Death Experiences
Player characters die. A lot. Luckily, they often have ways to come back to life, which can sometimes result in a sort of revolving door of death, where characters are returned to life every other week. In order to keep death special and mystical, the GM might consider giving players that die and return a taste of what they experienced on the other side. This might take the form of a quick recap from the GM describing the experience, or it might be fully roleplayed. In fact, in some cases, it might even take the form of a solo adventure, with the PC having to make his or her way through their “near death experience” in order to return to life—perhaps allowing the PC to return to life for less than the normal expenditure, or without the normal negative levels, or, alternatively, even causing resurrection attempts to fail unless the solo adventure is successful.
The following list includes ten different experiences a character that died might recall upon being returned to life. Of course, whether the vague recollections the character brings back were a true recollection of what happened to his or her spirit, or if they’re merely the fever dreams of someone who died and came back, is impossible to say for certain.
1. Meet a departed enemy. The PC finds himself in some afterlife scenario, possibly including one of the other entries, but he encounters the spirit of a deceased foe or enemy of some significance to them. This may be a character that they slew personally, or one that died of other means. In some cases, the deceased rival lashes out at the PC, blaming them and taking the opportunity to torment them. In other cases, death has dulled the enemy’s hatred of the PC, and his rival may even provide information or help him find inner strength that helps him return to life.
2. Tunnel of light. The PC finds herself in a void of darkness, broken only by a single light far off in the distance. She may find herself drawn towards the light, or fleeing to escape it. As she makes her way through the darkness, she may encounter a variety of visions, spirits, or creatures, possibly including other entries on this list. Only if she can reach her destination can her spirit find its way back.
3. Vision of peril. The PC experiences a horrible vision in which he watches, helplessly, as terrible and tragic events unfold, beginning with the immediate consequences of his death, and spiraling outward as his allies, loved ones, and all he holds dear fall to one dark fate after another. His absence may or may not be the direct cause of all this, and once he returns to life his memories of events become veiled and indistinct, but he retains certain flashes of insight into crucial moments, and may gain the resolve to try to stop this future from coming to pass.
4. Reliving your life. The PC watches as her entire life passes before her eyes, from her tender childhood all the way to her most recent demise. She may discover that some events from her past seem to play out a bit differently than she remembered, and from her current perspective may find that she feels differently about which events were most important than she used to. Upon returning to life, she may have a different outlook on life as a result, or perhaps even have retrained some skills, feats, or class features.
5. Meet a departed loved one. Similar to meeting a departed enemy, the PC finds himself in some version of the afterlife, which may or may not resemble some of the other entries on this list, and is confronted with a friend, family member, or other loved one who has died. Depending on the person and their relationship, they might provide gentle words of encouragement, berate the PC for not trying harder in life, or pass on an important message from beyond the grave, which the PC might remember upon returning to life.
6. Trapped in limbo. The PC finds herself wandering a relatively small place, similar to a dreamscape, from which she cannot escape. She might encounter other souls here, who may or may not be aware that they are dead. The place may be an incredibly familiar one from her life, or it may be exceptionally plain and nondescript, or weird and alien, but whatever the case, it is both quiet and oppressive, and she quickly begins to feel restless as she watches some of these souls slowly leave, one at a time, as they pass on to their fates, and sees new souls arrive.
7. Divine judgment. The PC finds himself facing an agent of the divine, who expects him to account for each of his deeds, the good and the bad, throughout his life. This judge may be the PC’s actual deity, taking a direct interest in things, but most likely the judgment is performed by a lesser servant of the deity, instead, or some impartial figure not beholden to the PC’s deity of choice at all. Various moral and ethical choices the PC made are called up and replayed, and the PC is forced to account for each one in turn, to determine the quality of his soul and direct it to its final resting place. Before the judgment is complete, the character is returned to life.
8. Out of body experience. The PC’s spirit leaves her body, but rather than passing on to some version of the afterlife, it remains on the Material Plane. She is able to watch as events unfold after her death, but is incredibly limited in her ability to interact with the world around her, and is completely imperceptible to all but those with special magic that allows them to see and communicate with spirits. At the GM’s discretion, the PC may be able to manifest in a manner similar to a haunt, allowing extremely limited communication. In either case, the PC’s spirit has limited mobility, forced to remain near people, places, and things that were important to her in life, and eventually must either move on or be returned to life.
9. Meet a personification of death. The PC encounters a manifestation of the grim reaper. This may be in an out of body experience, or in some interpretation of the afterlife (including a variety of results from this list). The PC may get a chance to talk with death, though most questions are answered with little more than a slow shake of the head, indicating a refusal to answer the question. The PC might also be allowed a game against death to be returned to his body.
10. True afterlife. If the time it takes to return the PC to life is particularly long, or if the PC’s spirit is particularly quick to find its destination in the afterlife, she may find herself in her proper afterlife before she is returned to life. Depending on the character’s religious beliefs and alignment, and the nature of the setting, this could vary wildly, from idyllic heavenly peace to horrible infernal torture.