Characters die; it’s a hard fact. They may have been nurtured through years of growth, and numerous heroic exploits, but like all mortal beings, they will die. The death of a long-played character can create a profound sense of loss in a player and the campaign itself, so it is occasionally fun to bring a favoured character back into the story. As the GM, you can allow players to re-visit these dead personalities, while enhancing the story you wish to tell and maintaining the integrity of your campaign.
BACK FROM THE DEAD?
When looking to bring a character back for one last swansong, the key to making it a success is to plan ahead. You should always ensure you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve in terms of the story you want to tell, how the character in question will develop and how the character will be brought back from the dead to achieve these goals.
Depending on how you choose to bring the dead character back into the campaign and what you hope to achieve, you may have to delve into the metaphysical nature of your setting. You might find yourself having to answer questions like: What happens when someone dies? Do people have souls? A few games have the metaphysics already in place as part of their milieu, an example would be the World of Darkness games (largely via Wraith and Werewolf) but most others do not, so you would need to consider these carefully. As with most facets of a role-playing campaign, only reveal enough to maintain the suspension of disbelief and the continuity of the story, you never know what you might want to change later.
RETURNING THE DEAD
You have many methods available to you for bringing characters back from the dead; each option has its own unique flavour. A number of them are more appropriate to certain genres than others, such as storing memories in microchips being unique to science fiction and contemporary settings. Each option is better for certain types of story and matching the two will enhance the experience.
EPHERMERAL IMAGES
A commonly used narrative tool is to bring the personalities of the dead back into the story via dreams, visions or hallucinations. As an example, in the X-Files, both Mulder and Scully have interacted with the personalities of dead people they cared about. This method leaves little long-term effect on your campaign, and little need to ponder the nature of death in your milieu.
The player of the dead character role-plays his dead personae during the scene(s). The nature of the scene will have to be discussed with the player beforehand, along with the information he is to impart, though how he does it should be left for him to develop. The scene should always have a purpose; such as a hallucination to persuade the hallucinating character his life is worth living (if on the verge of death) or a surreal dream to help solve a complicated mystery.
Rather than providing a solution to a problem (as is common), you should always keep in mind the possibilities of using the scene to further complicate the story. As an example, a creature masquerading as the dead character could have invaded the characters dream. You could inform the player of the dead character of your agenda and then let him run with it, using his knowledge of his alter ego to best twist the dreamer towards fulfilling the enemys goals. This can be a choice role for a player, as he will want to work towards your goals without making his friends suspicious. However, the player of the dead character will now know some of your plot, and since some players are more dedicated to each other than the story, you risk having your plans revealed down the pub. It is possible to avoid telling the player of the dead character that he is actually playing an entity masquerading as his character - this ensures a truthful rendition of his character, as well as keeping your secret. The other players are also more likely to accept any information given to them as benign as the dead character will be honestly presenting the information as aid.
MEMORIES PAST
One way to conduct a flashback in a role-playing game is to have the players act out the flashback as the main protagonists. This is especially useful if the conclusion of the flashback is not set, or can be dramatically constructed so the characters cannot change the ending. If a flashback includes the dead character then that player gets to add a bit more meat to his creation even while the characters body is rotting in the grave.
The beauty of the flashback is that it can take place at any time during the dead characters life - though parts of the characters history that have already been well documented in play should always be avoided. A good choice would be for events in the characters pre-adventuring background to be relevant to the current story. In this way, the player gets to role-play events and meet characters that had previously only existed on paper. In most backgrounds, large sections of the characters life are covered with broad strokes that lack detail, so plenty of space should exist for original events to occur.
The advantage for the player is he gets to play his character like he was before he started adventuring, possibly as a younger man, or during a pivotal moment in is life.
RESTLESS SPIRITS
The most obvious way of bringing a dead character back into the game is to have him return as a ghost. This has been done in innumerable books, films and plays. A few good examples using various styles are Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Ghost, Always and Truly, Madly, Deeply. When a character returns as a ghost you need to consider two things: how the ghost character is integrated into the plot and how ghosts work in your campaign.
It is important that when a character returns as a ghost it should be for a specific story, otherwise the full potential of the idea cannot be explored. The story should also concentrate on the ghost in some way, in order to explore the concept of being a ghost amongst the living. This theme may be a familiar one, but a character coming back as a ghost because of unfinished business works, and who else would the ghost call on but his trusty player character friends.
It is important to fully design the abilities of the ghost, especially with regards to how he interacts with the real world. It is almost certain that he will be insubstantial, thus allowing him the benefit of not having to breathe, and being able to walk through walls. You need to decide if the character is visible? Can he choose to be visible or invisible? Is his appearance set or can he change it at will? Then comes the issue of physical interaction with the mortal world. Will the ghost be able to lift things, and touch people? If so, how can this be reconciled with his insubstantial nature? Always remember that the best ghost stories are tragic, and they are tragic because the ghost lives in our world but is always separated from it, so do not make things too easy. Wraith, by White Wolf, is an excellent game based on the concept of playing ghosts and makes for an interesting read.
THE RIVER OF DEATH
A number of possibilities exist for bringing the mortal characters in to the world of the dead character. This option has the advantage of allowing you to construct a story or campaign quite different in tone and execution, but it does involve some serious thought into the metaphysical nature of the afterlife if your chosen system does not come readily equipped with the detail.
The players could discover that a dead companions soul has been diverted from its true path via a denizen of the netherworld and placed in a personal hell, forced into an eternity of slavery or torture (mental or physical). A whole campaign could be based around this plot. The living characters could receive cryptic dreams about the dead character (see Ephemeral Images above), followed by them searching for ancient texts and civilisations in order to enter the netherworld so they can free the dead characters soul, who can then join the group and defeat the denizen that enslaved him. Once free, a poignant goodbye is in order as the characters soul moves on to its rightful destination.
SPARE PARTS
Cloning is always imagined as a technical solution to death, but it can easily be a magical one as well. The result of cloning is a copy of the original. It is a staple of fiction that clones are not as good as the original, even though an ideal clone would be. The first hurdle to overcome is the memories of the clone; does the cloning procedure transfer the characters memory? If not, it can be assumed that the new character will suffer from memory problems, he may have blank spots, or areas of memory that are false. He may also not be physically stable, or as strong as he was? Will he eventually die due to instability in his molecular bonds? If he is decaying, this could act as a limit on how long the character has in the mortal world. The character may also have been the subject of further experimentation during the cloning process - who is to say the entire DNA involved is his own?
As detailed under Ephemeral Images above, the clone could be used to implement some multi-layered plotting. A willing player could be a plant for a whole story arc, with the clone actually having memories beyond those that he had in life. He could even be someone else (an enemy for instance), but with the dead characters memories and body. A careful appraisal of the players ability to keep a secret and role-play honestly would have to be undertaken. If you think the player can pull it off, then go for it.
POSSESSING THE ANIMATE AND INANIMATE
Possession of the animate usually involves stealing the body of a living being, or possibly that of a recently dead person - a form of last minute soul swapping. The use of possession in a game gives rise to a lot of role-playing opportunities. The character may possess a body radically different to his own - a heroic fighter could return in the body of a weakling but still be tasked with foiling the plans of his old enemies. A woman could possess a man or a vice-versa, though this option should only be done with a mature group unless played for the humour value. As well as the opportunities arising from such a mismatch, the ethics of possessing a living, breathing person could be explored, does the need outweigh the wrong? Will the essence of the person the character has possessed fight back? A myriad of opportunities present themselves. If you wish to see such ideas explored in an epic space opera you should check out The Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. The plot of this science fiction trilogy deals with the return of the dead via possession of the living.
The potential also exists for a returning soul to possess an inanimate object. A few examples being Christine, in which a car is possessed and Childs Play where a doll is the chosen receptacle for a voodoo serial killer to escape his enemies. In a fantasy campaign, the dead character may find himself possessing an artificial construct such as a Golem.
ETCHED IN SILICON
In the near future it may be possible to store entire memories on microchips. If we assume that this procedure, whatever it may be, also transfers an individuals sense of self then the character effectively becomes etched in silicon and is alive for eternity. In the 2000 A.D comic strip Rogue Trooper dead soldiers were regularly etched in silicon and placed on living soldiers weapons and other pieces of equipment. This not only made the weapon aware and intelligent, but the living soldier could converse with the silicon chip as well. As a result, who is to say characters in the future could not continue as a device that allows them to see, hear and speak via electronic means? Depending on your campaign world, the characters memories could be placed in an android, the technological version of transferring his soul into a magical golem. A living character could also have the dead character implanted in their brain so that the dead character could see and hear through their organs, and the characters could then converse as we do now with our own conscience. If the dead characters consciousness has dominance, this is a form of electronic possession. In a world in which this is relatively easy to do, who is to say bodies will not be harvested for these chipped people, so they can gain some level of immortality.
A sinister conspiracy plot if I ever heard one.
MIND, BODY AND SOUL
The most complete option is to bring the character back fully, such as in the The Crow. This does not mean the character gets to continue on as he did before he died. A limiting factor should be present, the usual idea being that the character has returned to fulfil some purpose that pretty much consumes their whole being. In The Crow, it was revenge for his and his wifes brutal murder. As with bringing the character back as a ghost, you must ensure the mechanics are in place to support the story. Can the character die? Is he immune to damage? If not, what can damage him? Does he possess any special powers? If the story is not one on one, then it would not be wise to make the character too powerful. He should have to rely on the living characters to some degree to aid interaction, character development and the smooth running of the story. When players are running short, keep in mind that returning from death to commit yourself to a task (usually related to love, revenge or both) is an excellent idea for a one on one series of role-playing sessions.
THE MORTAL COIL
The joy of playing characters in a role-playing game is that they are mortal and they can die. A campaign is damaged when death is viewed as trivial and something that need not be feared. As a result, always use these methods sparingly, and only to add drama to a story. They should be tools and ideas to add to your storytelling toolkit, not just neat ways to work around the finality of death. If used in this way they can provide memorable moments in any campaign.
Copyright of Ian O’Rourke
