Making Resurrection cost

[RyanW]

I wouldn't forbid those "passion for life" disadvantages, but instead reframe them as a desperate (and possibly hopeless) desire to feel alive.

[AlexanderHowl]

I think that a possible balanced consequence of resurrection would be gaining a permanent window into the world of the dead. The character would suffer -25 CP worth of negative traits or reductions in positive traits but would gain 25 CP worth of abilities/power talents related to the foci of Death and Spirit with each resurrection. So, a character who was resurrected four times would have acquired -100 CP worth of negative traits or reductions in positive traits but would also acquire 100 CP worth of abilities/power talents from the foci of Death and Spirit.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think that a possible balanced consequence of resurrection would be gaining a permanent window into the world of the dead. The character would suffer -25 CP worth of negative traits or reductions in positive traits but would gain 25 CP worth of abilities/power talents related to the foci of Death and Spirit with each resurrection. So, a character who was resurrected four times would have acquired -100 CP worth of negative traits or reductions in positive traits but would also acquire 100 CP worth of abilities/power talents from the foci of Death and Spirit.

That's an interesting thought. Maybe "cost" is too harsh, but I think Resurrection should change you. It is, after all, traveling to the Great Beyond.

Edit: 25 points is from Extra Life.

[Gnome]

If Resurrection is "free" Extra Life is a worthless advantage.
If, when your character dies, you can simply replace it with a new character worth equal points, then Extra Life is worse than worthless--I find that characters made from scratch at a particular point value are stronger than characters that organically advanced to that same value.

In my DF campaign, Resurrection is not automatic (target must succeed on a HT check, with cumulative penalties for future resurrections). Furthermore, you come back with 10 fewer CP. However, new PCs start with much, much fewer CP, so it's still way "better" to be resurrected.

However, I also have a "catch-up" mechanic whereby PCs with fewer total CP than the party max (for any reason) earn CP at a faster rate, so that they're not forever doomed to be weaker than everyone else, they just have to focus on surviving for a while rather than being the big hero of the party.

We've had one player who has lost more than one character. He always has fun making new characters, and his latest character started hundreds of points below the rest of the party but now has around the same CP total as everyone else (~1000).

The catch-up mechanic, for those who care: if you are behind the party max by more than 25 CP, you gain a CP "multiplier" for all CP awards according to the following formula:

points earned multiplier = [3*(max - 25) - 2*current]/current

max: the current part max CP total (before the CP award)
current: your current CP total (before the CP award)

[Alden Loveshade]

To me, the most important aspects of something like that (losing 25 points when Resurrected) is that it be established before the campaign begins. Then players know ahead of time they have the option to do that or start over with a new PC. If it's done that way, I think it could work.

In the first full GURPS session I ran, which was a science fiction game, one of the PCs died--after the player did exactly what they should have done. I felt pretty bad about that.

By the notes I had handed out for that campaign before it began, there was such a thing as "life assurance" that could be paid to be brought back from the dead. The PCs could pay for it in advance, like life insurance, but no one did. Or they could pay after the fact, which was really expensive. The dead PC's NPC survivors had full price paid for Resurrection (which was extremely expensive), and his wealth level and point total dropped.

As partial compensation, I told the player that if he came up with in-game reasons/actions for his PC getting his wealth back up, I wouldn't charge him points for it. He did, and it wasn't too long before he was back to his previous level.

[Otaku]

Speaking from a (hypothetical) GM perspective:

If I was going to require a CP payment, first I'd allow it to be split among the person casting the resurrection, the character being resurrected, and anyone else willing to participate. It could be paid by one party, I'm just allowing the burden to be shared. It just seems like a way to further tie the party together, and if I want the player to have to bear the CP cost alone... as the GM one can arrange those circumstances. Otherwise, share the pain so fewer CP gaps develop, or just let them pay even more cash/favors/etc. for a the cleric and/or CP donors to bear the burden for them.

Yes, professional "CP donors" might exist; if I wasn't okay with it for that setting, I wouldn't allow it, and again, if that particular resurrection calls for it, they may be unavailable. ("No, the CP donors won't follow you to the fire of Mt. Doom. You'll have to trek all the way back to the city if you want their services." If the CP cost for Resurrection is 25, then expect to need to find 25 "Professional Mourners" (CP Donors) that are willing to gain a new Quirk or the like in exchange for that year's living wage. I mean, a year is enough to to maybe work off that Quirk, re-learn a lost skill, etc.

I'd probably insist that unspent Character Points are lost first. I'd prefer the rest be "spread around", with the character taking a small Disadvantage, a hit to a stat, forgetting recently learned skills, etc. Would I allow a player to take a big'ol -25 CP Disadvantage, or sacrifice 25 CP from one large enough trait? Sure, but I like the idea of several smaller changes more than a single big one.

Losing recently gained advantages and/or losing Skills seems the most inline with traditional RPG "logic", the GURPS equivalent of losing a Character Level or Experience Points. New Disadvantages (or increasing old ones) should probably reflect the death experience, though the tie can be pretty tenuous ("I died once, so my character is now even more Lecherous because he never knows when perma-death is coming!").

I'm also inclined to just allow "Point Debt" or temporary Disadvantages... and let me explain that last bit. "Temporary Disadvantages" are already a thing in GURPS, but I don't have a better term for it. Think of it as a Disadvantage which goes away on its own eventually. How is that not free points? The character is still suffering the burden of having a Disadvantage (don't allow it if they can just wait it out with zero repercussions) or Disadvantages, it is just they'll eventually "wear off" without the player having to cough up more CP. Of course, this means they won't be worth what taking the Disadvantage proper would give you.

For example, say dying in a stereotypical high fantasy setting leaves you with a "scent of death". Those able to sense such a thing may find it unpleasant (Reaction Penalty), and those who can sense it and are aligned in some way may see this as cheating death and want to rectify the situation (Unknown Enemy plus a different reaction penalty). Once you've been alive long enough, assuming you eschew activities that might reinforce the "scent of death", it goes away on its own... but until then, you're attracting extra undead, Necromancers, maybe even some of the normally "Lawful Good" (not that GURPS uses that mechanic) types if the resurrection was okayed through their source of power.

[Juan]

When playing fantasy settings we did not want to "punish" the player who had his PC dead.

But still we needed a sense of "loss" and the "It could not work this time" feeling to keep adventuring dangerous.

So... That is what we did: the PC loses all unspent CP. Then, resurrection "costs" one permanent HP and a HT roll is needed after all the rituals. On a miss, the PC did not made It anyway!

We made up the Resurrected quirk.
The PC gets one level for every resurrection he/she undergoes. The actual level is the negativos modifier for the post-resurrection roll.

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I wouldn't forbid those "passion for life" disadvantages, but instead reframe them as a desperate (and possibly hopeless) desire to feel alive.

As someone who has been quite close to dying as a young adult, I can attest that it can give you a bit of carpe diem.