We Live Again
Resurrection is a common trope in fantasy. It even plays a major part in one of the best-selling books of all time, The Bible, where the protagonist (a self-insert, Virgin Mary Sue protagonist for the author, God) wakes up 1d6 days after his death by horrible torture. Countless other examples exist in media. With this trope flooding our respective Appedices N, it is only natural that the possibility exists in many a fantasy game. If I were a wise blogger, maybe I’d have timed this post for Easter, the resurrection holiday.
However, resurrection has many drawbacks, from both gameplay and worldbuilding perspectives. Don’t take my word for it; my colleague at the Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet already outlined the many flaws in typical resurrection and had a neat idea I’m about to steal to boot! Another issue is just that it isn’t as quick as just rolling up a new character for the game (and as I previously outlined, the most important aspect of running a “deadly” game is to be able to get replacement characters in quickly). However, sometimes players get attached to their dead characters and will go to pretty extreme lengths to bring them back. When that is the case, you can drive them to do some fun and zany adventures to get access to the requisite magic.
There are four ways to revive a character, in various degrees, the least of which is resurrection itself. The opposite of resurrection is soul-trapping, which requires a shell. Next is reincarnation, which is slow but easier, and then cloning which is quicker but requires preparation. I will describe each in turn.
Resurrection is the least like bringing your character back. That is because, stealing the idea from the aforementioned Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet post, true resurrection is impossible. What is possible is inviting a demon to live in the dead character’s body. This method, what most call resurrection, is possible–reanimating a corpse but not as an undead. This requires a recently deceased and mostly intact body, a miracle-level spell, and at least 4 XP Dice currently in the XP Bowl (which I described previously). To represent your semi-new character, you roll and add 2 of the XP Dice (of any type and combination in the XP Bowl) for each of your mental stats (Intelligence and Charisma), to determine your new ability score totals. If you have more than 4 XP Dice in the XP Bowl, you can also roll additional dice for generating these stats but must add the highest 2 dice to generate your stat. You are the same level as the deceased character and have the prior character’s spells, languages, skills, feats, etc., but have no memories from your previous character and are, in fact, a demon who desires only power so that you might conquer the planet for your people. Have fun with that.
Soul-trapping is relatively easier in that it only requires major magic, not a miracle. More importantly, you at least have the soul of your prior character, although only faint traces of their memories. Similarly, it requires a recently deceased (although the body isn’t necessary), a roughly human-shaped golem, and at least 4 XP Dice. To represent your character’s new body, you roll the XP Dice the same way as described above except for the physical stats (Strength and Dexterity). You can roll multiple dice, as described above and have the same feats of your original character, except any feat relating to their ancestry is replaced with the “Dungeonborn” feat. They are the same level as the deceased character.
Reincarnation allows you to have the same body and mind as your former character but requires patience. When reincarnation, also a miracle level magical effect, occurs, a baby somewhere is born that is the character but reincarnated. They may have a different ancestry, and also they are a baby, but are otherwise the dead character. Reduce all of the character’s stats by a number equal to 1 fewer than their lowest stat. The child is born with stats at those value. Each year, on the child’s birthday, they increase all of their stats by 1 until their stats are identical to the original characters were at their death, at which point the child is ready to become a player character (or a follower) and begin increasing their stats only as would a player character. The reincarnated child does not start with any languages, skills, feats, etc. from the prior character and begins at level 1 when they reach adventuring age.
You can also create a clone if you have the resources. This requires a miracle level spell cast before you are dead, which is the main drawback. It is more of an insurance policy than a method of resurrecting a recently fallen comrade. It requires a cloning vat, capable of holding at least 250 gallons of water, expensive alchemical reagents which must be sourced and obtained, a body part (at least the size of a big toe) of the target, one year of time, and a peaceful place for the clone to grow. If the clone is disturbed in its vat before it awakens (either in the initial year or while waiting for the original subject to die), it dies. If the clone is grown to term, whenever you die, it will immediately awaken and crawl from the vat. It has your stats, languages, skills, feats, etc. at the time you severed the body part to grow it. If you are impatient to meet your clone after it matures in its vat, you can cast another spell (even minor magic will do) to awaken it early, but doing so ensures that it has only one goal that it will pursue with single-minded devotion: kill you and take your place in the world, or else die trying. We all have to die sometime, and some of us even get to live first.
