[DGD] Life and death

[bart at wotf.org]

How one would balance death heavily depends on the design and goals of the
game. 'Role playing game' really doesn't tell enough about that to say
anything useful about this beyond that death should not be meaningless, but
should not carry such a big penalty that it removes the incentive to play.
However, what that means is really not something one can say anything about
without involving lots of detail on how the game in question works.

Btw, I've always liked the idea of death being a playable part of the game,
one that opens up game content you normally won't get to see, but, that is
merely a tool to both ensure its not meaningless and to kindof restrict the
penalty. What is the right balance? well, to point at one detail you need to
add at the very least: what can be gained by risking death? Another detail:
how big is the impact on the specific character in question? Those are just 2
details one really must know to say something useful about balance of death,
there are many more. Hence, beyond some very general ideas, I really think
death balance is something you should be discussing with a person who is
intimately aware of, and involved with the specific game for which you want to
discuss death. No, 'role playing game' really does not convey enough
information, there are simply way too many variations on that theme, all of
which will come with their own meaning of life/death and hence will require
different implementations and balance of death.

Bart.

On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 08:40:47 -0800, Raymond Jennings wrote
> So, due to some issues that came up in a roleplay I was recently
> attending, I was wondering about life and death as a game design and
> balance standpoint.
> 
> What do you all think?
> 
> For my part, the RP in question had a grim reaper character who
> doubled as the afterlife's sheriff.  People who resurrected too often
> were put on a "list", and the next time they died and left their 
> souls in the clutches of the reaper they were simply erased from existence
> as punishment for scythe dodging.
> 
> On ironclaw online, on a strict storyline basis, not many even
> resurrected, but the PCs were basically a special class that fate 
> just happened to privilege, and until then you just hung out in the 
> afterlife.  First, a race against the clock to have your body found 
> before NPC priests collected it, and then a race against the clock 
> between NPC priests and PC priests to revive you first.  All of that,
>  of course, presuming that you haven't been excommunicated.
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