Character Death, Again.

There was recently a death in my family. A grandmother, under some of the best circumstances possible. Perhaps it's eminently bad style, but I still had a gaming inspiration of sorts. Why isn't character death taken this heavily? Most of the character deaths I've seen have three stages:

• Argue about the circumstances (10 minutes)
• Sigh and throw the character sheet out (1 minute)
• Plot new character (30 minutes or more)

I believe the answer is in legacy. RPG characters are usually only remembered for the dumb memorable moments they were involved with. But, once they're in the grave, nothing happens. No memorial, no flashbacks by other party members, etc.

So, I had an idea. Referencing the last post about character death, what if characters are "recycled," after a fashion? I imagine it would go like this:

• The player chooses two stats from the character (or more, depending on the system. For EE, I'd use 2.)
• Their new character gets those stats automatically, and divides the "new character" XP as well. Vaguely like reincarnation, but I'd be tempted to call it inspiration. This way, the player gets to keep some of the things they liked about the old character. The gift of the Dead.

I leave it up to the GM and the group to decide how the new character is introduced, etc. I, personally, would introduce the new member as follows:

"He's a tough man. A scraggly beard contrasts a meticulously cleaned shotgun, and a cowboy hat casts a shadow over any facial features above his nose. Despite this imposing presence, you can't help but think that he reminds you of someone..."

It's still completely up in the air. It'll be a while before I have to really worry about this, and I really need to talk to my players about how they feel about character death. A good GM has lots of ideas, but a great one has just a few the players like.

~

Rest in peace, Grandma.