Roleplaying based penalties for Death. [Now with Examples!]

[maddman75]

One of my favorite mechanics comes from Cinematic Unisystem. To return from the dead, the player must spend Drama Points (sub action dice or hero points or similar mechanic). The number spent depends on when they come back, not how. IIRC, if they don't return until next season (after the current plot arc) its one point. Several games away is 3, next game is 5 and right away is 8. I could be wrong on the numbers, but that's the idea. If you don't have enough, you can owe that many, giving any you earn back up to pay the debt.

The how is entirely up to the player. They come up with some explanation as to why the character is returned. Perhaps they were made into an undead and have recieved their free will back. Or a higher being decides they have a purpose and returns them. Or a mad scientist uses their brain for his Frankenstein monster. Or there was a miracle in the ER.

 

[Akaiku]

due to the games that I play, we have the ultimate penalty -- when you die, you are dead, period.

We don't have resurrection or it's variations.

Not quite ultimate-ultimate. The ultimate one would be you die and the group kicks you out and stops talking to you.

 

[Lanefan]

Funny this should come up right now; this last weekend pretty much by random chance an opportunity for just this sort of thing arose in the game I was running and I ran with it, and at some point I'll explore it further.

What happened: a PC in the party returns to his hometown a year or two after leaving (not by his own choice), to find most of his old rough-crowd friends have died by one means or another. He finds only one guy remaining from the old crew; the reunion goes well until the PC mentions that he too had died but has been revived, at which point the old friend looks at him aghast: "You're one of the risen? Back away!", then gets up and leaves at high speed. So the PC now has no friends at all in his hometown.

The broader idea here is that those who have died and been revived (and who admit to it or are found out) are somehow shunned by society - maybe it's superstition, maybe being dead-and-back makes you (in their eyes) half-undead, or whatever. But the possibilities for RP "penalties" are nearly endless.

Lan-"don't die, it's bad for your health"-efan

 

[Mistah J]

After thinking about it for a while, I've decided that I still want to give this a try. Here are some examples of "forced behaviour" that I have come up with. Please let me know what you think.

1. From now on, the character can only eat a maximum of 2 meals per day. They must donate their 3rd to someone in need or otherwise less fortunate than themselves. If they are in a situation in which there are no candidates available (i.e. a long dungeon crawl), they incur a "debt" of 1 meal/day that must be repaid as soon as they are able. Any meals offered beyond a 3rd must be refused or avoided but need not be donated.

The character cannot build a "credit" by giving more than a meal in one day.

2. Whenever the character is involved in chores, duties, or other projects, they must do the work of two people. For example, if the party must each carry 50lbs, the character must carry 100lbs. If they camp for the night, the character must take two sentry watches. If the work of two people is beyond the physical capabilities of the character, they must work to their maximum instead.

The character cannot opt out of these chores and must volunteer their own services if the opportunity arises.

3. The character must be the last to be healed within their line of sight. They must refuse medical attention/magical healing until all other injured persons are cared for first. They must also ensure that they are the most injured person within their party (though they need not deliberately injure themselves or get in harm's way to do so). The character can break this rule only if the alternative would result in their death (i.e. they are unconscious or dying) and if healing is forced upon them, they do no have to make a Will save to reduce the amount in half.


So that's what I came up with so far. Currently, I'm trying to flesh out the language used so as not to create confusion or "grey" areas so please let me know if you see any such problems. I am blessed with a mature gaming group that will happily follow the intent of these ideas so it's about clarification rather than abuse control.

Also, if this gives you an idea for more of these "pseudo-geas" by all means, show them here - I need a few more so your ideas are appreciated. I'm trying to stay away from concepts like "never lie" or "always accept the enemy surrender" because I feel a) they are a little overdone anyway, and b) they're kind of boring.

Thanks for your time!