What happens after you die?

Community Larp discussion
#1

As far as I got it, when you die you migrate to the crew. (Though I’ve heard of possibilities to play your own different character, but that was in Mordavia and long ago, so not sure if this actually ever happened)

Anyone have funny stories about what happened to you after your character died? What the others did to your body, or what the GMs :smiling_imp: did to your body? When I just started larping one of my greatest impressions was from Mordavia photo when someone mourns a dead body.

My first death was in Mordavia Reckonings, and a whole lot of people died there too, so while waiting for GMs decision we were lying on the grass chatting about how much fun we’ve just had being killed.
My second death was in Pirates in the first ten minutes of the game, and after getting Finishing Blown I heard Big Lucy yelling at a zombi “You killed the only Healer!” Since the players already started thinking “OMG, we are screwed!” Big Lucy told me I wasn’t killed but just badly wounded, so I healed myself.
My third death happened ten days ago at Ravenholme, and the players summoned a demon to bring me back to life. Instead the demon possessed the empty body and kept wondering around for the rest of the game, with everyone knowing it was a demon but not doing anything about it.

#2

Derek’s story of what happened to Strongbow after he died was awesome.

When Jaxx died at Mordavia, his brother Aelric went beserk. I wished I’d got up and buggered off to the crew earlier, I heard he slaughered a bunch of nearby cultists in a raging fury and am sorry I missed it.

I guess people who play crew more often would have funnier stories as they end up dead more often, NPCs having on average a shorter lifespan?

#3

It all depends on the game.

In Mordavia, you had the option of coming back as a PC or crewing for the rest of the game. I did both, depending on the situation. In fact, in one game my PC had been arrested and sentenced to death. So I came back as a new PC, who then became unplayable due to a string events involving a vampire lord, and ended up crewing for the rest of the game (except for the bit where Davrik, my initial character was executed).

Then there are games like Skirmish where death can be reversed quite easily. Not that it stops lots of permanent PC death, mind you.

My favourite death was Davrik’s hanging. As soon as he died, his Faerie friends started Dusting onlookers and commanding them to mourn for him. This included Tigger’s Captain of the Guard who, moments after putting Davrik to death, was sobbing and wailing at his death.

#4

Being shot in the head was a major character development for me once… over in the Nightmare Circle camp. I played my body in a few interesting ways and directed the hilarious outcome for his body and his killer (for added comic value they basically didn’t leave each other - cop car, questioning, jail… she got locked up with his decomposing body!)

I’ve also started a game dead, remained dead the whole time and still been the star of the show. We played Death of a Merchant at Battlecry once, and I was the merchant, dead. Sure, I got speak-with-dead’d, but that still counts as dead.

I know that games have given players an “afterlife” scene more than once in the past… but I’m not sure I’ve seen any first hand.

#5

It depends on the game you’re playing.

In terms of role playing being dead though, where there is a lot of death, it’s hard to really get people to take any notice of another dead body. However, if death (and especially player death) is very rare then I recommend just lying there for as long as you can.

The longer you lie there the better because it encourages people to actually do something with the body. I dislike the normal “evaporating bodies” that happen at games and at Wolfgang I tended to drag the bodies of everything I killed into a bonfire and burn them.

There was a player (Antony) I killed at Mordavia when I crewed as Sir Nigel of Hovan who was really good, he just lay there and another player found the dead body shortly afterwards. He role played the body for a bit (I think described his wounds to the other player and that was it).

I enjoyed the fairies weeping over Strongbow when he died in Mordavia, which wouldn’t have happened if I’d just gotten up and walked away with my hands on my head. Even though Strongbow was crew, it was kind of cool to have the closure when he died since I’d put a lot of effort into the character. It would have sucked to have died and then just have the players go through my pockets looking for lose change :slight_smile:

#6

only AFTER i die do the other characters decide they need to question me for crimes/strange going ons. mwahahaha

#7

My experience is to stay put when i die as an PC.
NPC’s should stay till looted & the players turn their backs or some such.
A game mechanic (Quest) is to dead & bury enemies, whereby players dispose of monster corpses. You search then sprinkle grass over said corpse stating “dead & buried” hereby signalling that you have dragged corpse off to a shrub or cliff or otherwise disposed of it.
Unless you have a necromancer…
Still if you’re a dead PC & monsters find you first or you are abandoned, its time to go find a GM.

#8

That was indeed very memorable. And so well executed. (Ahem.) My character even wrote a song for the occasion, as I recall.

My first character death was in the very last Mordavia game, Endgame. Pretty good considering I’d been playing Mordavia since the third game, The Land’s Need. I lay on the field of battle with other corpses and people came and mourned over my character’s dead body. Then eventually dragged me off into the bushes for the wolves to gnaw on.

Staying put when you die as a PC is a good thing. If you’re a lootable NPC best to stay for a while too. If you’re a respawning NPC, lie dead a few seconds then get out of there hands on head.

#9

As someone that got to play an NPC a fair bit I got alot of experiance dying before I PC’d so here is my advice on Dying and this advice goes equaly well for PCs.

  1. Enviroment

This is the same as with the PCs, You dont want to be in the middle of the path where you can be tripped over or stepped on if combat is raging, twisted ankles and boot prints to your nicey-nice areas are not pleasent…try to roll into a ditch on the side of the road when you die…if your in an open area then you can lay there.

  1. Wave effect

This doesn’t count for PC’s, And only realy counts for NPC’s at certain times when the GM’s say so, but if your an NPC mook that comes in waves get out and regroup as quickly as possible so you can get back in there quickly. Wave effect are the only way to make 15 players feel out numbered by 5 crew…sad but true, you’ll be STUFFED afterwars and the PC’s will be fresh as daisies, but keep them a-coming.

  1. Revivablity

If you can be revived (through some mechanic like zombies) it realy is best to lie there untill you cant be revived, then sneak off…this is of course conditional on the other factors

  1. Character Importance

Now this is the big one for NPC’s and PC’s alike. If your a mook NPC (Zombie or orc or random gypsy/bandit) when your die “No one is going to realy care what happens with your body” so not long after you die if you HAVE to be somewhere you can try to slip out unnoticed…no-one will mind. But if you get picked to play something special (Demon, Bandit King, Son of the dark one, banner bearer, a particular character that people have been interacting with thats suddenly gone evil) and you are killed I recomend strongly staying dead and as weird as it sounds allowing the PC’s to have their way with the corpse (In a non-dodgy way) you have stoped be a feature NPC for now and become a “meat based prop”. PC’s often demand “Justice”, “Vengence” or “Closure” after particularly costly battles or on particular enemies…They’ll want to stab you, cut of your head, loot you for your costume feature items (helmets masks etc) take you back to the inn as a trophey, stuff and mount your corpse and use it like a puppet…PC’s are weird like that, your body can still be the focus of a scene after your dead. A similar thing goes with non-enemy NPC’s and PC’s…if you die your character death has more impact if you let the others see your body. If after a battle you look around and dont see an ally or someone your close to or holds importance to you they could have just gone off to get healed or armour fixed…but if you look around and see your lord/noble/sibling/prince/lover trust up on someones spear laying across a pile of NPC bodies thats gonna have alot more impact particularly as people suddenly relise that important characters have been taken out…then allow the greiving…Your dead, Your character is not coming back people should be sad damn it! Lying there lets people know your dead and allows it to sink in your not coming back. Puts that finalness in your character…allows your story arc to wrap up. Weirdly it can seem your more important to other character now your dead than when you were striding the feild of battle. Infact you should be happy of this…heck people should sing your praises, that was a cool character after all…your playing HEROS…and heros die heroicly and are mourned heroicly and realy good roleplaying comes from this…and it gives your characters and others “closure”…thats right unlike an Feature Enemy that dies and becomes a meat prop…you are now a MUSE! Reveal in it…and hey at very least you get a little break to be off your feet and see peoples reaction to your death (Other wise you miss stuff while resting up in the crew room prepping to go back out)

OOOH and PC’s write a Will and have it on you at the start of the game if it seems reasonable and hand it off to someone of importance, it’s always good to get the last word :stuck_out_tongue: In Medieval games I’d recomend giving it to a noble or prince to hold onto.

#10

Or at the very least, someone who is not likely to die at the same time as you. :laughing:

#11

OMG, that’s such a cool idea! Has anyone ever done it? And what happened afterwards?
From now on I’ll be coming to every larp with my Will ready :smiling_imp:

#12

Cameron and I, for Mordavia: Endgame, were both playing nobles - he was my second in command of Oak Hollow. We both came to the game armed with wills. He gave me his will, and I gave him my will, figuring that it wasn’t likely we’d both get killed off together.

Hoo boy were we wrong. After we were incapacitated by some cultists, Boris the Blacksmith, secretly working for the Dark One, slit our throats. Our party members came rushing over and in a routine of supreme comedy proceeded to wail and lament over my character, the fallen Primus, and after about five minutes go “Hey, where’s Junius? We need to tell him!” and turned around only to find Cameron’s character Junius lying dead not half a meter behind them.

They managed to locate both our wills after searching both of us and our tents (tip: if you have a will, make sure lots of people know about it so they’ll know to find it if you die!) they carried us into a room and proceeded to give us a lovely sending off. Cameron and I got to take a forty minute lie-down after a full night and day of adventuring while everyone else got to read our wills, mourn and decide what happened next. It was such a good roleplay opportunity for the rest of the group that I didn’t even regret that character dying.

Possibly the most amusing thing about my will (I’ll let Cameron speak about his own will) was that both the people I named as my successors were either dead or missing. Oops. But it also brought out some character secrets and gave the survivors something to interact with in our deaths.

After they were done with reading the wills and mourning us, they laid us to rest in our tents until the funeral in the morning, and Cameron and I headed off to join the crew and come back as monsters :smiling_imp:

#13

That’s something I noticed, particularly at the last Ravenholme game: no funerals. :open_mouth:
I thought it was kinda weird, especially since it was family members (not just some other guest of the manor you neither know nor care about).
Are Capulet and Montague that depraved that they won’t even mourn their dead???

#14

Well, Daniel was very much mourned by his mother, and lady Capulet was kinda avenged (?) by Victor, and the opposition of two vampires struggling each other, angry Victor agains persuading Damiano, was very cool. Anna took a picture of it, it’s great. I also tried to make some mess around Howard, but Rhiannon was very quickly summoned to the crew, so not much opportunities was there.

#15

I actualy made 2 copies of my will One went to Anna’s character and I beleive the other either went to adams elf noble or to the prince of mordavia I cant remember which.

My will left every thing to anna’s character to be used for the benifit of our people if i had no heir (So saddly both of our wills became kinda redundent besides being fairwell messages)…and then prattled on about the nobility of the common people who were the real heros as soldiers are expected to wade into combat but the common folk of mordavia had shown as much courage in this dark time taking up arms to join the soldiers, and not to loose hope etc… And each page had the Oak Hollow seal on the top of it… It was thrown together in the few days before the game when I realised that I was playing a combat character but sucked at fighting :slight_smile:

I also made pattents of nobility for both our characters…I find having the paperwork for a character realy fleashes it out. Maps, letters home and to soldiers families, cargo manifests, contracts, guild membership papers…I’d planned to have all those things for junius just cluttering up a table somewhere…it helps clutter up a character more, and also the rifling through papers which actualy have stuff on them to flash a pattent, ownership papers or land deed lends alot more weight to a claim of nobility or ownership than just saying it, player are more likely to beleive in your character to make it REAL.

#16

hahahaha, yup.

Actually, I think the sheer momentum of Ravenholme was the issue with that. A bit like in war (ok, no experience here, but from reading and hearing) where the mourning has to wait until survival is assured. We, for the most part, were far more worried about everything still happening to the living to worry about the folks gone. Plus, half of them were still walking around, so was a bit difficult to mourn them (demon-Daniel, vampire-Damiano, vampire-Victor, Donna-Maria’s shade). stay DEAD dammit and we’ll mourn and have funerals, ok? lol

I do remember feeling quite shocked at Daniel’s original death. He died saving me from witch hunters and I couldn’t quite understand that he was really dead, which is pretty much what happens.

#17

haha a few months late on the reply and not that anyone on here knows me but ill chime in anyways :astonished:

So I was wondering through the woods at my local larp and all of a sudden poison stingers just start flying out of no where and this evil roar/laugh comes from this tree like 50 ft from me. Well I had the bright idea to investigate and there to my dismay was a fully grown manticore. I could do nothing but run because my character was an artisan without a weapon or any useful alchemy on him. Before I could get away I took a substantial amount of damage. Finally I manage to make the beast believe that he had subdued me and I slipped away. On the run back to town from the encounter I met a man who was trying to sell his pet squirrel. (It was my mistake that earlier that weekend I told him that I would not buy his stupid animal and that he should take his rabies infested pet out of the tavern.) So after barely surviving the encounter with a manticore this man that I ran into on the path back unhooked his squirrel from the leash and used magic to make it attack me before I could say anything to either of them. After the squirrel bit me to the death they left me to bleed out making that my first death experience.