Raise Dead House Rule

[Rune]

Since your players are concerned with story, I would make the cost for returning to life part of the narrative and separate it from mechanics completely.

When someone dies that's when the Devil shows up to make a deal with the survivors to bring their dead companion back to life. Or the party's wizard friend has a new spell he created that should bring the dead back to life. Or as the party is bringing their companion's body to their family for burial, miraculously the person comes back to life.

This is great, but to put it more generally, anyone that your PCs end up owing a favor to is an instant plot-hook. The really fun part is making it as hard a choice as possible whether it's worth bringing a PC back, or not.

 

[Infiniti2000]

At this point they're not completely attached to the whole D&D concept.. Any large feeling of loss might be enough for them to decide they prefer checkers. One person in particular, I doubt will ever feel comfortable with losing any effort they placed in the game. It would all suddenly become meaningless to her.

Well, it's a learning process. If she thinks that the game has consequences, then by definition it's not meaningless. On the other hand, if she learns that you're secretly ensuring that there are no consequences, then by definition it's meaningless and that's when she should leave. I don't know the player, but keep these kinds of thoughts in mind. My recommendation is always open communication so talk to her about it, about her thoughts on the game and the potential death of her character. Talking as a group would almost certainly be better.

All that said, to your actual request, I like the idea of NPC help rather than a houserule. Having townspeople 'pass the hat' sounds like a great idea as it would likely work within the storyline (assuming the PCs are actually heroic, and if not f them).

 

[CroBob]

I understand characters dying sucks. I've even DMed several campaigns where if a character died, it would have been a big hit to the plot. Ex; a group who attempted to usurp the Gods were punished by losing their power and memories, gaining both back only with experiences and tracing their old adventures through what clues they found, the campaign beginning as they wake up after their memories being taken away from them. Obviously, if one of them died the campaign, being set as a following of the deeds they did before they lost their memories, would have suffered. Fortunately, none of them died.

As a poster above me suggested, "The Devil" may offer to resurrect the player, but there will be obvious perils in the future if they agree. Good plot hooks, attempts to reclaim the soul that was sold, etc.

 

[Nytmare]

It's not always a popular answer, especially if you're looking for realism and simulation over story mechanics, but there's always the "death flag."

In the very broadest of terms, players do not die unless they decide that it's an appropriate time for them to lay their lives on the line. It's not any kind of supernatural indestructibility, it's a hint of an author's control over whether or not their main characters get ganked in a random bar fight.

In 4th Ed terms, 0 hit points would translate to unconsciousness, capture, or flight, instead of death. For some kind of mechanical benefit however (let's pretend a healing surge, 3 action points, and the ability to use more than 1 action point an encounter) the player would be able to stake their character's life against a point in the story that they consider to be an appropriate place for their character to die.

Again, it's not for everyone, but I'd imagine that it would help take a good bit of weight off your shoulders, and hand it to your players.

 

[S'mon]

Just to say, IME having an NPC cast Raise Dead for free, but now you owe them a big favour, seems to work well.