Resurrection implications

[uzirath]

Many RPGs, whether fantasy or sci-fi, include the concept of returning from death. In some campaigns, it's just a simple spell with a fixed price. In others, there may be quests to fulfill. I've played in a sci-fi game where you paid a hefty fee for "brain tapes" and cloned bodies. I've also played in many campaigns where death is final.

One thing I haven't seen much in fantasy games is serious thought about the impact of resurrection on the world and its cultures. (Science fiction often handles this better.) In most fantasy settings where resurrection is available, I would imagine that wealthy people hardly ever permanently die except from old age or in freak accidents where their bodies are entirely destroyed. Yet the game worlds have plenty of lore about assassinations, heroic generals who were slain on the battlefield, and various other tidbits that imply that most of the time, death is just as final as it appears to be in our reality.

How have you handled this in your games? Note that this is not the thread for discussing whether death should be final. Rather, presuming that death is not final, what setting implications should GMs be mindful of?

 

[DemoMonkey]

The important element is not whether Resurrection is POSSIBLE, but how COMMON is it.

"Any 9th level cleric can do it", you say? Ok. Outside of the PCs, how many 9th level clerics are there in the world? The implications are very different is the answer is "6, anywhere, period" vs "1 in every village big enough to have a blacksmith".

How I handled it in my last game was for it to not be available as a spell choice. It could only be done by finding 1 of only 7 legendary Resurrection scrolls. My players, to their incredible credit, found only one in an entire campaign and used it on their NPC henchman when he was caught in melee by accident.

 

[embee]

I've started putting a deBeer's analog into my world. Resurrection requires diamonds. That's as good a reason as any to have some organization very interested in locking down the diamond market.

The spells still exist. But I don't handwave the material component of a diamond. Or the time restrictions.

 

[Tonguez]

I use the Quest for Resurrection approach - that way the process remains a Legendary Act that can only be accomplished by great and powerful heroes who are able to open a portal to the underworld, fight through its many defences, bargain with deific entities, locate the willing soul and then fight there way back to a equally legendary cleric demi-god able to return the soul to a body.

It also makes things like Liches and Mummies make more sense - why would powerful Pharoahs want to be mummified if they can just use repeatable Resurrection for eternal life?
Unless of course Mummies and Liches etc are the result of failed resurrections

 

[zarionofarabel]

First off, I would say that if the power of returning the dead to life lays with an individual, say as in D&D style spellcasters, then those individuals would garner large followings. I would guess that most casters who had the power of resurrection would also be very wealthy as raising the dead would be a lucrative business.

If the power lies in an object then whoever controls the object would be subject to the above save they run the risk of having the object stolen.

In either case someone with the power to raise the dead would have to be very wary of those that would want to exploit that power.

 

[uzirath]

I use the Quest for Resurrection approach - that way the process remains a Legendary Act that can only be accomplished by great and powerful heroes who are able to open a portal to the underworld, fight through its many defences, bargain with deific entities, locate the willing soul and then fight there way back to a equally legendary cleric demi-god able to return the soul to a body.

I wonder if powerful people might attempt to hire "great and powerful heroes" to go on such a quest on their behalf. For example, Emperor Goldenpants loses his son and heir in a riding accident. He offers ten chests of gold and a hereditary title to anyone who can sneak past Cerberus to get him back.

 

[MarkB]

I play up the "soul must be free and willing to return" part. For PCs, resurrection is automatic unless the player doesn't want their character to come back, and for anyone, Revivify is near-certain to succeed because the soul effectively hasn't really departed yet.

But for everyone else, once that first minute has passed, the chance of a person's soul being both willing and able to return once it has reached the afterlife is minimal - maybe 1% of cases at best. In most cases, whatever state of existence the soul winds up in is on a level so far outside the scope of the mortal realm that the material plane feels insignificant. Maybe they miss friends, family or loved ones, but in terms of how they now perceive things it will be little more than an eyeblink before those they knew pass on and have a chance to join them. It requires something highly unusual for any cause to still seem compelling enough after death to draw them back to the mortal realm.

Plus, in the lower planes, souls are a prized resource, and many of those who die never have the chance to ascend to that higher state of being - instead, their souls are captured by fiends and traded like trinkets.

Either way, for a deceased NPC, the chances of returning to life are minimal. That's not to say that it's never attempted, but in almost all cases where a formal member of a religious order is consulted, they'll start by casting commune and asking "If I attempt to resurrect <insert name here>, will their soul return to this mortal realm?"

 

[Lanefan]

The spell 'Death Prayer' cast over a corpse blocks later revival. It also prevents the corpse or spirit from rising as an undead.

Revival of any kind doesn't help if death was due to sheer old age; you just die again, only much poorer. Also, if death was due to something like poison or disease, basic revival doesn't usually fix the cause and so without immediate further care you'll just die again.

Sometimes deities interfere. Sometimes the corpse, when asked via 'Speak With Dead', declines revival for whatever reason.

And last but not least, revival in my game is never guaranteed to work in any case: you still have to succeed on the Resurrection Survival roll.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Many RPGs, whether fantasy or sci-fi, include the concept of returning from death.

How have you handled this in your games? Note that this is not the thread for discussing whether death should be final. Rather, presuming that death is not final, what setting implications should GMs be mindful of?

...and this is why I use my 1e/HM book for the "System Shock" and "Resurrection Survival" chances. If you fail that Resurrection roll...you're done for. Make a new guy.

Oh, I also, casting Resurrection ages the caster by "3 human years" (re:...'the equivalent of 3 human years'...about 1/25th of a races very old age). Lastly, the Raised/Resurrected person's CON score is reduced by 1. Permanently. If it hit's 2 or lower, they are impossible to bring back to life...even with a Wish.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[aco175]

There has been some good articles over the years on bringing back the dead. I tend to have nobility have some sort of charter with the commoners that does not allow resurrection. There are lots of issues that come into play with succession of rule and titles. There is also problems with governing. Of course, the nobles try to get past this if able. Although there is always someone who is better off with that person staying dead.

Some of the old articles talk about other things like inheritance and someone taking your magic sword while you are dead and if you can get it back once you come back to life. Some races live longer than others and an argument could be made that they could benefit more from a raise dead. Elves could live for a few hundred years longer than a human and they may view this longevity as more worthy.

I tend to have the PCs be able to be raised. Sometimes there is a quest or deed, but mostly it becomes a burden in game to halt one player while he is dead. It mostly gets skimmed over if the PCs are enough level and have the components. In reality, peasants and everyone would follow clerics asking them to heal, raise, cure all sorts of ailments and diseases. Raising the dead husband farmer would be in line next to the leper and magistrate who has cancer.