At 08:54 PM 1/11/97 -0800, Matthew M. Colville(mcolville@earthlink.net)wrote:
>
> My stuff is in my car, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought if
>you, the player, fail your Ressurection Survival roll, you're dead forever,
>no more attempts possible.
>

Your right a failed RS roll prevents a character from being brought back to
life, with standard raise dead type spells, but the power of a Wish can
overturn even this if the DM allows. Also with a Wish, time is no factor
when bringing someone back.

>
> Additionally, I havn't found anywhere in the Birthright rules that
>forbids ressurection.
>

Again your right, nowhere does it say this. As I said though, comments made
in the BR Rulebook particularly the parts about BT, just sound like when a
Scion dies he is gone. But I must stress this is just the way it sounds to
me. I understand that not everyone would get the same impression. Much of my
opinion is colored from reading the BR novels, and my Players feelings. They
seem to have gotten the same idea from them as well. That is one of the
reasons I put forth this idea to start with, to see if anyone else had
gotten the same thought.

>
> And lastly, any gripe you have with PCs coming back from the dead
>is a gripe with AD&D, not Birthright. I, personally, don't like the idea
>of a PC I've spent months, or years, developing dying forever for no good
>reason other than I didn't roll high enough on a saving throw.
> There *is* permanent death; it's when you fail your Ressurection
>roll. I've played in several successful AD&D games and in one I was lucky
>enough to have a GM and a group of players who got together every thursday
>night for 3 years. I worked, and by that I mean WORKED, a character of
>mine up from 0 level to 14th, and by that time he had died many, many
>times. Yet I still felt pretty damn heroic. Not being able to come back
>would have simply meant that I would never have made it past 7th level (the
>point at which I first died.) I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to
>see a character develop in personality, power, and history the way I did,
>and the experience would have been lessened as a result of it.
>

Really this is not a gripe, its an opinion. I just think that each campaign
setting needs to have certain elements looked at in the light of the style
of the setting. In my Greyhawk campaign raise dead magic is not that
uncommon, and can be had with enough gold, or elbow grease. But in BR I just
don't think it fits the style, thats all. Really the RS roll is not a great
thing to use as the end-all-be-all of coming back from the dead. Even an
average Con. will have a fairly high chance of making it, and as I said
before, a Wish can overturn even that restriction. That is not really the
point though. I understand that it can really stink to lose a character just
as you feel he is getting somewhere, but I can't help wondering how much
more heroic the survivors(the other Party members) would have felt if they
knew they had escaped a real chance at oblivion, not just a possible set
back. I know each event was probably unique, and I'm not in any position to
comment on your game, so please don't take offense at my previous statement.
It was a generality, just to give some thought. Many games, and settings,
seem to require an abundance of raise dead magics. In fact I do understand
the need, in some level, to allow characters to return from the dead, as a
game mechanic in all AD&D settings. Its just I question how available it
should be in BR, not in AD&D in general. Each setting needs to have this
subject handled appropriatly, and in the end its still up to the DM. All
that matters is everyone has fun while playing, and if a Player will truley
have their experience ruined with the death of a favorite character, then
maybe raise dead magics should be more available in that game. No matter
what its your game, so you can do as you see fit.

Undertaker, richt@metrolink.net
RL Homepage: http://www.metrolink.net/~veleda/sepulcher.html