Death Mechanics: Ghosts and such

And two come along at once!

That will make sense if you read my last post.

I'm ill.  Brain still vague and meandering.

On the subject of death mechanics: I like the idea of ghosts.  I like the idea of being a ghost.  I have a whole game idea based on being a poltergeist in fact, but that is for another post.

For my intended co-op dRPG, what I'd like to do is have a whole sub-game devoted to the Afterlife.  If you do die - and as I discussed in my previous post, Staying Alive, it is something I hope to encourage players to avoid by rewarding them for staying alive for as long as possible - but if you do die, I'd like to handle that with an entire sub-game that is extricably entwined with the world of the living.  In the Afterlife you have to perform certain quests/activities in order to be restored to your body - if applicable.  Or another vessel which you can warp over time into your former shape if so desired.

So you die, you perform certain actions and you are resurrected again in one form or another.  Another meter is managed here.  Maybe this one is called Favour of the Gods or somesuch, and it is linked to or derived from the Heroism meter from Staying Alive, but basically, in order again to encourage people to stay alive, the longer you stay alive - the quicker you can be restored to life should you die.  If you had a full Heroics meter before you died, then maybe you can get an almost instant 'it was not your time' restoration?  The important bit here is what happens if you don't/can't.

If immediate or near-immediate restoration is not possible then the player has two choices: they can either quest in the Afterlife building up their Favour of the Gods(?) until they can be restored to the land of the living.  Or they can remain as a ghost and assist the co-op party in a spectral fashion.  This aspect should be built into the game in such a way that certain situations might actually benefit from a party which has a spectral member.  A spectral player-character should have a severely limited capacity to interact with the world of the living - maybe an 'ectoplasm' meter which builds up over time allows them to occassionally pull levers or switches.  A ghostly PC should also have some spectral skills.  They should be able to make haunting noises - scare off the more readily scared - periodically appear as an apparition, distract guards, do other useful things that the party might benefit from. 

Assisting the heroic is this fashion increases the ghost's Favour of the Gods which eventually results in them currying enough Favour to be restored to the land of the living - to either their own dead body - if applicable - or into the shape of waiting vessel.

And here I come to my next post:  Gods as Men.