PCs who don't choose to return. Some of the players like the option to make a new PC, one which, of course, would also be a scion of the god. Perhaps such heroes simply can't find their way out, or choose to remain there in the transcendent reality of the god's literally timeless realm.

3) Is this cool at all? I don't want it to smack of deus ex machina. I feel that it makes sense with the storyline (the PCs are scions of the god, and thus exist in a form in all times, and followers of the god are seeking to create a kingdom that spans the millennia to rule all times of the world). What do you guys think?

I suppose returning from such a world could have cumulative effects on the PCs minds, like, say, a drop in Wisdom or some kind of negative quirk or flaw. Of course, dying would still carry the same penalties (XPs, etc.), but the player would neither be forced to lose their character completely or seek out resurrection that's artificially available to an otherwise rugged magical world.

 

[Dragongrief]

1) The character has to "figure out where s/he belongs." Allowing him/her to reenter the timestream within 1-2 days of when s/he "died" in the material world.

2) There're several options available, a couple of which you already thought of. Perhaps if a character is unable to determine where/when it belongs (i.e. the player wants something new), the mad god reabsorbs it as imperfect and creates another scion in the past to replace it. Alternatively, the new character could actually be the same character, but from a vastly different timeline (in terms of personal experience), thus the character hasn't been lost, but merely swapped by the diety with a different version of himself that may be better suited to deal with present situations.

3) You'll find out if it's too cheesey the first time it comes up I think it's an interesting way around the "pay to be raised" issue some people have.

4) Going with the last idea from #2, you could make a table of modifiers (like +1 Int and -1 Wis) that balanced out and have any character that "returns" roll to see what altering the timesteam to bring him/her-self back has caused.

Hope some of this helps

 

[Dunjin]

Hrm. Along those lines, I can age characters, have them appear with a full beard, etc. Maybe trading one attribute for another (Str -1, Dex +1) isn't such a bad idea, too.

 

[Softwind]

Since all time/events/possibilities exist in the anti-time realm, that would definately have an impact upon their mortal minds (assuming that they are still mortal as they stand in the realm of their deity/daddy).

If they choose to return to life on the Prime (or wherever they died), I'd have them remember the exact details of the death they died, but also have memories that show how they *avoided* that death. Really mess with their minds.

Their bodies won't be the same either... remember that scar from childhood, on your knee? It's actually on your elbow now... Were you left handed? I always remember you being Right Handed. Things like that.

Really neat idea, Dunjin. Best of luck to you in your campaign!

 

[Dunjin]

Those are great ideas. I'm going to yoink 'em.

The idea behind the way this works is that the characters exist simultaneously in all times. Time affects them still; they age normally and will die of old age as normal, but their heritage gives them the ability to step into their lives in other times, or to shift the time-filter to a different spot, if you will. So they can't really rewind time to change the last moment, unless they know the rune to open that time again and manage to keep memory of the future time enough to move away.

It's like having homes in multiple places. When you're at home in the US, say, you experience one way of life, which is different from when you go to a home in the Bahamas or something. Just because you're not there doesn't mean that the homes don't continue to exist and feel the ravages of time. Compare this to the PCs in the current timeline who learn the rune to get into the future to a time not much unlike our own. They now experience a new time, but themselves in the old time continue to operate to an extent. Meanwhile, since they've always existed in that time, they have innate knowledge of driving automobiles, basic computer use, firearms, etc., but they might forget certain things they knew in the past (since their future selves never knew that stuff). I'm hoping this all makes sense when the PCs start getting into it.

Meanwhile, there are a number of stone blocks with these runes on them that also exist in every time. If you went to the year 2027, found a block and moved it to a specific location, it would exist in that new location when you went back and found that same block in 1167. An organization is trying to find these blocks and build a stronghold out of them to form a castle that would exist in every time and outside of time, as well as to collect these scions of the god to serve as their rulers.

I'm still not sure what role the mad god plays in this. He exists outside of time, which is something not even the other gods can do, really. To him, the effect of time on reality is like a tiny hole punched in the bottom of the ocean: There's all this vastness of water above, and the hole filters out everything but a trickle that gets through it. He might even be offended by the concept of time, or maybe his mortal followers think he might be, and they might seek to destroy time itself. Mwhahaha, rat-bastardness that could last through to the Epic levels.

Any more ideas? I love brainstorming this, and I want the whole thing to be bulletproof before it all comes crashing down on the players.