Building a somewhat peculiar form of immortality

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

I'm working on a power (likely a cluster of Powers mechanically) and finding building it interesting-yet-difficult enough to merit brainstorming. 

 

Deriving (very loosely, in the inspired-by-but-probably-totally-wrong-but-please-correct-me-anyways-it'll-be-interesting sense) from Chinese thought RE the afterlife and immortality:  The character is immortal because when they die they go to Hell, pass through bureaucracy, and are found so meritorious they are returned to life. 

In practical terms, this means:

A- The character takes a while (anywhere from hours to weeks) before they go from dead to perfectly healthy, but they heal completely and instantly when they revive. 

B- Being sent back to life is done properly.  They will not be revived into a situation where death is certain, but neither will Hell permit their revival to be unduly delayed.  Some mechanism for this needs to exist, but the details aren't hugely important. 

C- Hell's officials can be bribed, either to expedite the revival or to delay it.  Funerary offerings can convey valuables to the (temporarily) deceased.  Anyone who can go to Hell or summon its inhabitants can also engage in bribery. 

 

So how would you build this construct? 

[Doc Democracy]

It looks to me like you have the classic resurrection that we have seen in a whole slew of builds.  Any one of them work here.

 

The interesting aspect is the time variable and potential roleplay aspect. I think the plane jumping aspects are entirely SFX.

 

I think every character should have some everyman contact with the Celestial plane.  They should be managing that through their actions.  When they die, they roll the contact and the result gives modifiers to how expensive, how long and how easy getting through the bureaucracy will be.

 

If you fail the roll by three then things are three steps up the time and wealth charts and skill checks take the same hit.

 

We are not talking failure here, the power implies the character IS meritorious enough to be returned to life, it's just how hard it is going to be to navigate the bureaucracy.

 

I think it would be nice to roleplay this.  Some officials may be so expensive to pay off, the character might have to defeat a monster in lieu of cash.

 

I am channelling the 70s TV show, Monkey here...

 

Doc

[wcw43921]

Would the character be restored to life in his/her own body, or would it be like two to three weeks after the funeral, the character would just reappear before his friends and family?

 

"Hey guys.  Any calls while I was out?"

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

5 minutes ago, wcw43921 said:

Would the character be restored to life in his/her own body, or would it be like two to three weeks after the funeral, the character would just reappear before his friends and family?

 

"Hey guys.  Any calls while I was out?"

My thinking was reviving in his/her own body, but if you've got a clever way involving new bodies by all means go for it. 

[Duke Bushido]

Quick quesrion:

Is "being found so meritorious that the are returned to earth" a foregone conclusion, or will there be some active role playing / dicing off to determine this? 

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

8 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Quick quesrion:

Is "being found so meritorious that the are returned to earth" a foregone conclusion, or will there be some active role playing / dicing off to determine this? 

I was planning it to be a foregone conclusion, just for the sake of not dealing with morality arguments at the table.  Or worse yet, after-the-fact morality arguments at the table. 

[mallet]

I love Doc's idea of adding a Contacts roll to the resurrection, I would maybe switch that to a Bureaucracy Roll (for dealing with the red tape while in hell)  and the Contacts Roll being for family/friends in the know who would do offerings, prayers, etc... to also help speed up the return. 

[Duke Bushido]

Loving the rolls as randomizer on the "when!". However, that implies a need for carting out all the possibilities, time-wise, and tying them to the results:

 

Make it by ten (combined between beuticratics and contacts)?  You're only here two days.  Make it by four?   Six weeks.  That sort of thing. 

[dsatow]

Personally, I would do it like this:

 

20 Regeneration (20 BODY per Week), Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (65 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), 1 Recoverable Charge (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1/4)

 

5 Teleportation 3m, Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), MegaScale (1m = 1 km; +1) (8 Active Points); Linked (Regeneration; -1/2)

 

The regen is no conscious control because the character doesn't know if he's gotten enough credit to respawn or how much time it takes in bureaucracy.  The 1 recoverable charge with limited recovery is based on if they do enough good deads in this new life to earn them another respawn.  The teleport is enough to put them somewhere safe with about 1 mile of the body/death site.

[Scott Ruggels]

I gotta say. This is just cool.