Yeah, if I think about it I get all soul-searchy and weird
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 12:15 amAdventure Time is awesome, but the nature of the setting and story is such that it is not actually stopping me from getting back in my freaking out over mortality place. The episode about Jake wanting to see the prophecy of his death through to the end was totally rough on my heartstrings. Damn it, Finn, I totally think your solution is awesome. Even if it makes me all sad.
In less creepy (to me) thoughts, I've been thinking about how I would handle certain elements of running tabletop games that go longer and are more deadly than the ones I've run before.
Resurrection: Now, I think resurrection should totally be available to the party, but it pisses me off when it's got never got an effect. Here's how I think it'd be interesting to handle.
*Cost: cheap as dirt. It's easy to get your friend revived.
*Urgency (part the first): If you do it quickly, then the consequences are pretty much invisible. As the resurrectee, you would essentially have a sense of having gone into the light for a moment, but then you came back. Disconcerting and weird and probably a little nervewracking, but you'd get over it after a bit. (Roleplaying will be enforced by electric cattle prod.)
*Urgency (part deux): If you take a full day to resurrect your friend, they will be Messed Up when they come back. Because in the time it took you to resurrect them, they were reborn elsewhere. They've started to forget their past life already. As the resurrectee, it'd be difficult to remember names, places. Important details of your past might be forgotten. Also, you might have the strangest urge to go back to the life you are now denied. You might even follow those urges, depending on how you want to play it. (Roleplaying will be enforced by a demonic stare.)
*Urgency (the other part): If you do it after your friend's body has started to rot (this would vary in terms of time based on terrain; a body in a swamp might rot faster/more easily than a body in a dry desert castle), there is a chance that your friend will come back undead. The amount of forgetting is higher, the difficulty of re-connecting with your friend is greater. This also puts back the use of rituals like Gentle Repose, which might do things** to the friend's soul while also preserving their body for resurrection purposes. As the resurrectee who is not Repose'd, you would essentially be like a zombie self, remembering only the most bittersweet pieces of who you once were. You could still become a whole person over time, perhaps, but you would need to make new memories to fill the void left by the old. See below for if Repose'd. (Roleplaying will enforced by the banshee howl of the unknowable creatures of the id.)
**- A body held in Gentle Repose would essentially also trap the soul, preventing it from proceeding on to the next life as it should. While resurrection in this particular idea would usually account for stillbirths (so and so was brought back to life; the baby he was going to be born as therefore can't be born), with Gentle Repose there is no baby the soul was sent to. This would have its own consequences, as the soul would be in limbo the whole time until the friend is resurrected. Instead of having the 'I went towards the bright light and then came back' experience, you might have the more terrifying 'there was nothing I could feel it THERE WAS NOTHINNNNG' experience to roleplay. Yes. Roleplaying will be enforced. BELIEVE those characters, baby.
I'm of course exaggerating the seriousness and creepiness of the scenario, and in my experience, resurrection doesn't have to come up that often. But I think the deterrents to resurrection should totally be the creep factor, and not the cost. Cost is lame. When a party is arguing about whether Jerk the Wizard is really worth the five thousand gold it'd cost to revive him, I want it to be because Jerk the Wizard was a total jerk, and not because five thousand gold is a lot of money.
As for out of character discussions about it occurring at the table, I want those to be tinged by the player's own feelings on having to roleplay coming back from the dead. If the rules are "you can't just ignore it if your other friends take too long or do this; that is a part of your character now" then the option is always there, for players who don't enjoy being melodramatic (and for shame, why are you even playing an RPG? Honestly!), to just make a new character and say 'whoa guys, no thanks. Do not resurrect me, playing a resurrected character would just be toooooo spooky!'
As for games I'm planning to run, there is STEAMPUNK LONDON coming up. I'll have to sound out my players and make sure they're still potentially available. Here's hopin'.
And back to serious towne, the bill for my first car payment arrived today. It's not due for a month, but I have the unpleasant feeling that the financing company may not be willing to accept online payments, which bites. I do not remember to buy stamps, ever.
In less creepy (to me) thoughts, I've been thinking about how I would handle certain elements of running tabletop games that go longer and are more deadly than the ones I've run before.
Resurrection: Now, I think resurrection should totally be available to the party, but it pisses me off when it's got never got an effect. Here's how I think it'd be interesting to handle.
*Cost: cheap as dirt. It's easy to get your friend revived.
*Urgency (part the first): If you do it quickly, then the consequences are pretty much invisible. As the resurrectee, you would essentially have a sense of having gone into the light for a moment, but then you came back. Disconcerting and weird and probably a little nervewracking, but you'd get over it after a bit. (Roleplaying will be enforced by electric cattle prod.)
*Urgency (part deux): If you take a full day to resurrect your friend, they will be Messed Up when they come back. Because in the time it took you to resurrect them, they were reborn elsewhere. They've started to forget their past life already. As the resurrectee, it'd be difficult to remember names, places. Important details of your past might be forgotten. Also, you might have the strangest urge to go back to the life you are now denied. You might even follow those urges, depending on how you want to play it. (Roleplaying will be enforced by a demonic stare.)
*Urgency (the other part): If you do it after your friend's body has started to rot (this would vary in terms of time based on terrain; a body in a swamp might rot faster/more easily than a body in a dry desert castle), there is a chance that your friend will come back undead. The amount of forgetting is higher, the difficulty of re-connecting with your friend is greater. This also puts back the use of rituals like Gentle Repose, which might do things** to the friend's soul while also preserving their body for resurrection purposes. As the resurrectee who is not Repose'd, you would essentially be like a zombie self, remembering only the most bittersweet pieces of who you once were. You could still become a whole person over time, perhaps, but you would need to make new memories to fill the void left by the old. See below for if Repose'd. (Roleplaying will enforced by the banshee howl of the unknowable creatures of the id.)
**- A body held in Gentle Repose would essentially also trap the soul, preventing it from proceeding on to the next life as it should. While resurrection in this particular idea would usually account for stillbirths (so and so was brought back to life; the baby he was going to be born as therefore can't be born), with Gentle Repose there is no baby the soul was sent to. This would have its own consequences, as the soul would be in limbo the whole time until the friend is resurrected. Instead of having the 'I went towards the bright light and then came back' experience, you might have the more terrifying 'there was nothing I could feel it THERE WAS NOTHINNNNG' experience to roleplay. Yes. Roleplaying will be enforced. BELIEVE those characters, baby.
I'm of course exaggerating the seriousness and creepiness of the scenario, and in my experience, resurrection doesn't have to come up that often. But I think the deterrents to resurrection should totally be the creep factor, and not the cost. Cost is lame. When a party is arguing about whether Jerk the Wizard is really worth the five thousand gold it'd cost to revive him, I want it to be because Jerk the Wizard was a total jerk, and not because five thousand gold is a lot of money.
As for out of character discussions about it occurring at the table, I want those to be tinged by the player's own feelings on having to roleplay coming back from the dead. If the rules are "you can't just ignore it if your other friends take too long or do this; that is a part of your character now" then the option is always there, for players who don't enjoy being melodramatic (and for shame, why are you even playing an RPG? Honestly!), to just make a new character and say 'whoa guys, no thanks. Do not resurrect me, playing a resurrected character would just be toooooo spooky!'
As for games I'm planning to run, there is STEAMPUNK LONDON coming up. I'll have to sound out my players and make sure they're still potentially available. Here's hopin'.
And back to serious towne, the bill for my first car payment arrived today. It's not due for a month, but I have the unpleasant feeling that the financing company may not be willing to accept online payments, which bites. I do not remember to buy stamps, ever.
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