How is death viewed from an IC perspective?

It ocurred to me the other day that one thing every player character (and arguably NPC's) seem to have in common regardless of race, creed, or religion is that everyone will be reincarnated after being slain. While I recognize that this is an obvious game mechanic to have in place to accomodate the type of PK centric MUD we have at FL, it begs the question posed in the subject: How is death viewed IC'ly by other player characters? Or for that matter, the slain player? This might seem a trivial question at first glance but in reality, it is one of the most important aspects of the human condition; the certainity of death.

In FL, it seems reincarnation is not only something that happens regularly, but it happens no matter what deity you worship. So I'm curious how does the community RP this game mechanic? Do you bother at all?

Side Question: Who/what is the One God? In a game with an established polytheistic religion (and by established...I mean living breathing Deities) how does the One God factor in?

It ocurred to me the other day that one thing every player character (and arguably NPC's) seem to have in common regardless of race' date=' creed, or religion is that everyone will be reincarnated after being slain.[/quote']

Good question. I never thought much about the mobs death RP.

For vampires and other unnamed I always went with I kill them they are dead. We leave the area so that their friends are not scared and come back.

PC death... is strange. When you arrive at FL you were already dead, and are suddenly reincarnated. What you did before you get to the creator is backstory.

PC resurrection is not a granted thing, but a gift from your god. One should never count on it.

With unnamed mobs, I do much what Mya does - treat them as being part of a huge population. With named mobs... I try to do it depending on the mob. Crunch or Mahn-Zaar I usually treat as being replaced by new beings claiming the title/position of the previous (I generally do this with eq/ranking areas, so it's not OOC for me to wait around to kill them again ), whereas others I treat much as I do PCs - I know that the gods often will reincarnate their favored pets, so I'm not surprised when it happens but I also don't act as if I necessarily expect it.

Knowing that people get reincarnated often is fine - having your character expect to be reincarnated and allowing themselves to die because of it, however, is not.

Thanks for the replies. I should emphasize that I'm mostly interested in the way player characters view their own death as well as the death of other characters. From what the two of you have alluded to...death (from a denizen of FL player character perspective) is viewed as semi-permanent so a reincarnated spectre of your fallen teammate won't make everyone else crap their pants or start screaming, "Kill it! Kill it with fire!"

I wrote about this in the latest RP Essay. Check there for more angles to approach this topic.

I wrote about this in the latest RP Essay. Check there for more angles to approach this topic.

Thank you Icor for both your reply here and your essay (which I read even prior to this thread). To be fair though you only briefly cover character death as highlighted here:

It is safest only to say that death in FL occurs on a much deeper level than what we normally think of (i.e., physical death). This is true for heroes as well, who are “given that second chance”, and the mighty hammer of materialism swings hard upon the consciousness of characters as a result. In no case yet, however, have I seen one player drive another player’s character to con-death without feeling respect and remorse. Not once. It always comes with something profound, like, “he’s finally gone... I don’t believe it”, or “he was a worthy foe”, or even “we learned much from one another”. This screams to me of the civil war and ancient nepotism arguments I brought up earlier in the essay -- that is, as in-character devices which interlock naturally with our player, human behaviors.

I was looking for more specifics concerning RP but I get your sentiment of: "Don't overanalyze game mechanics to the point of requiring hard rules in order to have fun in the sandbox of FL but rather, use them as props in how you see fit to enjoy your RP."

Thanks for the replies. I should emphasize that I'm mostly interested in the way player characters view their own death as well as the death of other characters. From what the two of you have alluded to...death (from a denizen of FL player character perspective) is viewed as semi-permanent so a reincarnated spectre of your fallen teammate won't make everyone else crap their pants or start screaming' date=' "Kill it! Kill it with fire!"[/quote']

Essentially correct. Your character has seen people come back from the dead plenty of times - why be surprised when it happens again? The reasoning can be whatever you want it to be... Maybe you worship Death and think their time to join the Cycle hasn't come, or maybe you worship Chaos and think Volg just enjoys the show they're giving him - or maybe you worship nothing but think that beings of a certain power simply don't die as easily as normal people.

Edit: or maybe you've never seen it happen and you DO freak out. Plenty of room to have fun with that RP too.

An interesting RP could be an Atheist who after each death starts afresh in terms of their knowledge of people. As you become a higher level, caballed, etc. you start each life with new skills that leave you confused as to why you know them. Sorta Bourne-ish in a way I suppose.

Pali is on to something there. Let me try to draw some threads together to help you understand better...

The phenomena of death in FL is not like it is in real life. When you watch a character die in FL, it is not immediately expected that they will be gone forever. This is how people think in the world. You have to try to put yourself in their shoes, and realize that as solid and grounded as our understanding of real world death is, their understanding is just as “given”.

In Armag MUD, the world is a desert and water is rare and precious. This means that characters don’t say “clear as rain”, or “calm before the storm”, or “tidal-wave of information” -- the staff there will jump off the top rope on you if you say stuff like that, and/or people will look at you like you’re crazy. I use this illustration to depict how the laws of a world's physics change people's operating parameters on a fundamental level.

What death in FL is, really, is physical destruction... the body being abused to a point where it cannot function anymore and ceases to operate. Undead creatures move and operate in spite of their bodies being unable to do this stuff, and revel in the state of death all the time. When a character goes away for good, you can hardly call it “death”, and in many cases, players say that their characters have “left Aabahran”, or that “the gods finally took them away”. “Death” and “permanent passing” not interchangeable in FL as they are in real life. This is something characters in the story of FL would grow up knowing about, and accept as normal -- that normality being that Gods reach down from above and change things as they see fit.

The phenomena of death in FL is not like it is in real life. When you watch a character die in FL, it is not immediately expected that they will be gone forever.

Understood, thanks.