Death and Resurrection in Mennara

By Redwense, in Realms of Terrinoth

Hi, all.

I was going through the spells, and I found the Heal-Resurrection entry quite interesting in that it specifies a target "who has died during this encounter". And if the spell check fails, then "no characters may attempt to resurrect the target again". This leads me to believe that resurrection is time-sensitive, and death may be permanent after an encounter. There are some exceptions, but Genesys suggests making resurrection a rare and difficult endeavor.

I can't seem to find any guidance as to how death and resurrection are treated in the lands of Mennara. I know that in the Descent board games, player characters resurrect once they're brought to town. I'm assuming spell-casting services. How expensive do you think a resurrection spell/scroll costs? (Is 10,000 silver fair?) Is it so common that death doesn't carry as much weight to experienced adventurers in Mennara? (Much like in Dungeons & Dragons.) If so, why didn't they just resurrect Timorran Lokander after he was killed by Waiqar the Betrayer?

How do you GMs handle death and resurrection in your Terrinoth games?

Edited by Redwense

I don’t use Terrinoth as a setting, but in my own campaign there is no time limit for resurrection. As it is a very powerful spell, it requires a hefty tithe to the church or else some great service performed by those asking for the resurection. And since adventurers don’t often lug around huge chests full of gold coins...a little adventure to find the lost Chalice of Healing or the Waters of Life is suddenly in order.

You could add Setbacks for time, missing body parts, number of crits, etc. That might be a little too harsh since it's so Difficult already. I wouldn't bother with a financial cost, that's a limiter from D&D imo where successful casting of the spell is a given so the designers are imposing a cost for it. There's a pretty high chance of failure so I think that's all that's needed.

I cannot speak for Terrinoth, but Resurrection as it occurs in D&D never sat well for me. Why doesn't everyone get resurrected? So for my homebrewed games I added a layer of danger to getting resurrected.

In short: resurrecting someone opens the person's body to the realm of the dead/spirit world and the caster reaches out and beckons the body's soul to return. However, it's not always the original soul that returns. There are plenty of maligned spirits that are itching to cross the threshold. And when one of these evil spirits crosses over, it is not obvious.

Really in this system unless you're stacking up ranks of Lethal Blows and/or Vicious on your players it really should not happen all that often.

I rain all manner of debilitating critical injuries on my guys, but they have rarely been in danger of death. You have to be a good 6 or 7 rounds into combat with some consistent results on a PC to run into real danger of death.

I tend to run my opponents from a realistic approach, and once someone goes down from Wounds, to most observers they assume that person is dead. Coup de gras should only be if there is an intent for assassination, or the baddies are gonna eat the players. I assume most are just going to loot the bodies and leave them where they lie, which is more or less what PCs do. I rarely have them ask to go around and make sure everything is dead unless they are burning stuff they think regenerates.

I'm a fan of character resurrection because it keeps the PLAYER in the game. Especially when the character has some history. Resurrection in Terrinoth should be based on the silver distribution in YOUR game. Cost should be a stretch but NOT a bank breaker for a typical group. In other words the GM should make the cost flexible to the game wealth.

After a PC is resurrected in Genesys/Terrinoth the character should add 1 set back to EVERY action for 24 hours.

My 2 silver input.