Things to do in D&D After You're Dead Part I - The Afterlife

        Death in OSR inspired games happens. A lot. To the point where it's one of the things that people most associate with our little section of table-top gaming. That's fine of course, death isn't a fail state, it's merely an indication that the solution you just tried as a player was likely flawed; trusting your fate to the dice is always a fool's errand when there's few safety nets to catch you. Some systems allow for raising the dead, but many OSR systems sidestep the issue entirely by simply not including those spells and encouraging players to roll up a new character. I have my own solution in the Liminal for those who can't let go of a beloved character.

          But what happens if everybody dies? This isn't outside the realm of possibility, especially if the party happens to be cocky or tries to throw good effort after bad. While the initial urge would be to have everyone make new characters and starting over with some convenient excuse, there's the possibility of moving the game into the afterlife instead. This isn't entirely without precedent, large sections of Planescape take place in any number of afterlives. Ravenloft has also been suggested as a destination for slain parties. In the assumed afterlife of AD&D and 3.X, characters who die and are not resurrected become what are known as Petitioners and generally forget the details of their former lives. In a sort of modification of this, I propose the idea that the character's former mental stats act as a major influence on how their afterlife goes. So we're going to break down my ideas for what aspect of their hereafter each stat affects.

          Before we start going into the mental stats, there's another question that we have to answer - how do you make the afterlife risky? Again, death means that the player was too prone to taking risks or that they simply were unlucky. This concept loses a bit of bite when you assume that souls are unable to be destroyed. So let's just assume that they aren't. For our purposes, souls are more like extra lives. Each soul has a number of reincarnations in the afterlife before it goes Elsewhere. We'll call these extra lives Essence. A character has Essence 7 when they appear in whatever afterlife they're destined for. Individual referees may wish to modify the amount of starting Essence to fit the tone of their games.

          Intelligence is a general measure of a character's learning, memory and reasoning ability. As such it governs how much (in general terms) a character retains of their memories from their living days.

Intelligence Bonus	Effect
+1	Retain up to 1 skill point, or improve a save by 1.
+2	Retain up to 2 skill points, improve 2 saves by 1, or a combination of both, retain knowledge of a single 1st level spell.
+3	Retain up to 3 skill points, improve up to 3 saves by 1, or some combination of these equal to 3, or retain knowledge of two 1st level spells, or one 2nd level spell.
+4	Retain up to 4 skill points, improve up to 4 saves by 1, or some combination of these equal to 4, or retain knowledge of three 1st level spells or two 2nd level spells, or retain the knowledge of a Feat.

         Wisdom is the strength of the character's connection with the divine, their intuition and the overall awareness that the character has of the world around them. In the afterlife, this translates into both additional Essence as well as an increased chance to both manifest or possess beings on their former prime material plane. Your Wisdom bonus is also the number of times per day where you can attempt a manifestation or possession. Possession takes the form of a save on the target's part versus Magic, modified by the table below.

Wisdom Bonus	Effect
+1	+1 to Essence, 50% chance to Manifest, Possession save is at a +2 bonus for target.
+2	+2 to Essence, 60% chance to Manifest, Possession save is at a +1 bonus for target.
+3	+3 to Essence, 70% chance to Manifest, Possession save is not modified for target.
+4	+4 to Essence, 80% chance to Manifest, Possession save is at a -1 penalty for target.

          Charisma is a measure of a character's magnetism, personal confidence and force of personality. A charismatic character isn't necessarily the nicest or most fun to be around, but those with high Charisma scores are likely people who can make a strong and lasting impression - for good or ill - on others. While it still allows them to navigate their afterlife's social scene, for our purposes Charisma is important because it governs how often they receive offerings in the afterlife. These offerings can take the form of food and drink, weapons and armor, money, or even sacrificed animals. Offerings appear next to the character upon them waking and only affect the intended target if they are meant to be consumed. An Offering roll is made on behalf of each character by the Referee once per week.

Charisma Bonus	Effect
+1	10% chance to roll on Offering table.
+2	15% chance to roll on Offering table.
+3	20% chance to roll on Offering table.
+4	25% chance to roll on Offering table.

d12	Offering
1-4	A fine, full course meal. Eating it will give the character (and only that character) advantage on their next 1d2+1 rolls.
5-6	A bottle of beautiful booze. Drinking the liquor restores 1d8+2 HP.
6-7	Cash money. (3d10 x CL) GP in a neatly tied sack.
8-9	A weapon crafted specifically for the dead character - it may have even once been theirs. The character may select a weapon of their choice.
10-11	A set of armor crafted specifically for the dead character - it may have even once been theirs. The character may select a suit of armor of their choice.
12	An animal has been led into the afterlife to join them. Roll 1d6, 1: Chicken, 2: Goat, 3: Cow, 4: Horse, 5: Pig, 6: Exotic creature such as a Bear or Lion. The animal is well-disposed towards the character.