Death of Character

[Sunchaser]

Hello, I am Sunchaser, I am the main developer and a partner of blackswordrpg.com.

I am (trying) to design a new game on my own, implementing it with the CakePHP framework.

I would like in this new game, that it would not be so easy for a character that dies, to resuscitate himself,
and in general make so the death is a event really to avoid.

The game i am thinking about will be difficult to play, if this maybe goes against money earning i don't mind,
I am not interested atm, i would like to attract player that likes a challenge.

I am thinking about these options:

• The player can be revived by a player that has a certain skill, at a cost (decided by the healer)
• The player can ask to be healed by a NPC, but a very high cost
• The player is revived automatically but he looses xp or hp

While dead, of course, the player will not be able to do nothing but communicate, browse forum etc.

I would like to know if you have other suggestions, or what are your experiences on this matter.

Thanks

[Chris]

The player never resurects, once he is dead, he stays dead. This would add greatly to the mood and strategic choices awarness, check "roguelike" genre, these are based on this premise.

This would require frequent resets and short games (up to one week to beat the game I think). Also, you will lose most potencial players (but there will be a few hardcore who will stick to it for sure). Also a lot of balancing required.

[Sunchaser]

Nice, but i was thinking of something less drastic and, as i have zero experience in balancing,
I would like to avoid too complex game mechanics.

Making money or advancing level/skill will be very hard, and a death will
influence negatively your character because of the money drain or
experience/skill drain, but i would not go that far.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[raestlyn]

What kind of game you are making? "Classic" rpg?

I actually like the "roguelike" approach, if you let players to make more than one character. Say up to 3 characters per player so if one dies the player can continue with another one.

Or if that doesn't fit the theme of the game just take 10% of their Exp, HP and Gold for healing. :)That should teach them not to die right away.  Of course that won't work if the game has skills you will get at certain level, though.

[Sunchaser]

Yes, I would like to do a classic rpg, but as I played a lot of lpmuds, i will be influenced heavily by that gameplay,
so maybe something hybrid will come out   

Excuse my ignorance, what's exactly the roguelike approach? BTW, the game is already structured for having more than one char,
even if now the number is limited to one.

I didn't yet fully analysed the skills, but probably they will all available at level 1, and you can use experience to advance level or to advance the skill you chose.

I have to find a way to decrease the skill level, or the char level if the char dies. Another possibility is to
decrease nothing, but the player will have stats reduced by a certain % for some time.

[raestlyn]

roguelike games all have permadeath on, even on online tournament versions. its one of the charateristic of them. Another one is have insane amount of character building possibilities. Because of that the replay value is very high, because there is always that one race/class combination that looks fun

[luvva]

How about the losing your most valuable item approach?

[jannesiera]

Or that you have to stay in hospital for a very long while... ?