What do you do with the bodies of your fallen enemies?

[Theo R Cwithin]

A corpse shimmers slightly and slowly fades, even as it expels a glittery golden dust that coalesces into a mysterious sigil, like "320 XP", before dissolving in the breeze.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Om nom nom nom

 

[Marx420]

Two words.

Craft (Taxidermy)

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Our group doesn't generally do trophy-taking. Very few enemies last forever, and it's not really worth it in general.

We do make sure they're not faking death. If facing a known necromancer, we'll destroy the bodies to render them unusable. It's distasteful, but necessary.

However, some foes are vile enough that they require serious vengeance.

The last one I wanted to do that to was an enemy priest who wore the skin of the princess they'd taken hostage as a cloak, though it wound up we had too much time pressure for us to punish him properly.

Brad

 

[Maldin]

Depends on where the party is. Deep woods and underdark, they would usually leave the bodies for scavengers to take care of. There was one group, though, that figured out I was using a Notoriety mechanic, and suddenly their bag of devouring stopped being a cursed item, and became one of the most useful (and important) magic items they owned.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!

 

[gadams]

When it comes to dealing with corpses, players I’ve run campaigns for have had various philosophies. It might read easier in a list form…

• The Magician: The enemy doesn’t leave a corpse but turns into magic smoke, saving the player from the hassle of a body. There is a pile of loot with a minimum gp value left behind. Apparently graveyards are just for show.
• The Minimalist: Enemies leaves a corpse, but the player doesn’t want to deal with it. Just give him or her the loot, because death is icky and unnecessary to the game.
• The Pillager: The enemy leaves a corpse. Everything on it is valuable. Everything. Jagged, rusty goblin daggers? Loose wolf pelts? An ogre’s loincloth? There’s a buyer somewhere!
• Mr./Ms. Guilt: The enemy leaves a corpse and the player is so sorry about killing the enemy. They might even propose a proper burial or funeral in order to make amends to the poor creature. As sorry as the player is, however, the corpse will still be looted wildly.
• The Detective: The enemy leaves a corpse, but it is not just a corpse! It is a complex trail of clues that will reveal the internal machinations of the structure/villain/conspiracy the party intends to explore/defeat/unravel! Grab those dice (or a book); it’s going to be a long five minutes of repetitive skill checks! Also, there’s loot.
• The Decorator: The enemy leaves a corpse. The player cuts up the body and decorates his or her own armor with the pieces, like a cross between Macbeth and Buffalo Bill. Also, there’s loot.
• The Messenger: The enemy leaves a corpse. The player then proceeds to mutilate, dismember, and mark the body as a warning his or her enemies. The descriptions tend to be somewhere between the recounts of a Vietnam veteran, stories from the Ostfront, and the confessions of Jeffrey Dahmer. Also, there’s loot.

 

[Perram]

There aren't a whole lot of bodies, honestly. My players take prisoners a whole lot, killing only very very rarely. And in both cases they usually allow the authorities to handle the mess.

Most of the time they don't even loot the foes, except for taking away obvious weapons, spellbooks, escape tools, etc... And half the time THOSE are also handed over to the local authorities.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

There aren't a whole lot of bodies, honestly. My players take prisoners a whole lot, killing only very very rarely. And in both cases they usually allow the authorities to handle the mess.

Most of the time they don't even loot the foes, except for taking away obvious weapons, spellbooks, escape tools, etc... And half the time THOSE are also handed over to the local authorities.

I don't think your players properly understand the game. Please have them go back and read the rulebooks again.

 

[Herobizkit]

In my many years of gaming, the bodies of the fallen are mostly forgotten. However, I've played a character who wanted to sample the meats of various exotic creatures. In a more recent case, a particularly devout Favored soul of Eilistraee has taken to burning every body she leaves behind.

 

[nedjer]

In-game I like to recycle, so corpses are a constant source of spell ingredients, compliant zombies and Minotaur hams.

Otherwise, beneath the flagstones of my Scottish castle.