Sunday, January 3, 2021

"We Belong Dead" - d66/d36 Consequences of Resurrection.

Ruddy heck - it's Lazarus!
William Blake.

Isn't resurrection meant to be a miracle? Otherwise, it's Hellraiser and Pet Sematary.

If you think raise dead and the like cheapens things, here's 36 prices to pay (and that's not including Death Itself wanting you back where you belong).

System agnostic, but clearly D&D adjacent.

Roll d6.

  1.  Roll d6:
    1. You are undead - immune to poison, sleep, charm and hold; you can be Turned/ Destroyed and/or Rebuked/ Commanded.
    2. Daylight discomforts you: -1 to Hit, Morale and detection (as appropriate).
    3. Affected by protection from, dispel and detect evil.
    4. Affected by protection from, dispel and detect magic.
    5. You are an evil were-creature, appropriate to your culture and beliefs.
    6. You have the minimum possible hit points for your level, class and Constitution.
  2. Roll d6:
    1. You do not heal naturally, nor respond to non-magical healing methods.
    2. You cannot be healed with magic.
    3. If you sleep in a camp or house with beings of 3hp or less, they must make a save vs. death or be at 0 hp when the morning comes.
    4. You do not need to eat human flesh to survive, you just really want to (save to resist - paralysis or Wisdom); your bite carries the traditional zombie venom and those bitten will rise from the dead as flesh-eating, infection-spreading zombies. You are not a zombie.
    5. You do not need to drink human blood to survive, you just really want to (save to resist - paralysis or Wisdom); your bite carries the traditional vampire taint and those bitten will rise from the grave as blood-sucking fiends. You are not a vampire.
    6. If you die again, you rise as an appropriately powerful undead.
  3. Roll d6:
    1. You are invisible, silent and non-corporeal in daylight; you cannot affect the material world in any way.
    2. Your touch spoils normal food and water (including iron rations), holy water and magic potions. I guess you'll have to find alternative sources of nourishment.
    3. You cast no reflection or shadow; you cannot be photographed (distorted blur) or recorded (barely discernible scratching sound).
    4. Uncontrollable fits of rage at the sound of laughter.
    5. If you suffer a crit, you lose 1 hp per round thereafter until death or magically healed.
    6. While you sleep, your body or your spirit goes abroad as an appropriately powerful undead. You have no control over or recollection of this.
  4. Roll d6:
    1. Your eyes hold the reflection of your glimpse of the ultimate hereafter, too big and terrible to explain or imagine. All mortals that meet your gaze must save or be afflicted with hopelessness, being consumed with sorrow and sympathy so they can do nothing but weep, contemplate, commiserate and mourn for 2d6 rounds. 
    2. Your Charisma is permanently reduced to 3.
    3. Normal animals fear you and instinctively shy away - you will have to get used to walking.
    4. Elves, Druids and Clerics recognise you for what you are.
    5. You are in constant pain: -4 to all rolls. Drugs, spells and mysterious alternative therapies may alleviate this temporarily.
    6. Your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution are all permanently reduced to 3.
  5. Roll d6:
    1. If you suffer a crit from an edged weapon, a random extremity is severed. 
    2. You are subject to summoning spells and the like, as if you are an undead or extra-planar monster.
    3. If struck by an Energy Draining attack, you are temporarily transformed into an appropriately powerful Energy Draining undead under the GM's control. Duration 2d6 rounds, or save each round to recover yourself. 
    4. Uncontrollable fits of laughter in the presence of suffering.
    5. You are troubled by shadows and whispers, swamped in a miasma of creeping grue - you will always be Surprised.
    6. Shadows, whispers and a sudden chill presage your coming - you can never win Surprise.
  6. Roll d6:
    1. If you suffer a crit from a piercing weapon, it pierces your heart and holds you helpless and immobile (as a vampire by a stake). It can still kill you if the damage rolled was enough; otherwise it's just a horrifying wound that defies explanation.
    2. No Hostile undead will attack you (your companions and innocent bystanders are not so protected), but they will follow/track you as long and as well as they are able.
    3. You are bound to the place you were raised from the dead - if you go further than 1 mile distant, you are reduced to the state of a basic zombie until returned or destroyed.
    4. Ghouls can smell you from way off and will come to investigate (always at night). They are not automatically Hostile.
    5. Demons can always detect/recognise you, whatever precautions you take.
    6. Whenever you harm a living thing, you immediately suffer the same damage/effect.

No comments:

Post a Comment