Amaltopek |
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This is about to get more into philosophy that gaming, but I feel I must address this.I think you and Pants are both underestimating the allure of Eternal Bliss. A Good person that dies with the option of returning has to choose between
A) A never-ending afterlife where all of their needs are met and they will suffer again, and might even get to see their long lost loved ones (depending on their alignment, and how a GM interprets afterlife memory). Perhaps most importantly, they will not have to go through the pain of dying again.
and
B) Return to a life where they feel pain, hunger, and illness, and they will have to work to provide for themselves. If they were murderer once, they will be at risk for being murdered again. Most importantly, they would be returning to a life that is at best postponing the Eternal Bliss that's waiting for them, and at worst, giving them a chance to morally screw up and lose it.
You are essentially describing one of the essential subplots involving Buffy Resurrection in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy was brought back because her friends needed her to help them stomp evil, and was given no choice in the matter. What they didn't know was that Buffy had been rewarded with Eternal Bliss and had no way to tell her friends what she had lost. Said friends had assumed she had been in a Hell dimension, when in reality they had placed her in a dimension (theirs) that was Hell compared to what she had been dragged away from. Some friends, right?
Of course PCs are in a situation where they will usually have enough unfinished business to want to come back even if they'd "made it" to Eternal Bliss (of course, it's just as likely the player will roll up a new character to carry on the struggle). And some people might find everlasting bliss boring and want something to strive for anew (these people might favor being reincarnated as an infant to start life over from square one and try a completely new direction). NPCs, on the other hand, can have a million reasons to either come back or stay dead. Even some evil characters might want to stay put in the afterlife if they can project power from it, or have their more twisted desired fulfilled.